A River Adventure

As promised, although late, here is the Mother's Day river adventure. As mom was out east with Mike and Lisa, and very new Jacob, Dad was home to himself and too many projects. Getting him in a boat seemed like a great idea. After church and normal Sunday morning activities, Rachel and I met Dad and Michael at home and we headed for water. Michael and Dad took the freighter canoe and Rachel and I took the kayaks. As we were leaving Dad suggested a rather important revelation to Michael before we left: "you should probably tie on that custom rod of yours. I know that this is worth a lot and in the unlikely event we did tip, it would be gone."

So Michael tied it on and off we went. We fished a couple backwaters for a short amount of time before we stopped at the wing dams Dad likes to fish. "First guy to catch a fish doesn't have to do dishes" was Dad's only wager.

 

So with that Michael and I were doing dishes as Dad gave Rachel exemption. The river was moving along at a pretty good clip and we did our best to traverse the strainers. We weren't under the gun or anything but our trip took a turn when we paddled into our portage for the night. Michael and Dad came in too hot and caught the cross current as the portage was completely slack. When they hit the slack water there was no stopping it. From my angle all I could see was limbs and paddles in the air. It was instant chaos. Micheal was down and then up, and I remember him popping up and going, "Wow that's cold!" and he was on shore in three seconds. I told Rachel to  get out of the the water and get on shore. Within seconds she was there. Now, Dad was still in the water. He was holding onto the boat and the cross current had held it in one spot. He did not want to let go, but with the cooler water temps and swift water, Dad was gasping, and only his head and shoulders were above water. I did not know what was going on and I honestly thought something was wrong as it looked like he was either going under or stuck somehow. I told Michael to get him out of the water NOW. I looked over and Rachel was already getting there for assistance, but by then Dad finally found bottom and walked to shore. I was still in the water in the kayak and we didn't want to lose the boat. I pushed the back end towards shore with the nose of my boat as best as I could. Thankfully, those kayaks are unbelievably hard to tip. I pushed it as far as I could before Dad and Michael could get a hold of it. When they pulled it to the landing, they tipped it over and all of the floating things were still inside the air bubble. Both canoe paddled were accounted for, as was Micheal's expensive rod which was still secured to the boat. Dad lost two rods. Michael's bow fishing bow as gone. This was the bow he shot is first deer with, behind his house. Once we figured out both Dad and Michael were indeed OK, it was decided that besides being a little shook up, they were indeed just wet. I devised a game plan that involved Rachel taking Dad in Michael's car to get the van while Michael and I fished for the lost belongings. It was a serious long shot but we had to try. I devised my carp snaggin' rig and started casting away. It was all within a few feet of shore but the water was at least 8 feet deep. Michael put his contraption together and within two casts he pulled up one of Dad's rods. The best part was the one rod was actually two tangled together. Salvaged rods!I hooked his bow three or four times and just could not keep it hooked. When Dad and Rachel got back we decided to call it and have him come back the next day to retrieve it somehow. We went home, shook up but ok. The first thing Dad says when we get in the van is, "I'm Hungry". I couldn't help but just laugh. Rachel and I still had to get back to Ames that night and there was some cleaning up to do. Michael went home to change to dry clothes. I cleaned the walleye Dad caught so we could have them with chili, (which was already in the crock pot). This left the angel that is my wife to clean the kitchen. It was so bad that Dad had exempted her before, but with the events of the day, she fully volunteered. By the time we cleaned up and spread out wet gear, cleaned fish, showered, and came back inside, Rachel had that thing spit shined. As Dad fried the fish on the grill she even cleaned the stove. All three of us guys owed her big for that one. BIG! The fish was our reward for the day:

Pouring chili over fried walleye. Unreal. 

The days events could have turned for the worse in a hurry, and we have all become somewhat complacent. Several things: 

• Dad almost decided to just leave his life jacket in the boat as he was getting warm. 
• Michael didn't have his life jacket zipped up all the way, but he was still wearing it. 
• No dry bag was brought along. 
• A significant amount of valuable gear was unsecured in the boat. 

Some things will change in the future, especially the river levels in which we float, and the new life jacket rule: Wear it or stay home. We learned valuable lessons that day, without anything really bad happening.



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