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Two dipsticks, one boat, 1 1/2 paddles.

#22
viper4000 said:
For real, it was very dangerous getting to the island. Phones/Cameras were the least of our worries. I pulled some pics from camp though.

It was the weekend of my 40th so I gathered my closest friends that were willing to partake. Ended up with 5 of us total. We had two canoes and a kayak. The kayaker was an old friend from OH that met us there. The other 4 of us are from NC. We arrive and see the river was way up. I'm a little apprehensive as it has been a while since I've canoed on moving water. I was assured prior this was calm water, it will be fine.

It was not fine. But, we are "You know I'm gonna send it" kind of people, so we sent it. Loaded up, dropped in, and quickly realized how fast the water was. Now, on this river, high water means one very dangerous thing. The rocks that are typically 3 foot high are hidden just below the surface. The amount of weight we were carrying meant any tip we would catch water. It happened to the kayaker first, his skirt was not on correctly and he took on water and started sinking.

So, I tried to prop him up so he could try anything to fix his situation. We hit a large rock that darn near turned us over and took on water to the point the canoe started to sink. We're out of the boat now. The kayaker is sunk trying to hold his boat as he speeds down the river. My boat mate jumped to gather some of our gear from our boat and the kayak. That left me pulling a drastically over loaded submerged canoe to shore. I am a great swimmer and had my PFD on, but that was so very difficult to pull it ashore. Thankfully I could grab a rock every other step or so. It took me about 400 yards to pull it to shore. I lost my paddle plus the back up (not tied down).

The other canoe faired better until now. Husband and wife with their 100lb german shepherd. They made it to me and helped me bilge the water. We found everything except the two paddles. Everything big was still secure. Kayaker got his skirt right, we had our water emptied and set off.

With my canoe having one paddle. On a river that is 3 feet too high. The New River has some random rock structure and islands giving you Left/Right options. Each time down the river is different depending how the water is. One time left is best, the next right is. Well, we chose wrong once and we ended up in a bottleneck that seemed to double our speed. The water being high put us at the same level as the big tree limbs that typically overhang the water. This super-current shot us up into one of those, and the angle it was on was like running a real boat up a trailer. We shot up into some undergrowth and saplings. Luckily we had a hand axe. A full axe would have been terrible. But we axed ourselves free, while laughing the entire time. We still had a heck of a time getting the boat back into the current. With one paddle.

We did though. Got going and met up with the other two boats. We're finally making our last push to our camping island and we can hear some fast water. We pull off into a calm pool to check it out. We're looking at a section that bottlenecks down to like 10 feet and very fast. Well the other canoe decided to go for it. They went, flipped, rolled, and scattered some gear. The other 3 of us were all prepared, so got it back quickly and them safely to shore.

So I completely unloaded my boat, portaged it for like 40 yards and dropped back in. Another mile later we're pulling up to our island. They said typically there was a little 4 foot beach to tie up to. The beach was gone. The island was a 5 foot straight up bank. We unloaded, set up and relaxed all day. Ate some great food; steaks, potatoes, etc. Then the rain came. We had a nice set up with a big fly, so we were dry in that regard. And my old tent that had seen better days was leaking. 3 of us were supposed to be in there. So two guys slept in camp chairs, whereas I did find a dry area in the tent.

It rained all night. Thunder and lightening 360 degrees around us, right in the vicinity. No separation between lightening and thunder. That close. We sat up for a while under the fly enjoying the storm. We all got a good sleep somehow. Woke up to our typical camp breakfast: egg, livermush, bacon, cheese on english muffin over the fire.

Amazingly terrible, awesome trip!

View attachment 4028106
RIP Kaya - She passed last year. I went on many a trip with her and her owners. The best adventure dog ever!

View attachment 4028109
Have to have a food shot, right? Fried in butter, with a little flame kiss.

View attachment 4028112
The next morning after the storms. It's not what it looks like, it's how it performs. Darn fine shelter! HA
View attachment 4028115
We built a tripod on the fire to dry things out. Ended up covering the fire with it and had coals the next morning.
On the left, that area is typically full of rocks and log structure. You can barely see it on this trip.

View attachment 4028117
from the next day. Canoes are much lighter (no food, beer, or water).
**Edit - I think I was using the other canoe's second paddle here, my boat does not have a keel and is hard to keep straight, where there's does.


My first "report" post. Hope y'all enjoyed.

Thanks @two fingers
Click to expand...

Great story! Thanks for taking tue time! Turns out we got off easy!
 
#23
now, I'm tracking that there are two dipsticks, one boat, and 1.5 paddles, but how many fingers were involved?

Thank you, I'm here all week ;)

Also, I'm very much of the same mentality, to go in whole hog with a ham-fisted, little-to-no-planning, figure it out when you get there approach to everything. I went backpacking for a week at the beginning of september with a tarp, some 40 pound fishing line I got on sale, a box of matches, a few IMPs (hoser MREs) and some packets of oatmeal, beef jerky, and ramen noddles, and my canteen and canteen cup. Oh yeah, and my folding buck knife and a compass... and a hip flask full of rum. Granted, this was on a couple of trails, so I wasn't completely out to lunch.

