The saga of Gary and Harry Jr.
Tuesday.........
Up in the morning, Ice on some of the items that were sitting out side and a heavy mist coming off the river so it was breakfast and lots of hot coffee (Good coffee not Swampy coffee). Packing the boats and getting ready for the days river run of an exhausting 5 or so miles. It was just a little after 10AM when we were on the water and on our way.
This part of the St Mary's is narrow and with a lot of blowdowns that a person has to maneuver around .... They just add a little challenge to your paddling and all of us managed to skirt around all of them except for one that took in most of the river. Some of us paddled thru the trees on the left side of the blow down (strainer) but two of the guys tried to cut to sharp of an angle from the main channel our to the left side and before they knew what was going on they were swimming and the rest of us were picking up floating camping gear.
To regress a minute here...... We had a campsite marked which was about 45 minutes on down river and that was the one we planned staying at for the night.
Due to this misadventure we stayed at the scene of the accident that night and not the camp we were planning on. It would have been stupid to get everything out of the water and then paddle 45 more minutes with two wet paddlers in the cold weather. The water was almost ice cold, the air the same way, not the perfect time to go swimming.
I have to say one thing and I am sure everyone will agree with me ..... Bear was the man of the week doing all of the work on recovering the sunken canoe (it was wedged up against several trees with the current trying to push it thru the trees). I am sure some of the guys will go into greater detail about this adventure but it is scary seeing your fellow paddlers going down stream and all you can see is there heads.
The up side is that only a few camping items were lost (they can be replaced) and the paddlers were...... Wet ... Cold ..... Discussed but alive and unharmed , except for there pride.
We set up camp. Rigged some clothes lines, built a fire, and settled in for the rest of the day and night. That evening with plenty of snacks, drinks, pork steaks, sweet potatoes and hot coffee everyone warmed up even our two swimmers.
This fire felt good.
Wednesday........
Up in the morning, cool weather and the same heavy mist rising from the river ......Hot coffee, breakfast, and then breaking camp which put us on the water around 10AM.
There was still some wet gear so we paddled past the camp we were going to spend Tuesday night (last night) at and about noon we pulled of the river for a snack and the area was so nice we decided to stay there and get all of the gear dry, sit in the sun and warm up and basically just do nothing but relax, goof off, take life easy after all that is why we were on this trip.
Fixed a hot lunch and almost got sunburned sitting out on the sand bar at the camp.......Later when the sun started going down it started cooling off. Supper was baked potatoes, kiabise sausage done over a camp fire and all sorts of snacks and drinks.
It felt nice to just lay back and enjoy the river and woods, go for a hike in the woods and do what ever you wanted to do. The campfire was really comfortable that night with the cooler air, the moon shinning down on us all night. Again no need for a flashlight if you needed to answer the call of nature during the night. The moonlight on that white sugar sand ...........BRIGHT.
Chuck.
Tuesday.........
Up in the morning, Ice on some of the items that were sitting out side and a heavy mist coming off the river so it was breakfast and lots of hot coffee (Good coffee not Swampy coffee). Packing the boats and getting ready for the days river run of an exhausting 5 or so miles. It was just a little after 10AM when we were on the water and on our way.
This part of the St Mary's is narrow and with a lot of blowdowns that a person has to maneuver around .... They just add a little challenge to your paddling and all of us managed to skirt around all of them except for one that took in most of the river. Some of us paddled thru the trees on the left side of the blow down (strainer) but two of the guys tried to cut to sharp of an angle from the main channel our to the left side and before they knew what was going on they were swimming and the rest of us were picking up floating camping gear.
To regress a minute here...... We had a campsite marked which was about 45 minutes on down river and that was the one we planned staying at for the night.
Due to this misadventure we stayed at the scene of the accident that night and not the camp we were planning on. It would have been stupid to get everything out of the water and then paddle 45 more minutes with two wet paddlers in the cold weather. The water was almost ice cold, the air the same way, not the perfect time to go swimming.
I have to say one thing and I am sure everyone will agree with me ..... Bear was the man of the week doing all of the work on recovering the sunken canoe (it was wedged up against several trees with the current trying to push it thru the trees). I am sure some of the guys will go into greater detail about this adventure but it is scary seeing your fellow paddlers going down stream and all you can see is there heads.
The up side is that only a few camping items were lost (they can be replaced) and the paddlers were...... Wet ... Cold ..... Discussed but alive and unharmed , except for there pride.
We set up camp. Rigged some clothes lines, built a fire, and settled in for the rest of the day and night. That evening with plenty of snacks, drinks, pork steaks, sweet potatoes and hot coffee everyone warmed up even our two swimmers.
This fire felt good.
Wednesday........
Up in the morning, cool weather and the same heavy mist rising from the river ......Hot coffee, breakfast, and then breaking camp which put us on the water around 10AM.
There was still some wet gear so we paddled past the camp we were going to spend Tuesday night (last night) at and about noon we pulled of the river for a snack and the area was so nice we decided to stay there and get all of the gear dry, sit in the sun and warm up and basically just do nothing but relax, goof off, take life easy after all that is why we were on this trip.
Fixed a hot lunch and almost got sunburned sitting out on the sand bar at the camp.......Later when the sun started going down it started cooling off. Supper was baked potatoes, kiabise sausage done over a camp fire and all sorts of snacks and drinks.
It felt nice to just lay back and enjoy the river and woods, go for a hike in the woods and do what ever you wanted to do. The campfire was really comfortable that night with the cooler air, the moon shinning down on us all night. Again no need for a flashlight if you needed to answer the call of nature during the night. The moonlight on that white sugar sand ...........BRIGHT.
Chuck.