The Next Epic Adventure: Survival
on the Rapids!
Okay, not really. The river
was pretty slow-moving, but it was still cool.
isten well,
friends, as I tell you the story of my canoe trip on the Cannon River.
It was a day like any other, except for the fact that we got to miss school
to go to the river. From the School of Environmental Studies we took
the bus to our first destination: the boathouse. We went in there
to get our life jackets and oars. After that we got back into the
bus to go to the river loading point.
The sun was shining as if a thousand atomic bombs were perpetually exploding
in the sky. We each had two or three people in our canoe. In
our canoe it was me and Maggie. The groups loaded their canoes into
the water. It wasn't easy, and we were one of the last groups to
get in. Some people were struggling with trying to avoid the mud
on the shore. Finally, everyone got out on the river and it was time
to start the trip. Things started out all right. I had never
been canoeing on a river before, but I had slept through a video about
it and I knew the basic physics of motion in water. I paddle, the
boat goes the opposite way, no problem, but if I drag, the boat goes my
way, still no problem.
Cannon River started out simple and easy, with no real snags from the thistle
of bad luck. Some people couldn't steer and ran into the shore or
sandbars, but they got straightened out. The only thing that went
wrong for me at first was that I lost a plastic bag for the camera, but
I took another one and used it. I saw a lot of nature on the first
stretch, as well as some trouble with other canoes, and all the trees were
on the shore instead of their remains being in the water. The weather
was warm and sunny, like summer, but the trees had started to show some
yellowing. A few cirrus clouds hung high in the sky.
We continued on into the distance. Maggie was yelling out orders
- "Left!" "Right!" "Switch!" We met up with Leah and Jim in their
canoe, which had launched way before ours. They got stuck in this
area with rocks on the right side of the river, but we were smart and decided
to stay to the left. There is an old saying - "Wise people learn
from others' mistakes, average people learn from their own mistakes, and
fools never learn." Wisdom prevailed for us - at least until we got
to the first stop. That's when disaster struck!!! (Ominous music)
Pretty soon we got to our first resting point. This was a bridge
- not the Highway 61 bridge which was our destination, but a bridge in
between. We were just about to get to the shore and take a
breather, when we had to steer around a log in the middle of the river.
Little did we know that there was a shallow area next to the sandbar on
the right side, which is unfortunately the way we decided to go.
We got beached on top of the rocks, and we couldn't get free! We
had to take our shoes and socks off and walk across the rocks to the shore.
The water was really cold, and I totally freaked out. Luckily, I
had time to get my shoes and socks back on at the bridge.
That little show at the bridge was nothing compared to what was coming
up. We continued through a winding passage after the bridge, narrowly
missing the rocks and trees. The water was faster here, and the canoe
was harder to control. Maggie and I decided to stop for lunch on
a patch of land near some other patches of land, including a little beach
that nearly everyone else went to. We ate and collected some shells,
and then we went around to another place near there and talked to Mr. Everhart,
the science teacher. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear him give
one of his really interesting science lectures. After lunch, we got
the canoe off the shore and were just about to get back onto the main path
when we ran into another one of those blasted sandbars. We were stuck
- AGAIN! Again we had to pull the canoe, but this time we pulled
it way across the river. Actually, Maggie did most of the pulling,
and I kept the canoe from tipping. I thought we had seen the last
of our problems, but the worst was yet to come.
There were a lot more tree parts in the water after the beach stop, and
that meant more steering for me to do. But I hadn't been told about
a log jam that blocked the entire width of Cannon River. It was really
a big group of trees that had fallen or had been cut down and deposited
in the middle of the river. There were two paths in that particular
area, and both were jammed up. The shortest path was over a small
fallen tree. Here's how it went: I stupidly thought I could
get the canoe over without getting my feet wet. Imagine my surprise
when I stepped on a log near the shore, only to slip and put my foot smack
dab in the water. Okay, I needed to take my shoes and socks off.
I was successful in throwing my shoes and socks back into the canoe, except
for one sock which landed in the river. I thought, okay, I'll get
it later. I went around, pausing to take a lovely picture of the
scene, and we pulled the canoe over the log. But I was still missing
my sock! I looked all around for it, and I noticed it was way under
the log we had gone over. I reached down and... Got it! I got
back into the canoe and we headed forward.
It was pretty much smooth sail... er, canoeing for the rest of the trip.
There were a lot of logs in the area, and we did our best to avoid them.
By then we had pretty much heard the news of who had tipped their canoe
and who had stayed upright the entire time. Luckily, we managed to
keep from tipping, but there were about five groups that weren't so fortunate.
I never actually got to see anybody tip over, so I don't have any pictures
of them.
It was getting later in the day, later than the end of the school day.
It seemed like we would never get to the 61 bridge, when suddenly I saw
it! It was the end! We all stopped on the shore near the bridge
and got the equipment ready to take back. I got a little rest on
the bus trip back, but not much. My arms were sore for days after
the trip, but it was worth it!
The End