I had a GREAT time :) my food was crap compared to @viper4000 though.

edit: third time editing this post, it's a personal goal of mine to make a boat of some kind - be it a canoe or something slightly bigger but still able to be self-propelled, and go from my hometown in Windsor, up the St. Lawrence to somewhere, hopefully as far as Ottawa.
 
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#24
two fingers said:
Great story! Thanks for taking tue time! Turns out we got off easy!
Click to expand...

The best part for me was that at every turn, there was something that may have made someone else say "This sucks, I'm having a terrible time, and I will never do it again". Not one single time did that though cross our minds. We're nuts. Sounds like y'all had similar challenges!
 
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#26
pie_man_25 said:
now, I'm tracking that there are two dipsticks, one boat, and 1.5 paddles, but how many fingers were involved?

Thank you, I'm here all week ;)

Also, I'm very much of the same mentality, to go in whole hog with a ham-fisted, little-to-no-planning, figure it out when you get there approach to everything. I went backpacking for a week at the beginning of september with a tarp, some 40 pound fishing line I got on sale, a box of matches, a few IMPs (hoser MREs) and some packets of oatmeal, beef jerky, and ramen noddles, and my canteen and canteen cup. Oh yeah, and my folding buck knife and a compass... and a hip flask full of rum. Granted, this was on a couple of trails, so I wasn't completely out to lunch.

I had a GREAT time :) my food was crap compared to @viper4000 though.
Click to expand...

The food's the best part for us. Everywhere we go whether in a canoe, ATV, backpacking we sacrifice something in leu of food. Rain gear? Naw, I have ziplocks of ice and steaks. Passersby always double take our food set up! I can also handle dehydrated packs or MREs but if I don't have to...well lol.

In my younger days, we'd fill our packs with beer and food only and camp under the stars for days at a time.
 
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#27
Cool story. I'm all for the idea of jumping into new adventures on a whim - as long as safety isn't compromised. Particularly when water is involved.

I spend a lot of time fishing and I prefer the minimalist approach. One fishing pole, a small tackle box, a PFD, and a paddle powered canoe. No motor.

One thing I learned is to always bring a spare paddle. I figured that out the first time I dropped the paddle in the water and had to push water with my hand to "row" back to get the paddle. If the wind had been blowing, I would have been screwed.
 
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#28
Years ago, on a whim, I swam the 3 miles across the channel from the mainland to Madeline Island on Lake Superior. I was drinking in a bar one night with my friends and we were discussing how the previous summer someone swam across the channel as a way to raise money for a local charity.

My friends were insisting that you needed to be a highly competitive swimmer to be able to accomplish this, but I said it wasn't true. I told them that any reasonably strong swimmer could make the 3 mile swim as long as they paced themselves. It wasn't a race and you could swim long distances by using an energy saving technique like the breaststroke or backstroke, instead of the usual freestyle method. There are many ordinary people who swim several miles doing laps in pools just for exercise or for fun.

They weren't convinced, so I offered to prove it by doing it myself. I bet that I could go the distance in less than 3 hours.

The weather was nice and the water was warm by Lake Superior standards - about 75 F. Two of my friends followed me in a small boat and brought along several extra PFDs, a first aid kit, some ropes and a few other items for safety.

It went very smoothly, even though the waves were 1 - 2 feet and angled against me. I finished in about 2 ½ hours.

The next day my arms and legs were really really sore.


I started from this dock on the Island and finished in the town of Bayfield, which you can see on the mainland in the distance at the top right of this picture.

birds-eye-view-mobile.jpg
 
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#29
hbarcat said:
Years ago, on a whim, I swam the 3 miles across the channel from the mainland to Madeline Island on Lake Superior. I was drinking in a bar one night with my friends and we were discussing how the previous summer someone swam across the channel as a way to raise money for a local charity.

My friends were insisting that you needed to be a highly competitive swimmer to be able to accomplish this, but I said it wasn't true. I told them that any reasonably strong swimmer could make the 3 mile swim as long as they paced themselves. It wasn't a race and you could swim long distances by using an energy saving technique like the breaststroke or backstroke, instead of the usual freestyle method. There are many ordinary people who swim several miles doing laps in pools just for exercise or for fun.

They weren't convinced, so I offered to prove it by doing it myself. I bet that I could go the distance in less than 3 hours.

The weather was nice and the water was warm by Lake Superior standards - about 75 F. Two of my friends followed me in a small boat and brought along several extra PFDs, a first aid kit, some ropes and a few other items for safety.

It went very smoothly, even though the waves were 1 - 2 feet and angled against me. I finished in about 2 ½ hours.

The next day my arms and legs were really really sore.


I started from this dock on the Island and finished in the town of Bayfield, which you can see on the mainland in the distance at the top right of this picture.

View attachment 4028416
Click to expand...

Well done!
 

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