A childhood experience.

adross3

I was 17 years old. It was a father and sons outing for the boy scouts. We stayed at the base camp in a cabin. It was beautiful. The mountain terrain was covered in pine trees with clouds that majestically floated just below the peaks. The ground was wet and the air was crisp. We started off with 8 other father and son teams with our guides.

The first day was great. As I floated down the river in a metal canoe the distant mountains showed their beauty. A bald eagle flew by and landed in a nest. It captivated my attention until I could no longer see the nest from a distance. Later that day I saw a moose grazing.

Now there are several rules that you need to abide by. There are many rivers that meet each other. When these two rivers meet, the waters current flows downward creating a down draft. Two teams were pulled down into the water this way. On another day the river split. We were told to go right and not left. 3 teams were far ahead of us. They of course went right. Soon the water flow picked up and around the bend was a logjam. Their canoes were pulled under water and under the logs. Luckily no one was hurt.

On the last day, my father and I were the only team that did not get wet. We started off and needed to get far left of the river. The river flowed fast. The rivers flow over the rocks made curl waves that flowed backwards. Those backward wave were about two to three feet in height. As my father and I went left, we misjudged the speed of the river and found ourselves in the 17F water. (Yes we had life jackets on) Instantly we were turned over and floating backwards down the river. The waves crashed down on us and our canoe was flipping around and around and about 6 inches under the water. My father started to grab the canoe. He told me to grab it also. I said "no way." "It's spinning to fast". My father started to grab at the canoe. When I saw him grabbing the canoe to stop the spinning I started to help him. He was the first to get a grip on the canoe. As soon as he grabbed it a whirlpool sucked him and the canoe under water. I started to yell for him. Now, the waves are still crashing down on me as I floated down the river. I then started to to feel the water below me change. It felt like a pull downwards. A whirlpool then pulled me under. We were told to hold our breath and wait for the life jacket to pull us up. Otherwise you could be swimming downward, because of a loss of direction. So, I did so. I underwater for about 5-10 seconds and I saw the shadow of the sun about 5 feet above me. As I looked up at the sun I saw the silhouette of a canoe. With one giant push upwards I popped straight up. I popped up right behind canoe. It was a guide. I grabbed the canoe and started to pull myself in. The guide told me to get out. I said are you f@#$ing nuts, I just came from under the water. The guide said that he needed to rescue other people. He pulled close to shore and I jumped out and to the shore.

Later I found my father who popped up about 100 yards down water. The waves were so powerful that they bent the tip of a metal canoe at a 45-degree angle. When all the chaos was done we continued with the rest of the trip.

I hope that you enjoyed my story,

Rest In Peace Dad. I love you.

adross3

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adross3

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