…and dry, this time, both Jane and myself. Several of our friends tackled really big fears of water and an oversetting, but no one drowned, no one was hurt, and the only casualty was a pair of glasses (not mine or Jane’s). OSGuy, who was stern paddle in my canoe, did a lot of instructing, and I found out a number of things that Jane and I (having missed the instruction even about how to hold a paddle) did bass-akcward when we had our overset-adventure with a strainer (fallen tree with current passing through it)….
1. hug the inside shore during a curve. This way the water, which is tending to carve the outer shore on such curves, will push you away from the shore, and not drive you into it.
2. if you see a bubble of water near an obstacle like a bridge pillar, it is safe to skirt it closer than you’d think: this is a ‘pillow’ which will act as a pad between you and the obstacle.
3. lean into a strainer: do not lean the other way to avoid the branches. You have to become the canoe’s fender, braced and opposing the branches that are trying to knock you over the ‘free’ side.
4. watch the debris if confronted with a confusing oxbow/real river choice. Follow the fallen leaves downriver.
5. bow paddle does not very much unless you’re racing. the bow paddle just does a small correction if needed, or if you see an unanticipated obstacle…a 16 foot canoe does not swerve as easily as a kayak. Use your ears to detect which side of the canoe stern paddle is using, and do the opposite.
6. and I learned a few other tricks for assisting a canoist who’s tipped over. OSGuy and others did the work. I held our canoe anchored to some tall grass while they helped sort out the problems.
Recent rains had made the river run fast and high, so there weren’t the usual sandy beaches available. We had a good time on a 4-hour run, and I stepped ashore dry-shod.
I remember that first trip down river when the Mrs and I went in that first curve and you and Jane hit the strainer mid way! What a fun trip that was. I still have pictures. Let me know if you want to see them.
Oh, we’d love pictures!
I’m convinced that 3 in a canoe should only be done by all-experts, or by 2 experts and a passenger. 16 feet of canoe is hard enough to steer, and this time the river was really racing—nothing like white water, but if you dropped something overside, it was away from you before you could catch it, or even chase it. You had about 3 seconds to grab it from the time it passed your stern and reached your bow. And in this case it included the guide’s rope bag, a ziplock containing a digital camera, car keys, and a cell phone, the guide’s backpack, one shoe, two paddles, and various water bottles. We snagged the rope bag and one paddle and a water bottle; the Ready canoe bagged the more critical items, and, I think, the other paddle. But it was more like trying to catch flies than a leisurely scoop out of the water.
Glad to hear you’re safe. I want to see one of those ‘pillows’ you described so I can try it out on my next river paddle. I’ll have to wait a year however, as I’m currently restricted from open water. Dry is good!
A pillow may not happen in a slow-moving river. It was quite visible as a foot-wide half-dome ‘blister’ on the surface, right against the bridge pillar, where the rushing water had been forced around that obstacle. It was solid as if it were cushioning gel instead of water due to the force with which it flowed. OSGuy really knows what he’s doing, and it’s a treat to go with him. Poor fellow, he was coming down with sinus infection, and still showed up to do the river run because he’d promised, and went straight to bed when he got home again.
This year sounds like a far cry from the first one! 😉 Happy to read that all went well…overturns were dealt with, no lost keys etc. Did you have the end of trip feast again? Happy Days! 😀
Yes, indeed. We had the same lasagne and salad, and a nice chocolate cake. We did have one member of the group who had to hike out because most of the canoes had gone downriver, and re-composing the crews was just not easy at that point. We felt very badly about that.
I don’t have any penetrating insights or amusing river trip stories to weigh in with, I’m just home from camp and looking forward to the next Croaker Canoe/Kayak trip.
Well, I guess I do have one thing to say about paddling that I learned last trip – it’s not your arms that should do the pulling but your core, which is great given the state of my shoulder 😉 And my elbow. And my wrist… It’s the same body connection we talk about but so rarely see in Karate. hrm… maybe it’s time to recruit kayakers into the dojo!
Glad you made it without untoward incidents or other infelicities!
CJ, I sent you two Emails with Pix from the earlier river trip, but I forgot to put the code word in the subject line. I did use the word Shejicon, however. Oh, and is there any way you could put your fliking book up for sale on closed circle?
Things to which I have done music and lyric, possible.
And I did get the pix. Thanks!
BTW: A little late but heartfelt wish for a Happy Summer Soltice! Shejicon seems like the perfect celebration!!! 🙂 😀 😆
One of these days I WILL make it to a shejicon. But with small children to tow around it hasn’t been possible. 🙁 I always look at shejicon pictures with quite a bit of envy.
Ready and ReadyGuy just left in their nice touring car from my Vegas home for theirs in Arizona. The Mrs and I had invited them to breakfast here this morning after meeting them last night. I got a call saying they’d be through town on the way home from ShejiCon III and would we want to meet up with them. I said yes, but we were taking my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter to Shrek III last evening. We met for about an hour and a half yesterday then had two and a half more pleasant hours over Belgian waffles this morning. They are a fun couple and perhaps when the western association meets in San Diego in ’11 we will meet up again.
The filking was such fun! Here’s the lyrics to a couple… you know who you are!
OSG’s Song (sung to the tune of Bottle of Wine)
Alien toes, alien toes,
Climbing through daisies and clover.
But they ain’t no rose, those alien toes.
(OSG) is known the world over!
Twirling on toes, sparkles and glows.
(She cannot handle the liquor.)
Goes for a pose, Jane lands on her nose,
Punching her out would be quicker!
Corsets galore, and gowns to the floor,
She is the ultimate ‘fennie.’
Packs a raygun loaded for fun.
She is the envy of many!
And The Azi Song, to the tune of “Consider Yourself” from the musical Oliver.
Consider ourselves your clone.
Consider ourselves part of the Family.
The ten of us can’t be wrong.
It’s clear…we’re…going to get along!
(chorus)
Ariane Emery thinks that she can be the Queen
Of the Universe. Well, sure!
Until the Nyes come along and put a kink in things,
And then that’s the end of her (we think)!
There’s tape in our heads, that’s true.
But we like to think like you.
And after some consideration we must state
Consider ourselves just like you!
And I found the lyrics to the Galactic Reststop song online. Too funny!
I would like to say that I was being calm and relaxed, and I really was, but the real reason you’d see me lying back in the kayak was that I couldn’t get the seat back into the proper position and my back was getting sore from trying to sit up straight, paddle, and maintain balance. I’d either lean forward as far as I could to stretch, or would lean way back and relax that way. I was already wet from my first tumble, so wasn’t all that worried about getting my arms wet some more. I am glad that everyone had a great time, even if you were scared spitless on the water. Well, almost everyone had a great time, I am sorry Neco lost her glasses, but then she got new ones, and WoW almost lost her Blackberry in the sealed ziplock bag, but fortunately, it was buoyant enough.
I hit the strainer sideways, not seeing it, as I was concentrating on helping Bret with getting his canoe righted.
The fact that the river was way, way high, up 2 feet, meant we had the ordinary sandbanks 2′ under our bottoms and the current was flowing, and flowing fast, up among trees that are ordinarily high and dry on the bank! So we had far more herbage to dodge than usual! We had the usual strainers, and then we had the overhanging branches, and no place to haul out and dry off! Once we launched, there was no more dry ground for about the next 4 hours…