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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Primitive Technology Living
  • Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:14:47 -0400



eureka AT hctc.net wrote:

I mostly taught river reading and (rolling) self and buddy rescues
for kayakers.

We have use of a kayak. DH, DD, and SIL got in it, not me. Bev knows
when to fish and when not to float. <g> SIL tried 6 times to roll, so
we had a good laugh. I've got some great pics of that day. Anyway,
have since heard that you have to have your head on the deck to get
over, then twist your hips. I know it is one of those things that is
easier said than done, but is that the trick, having your head down?


Once, when I was truly young and stupid, before I learned to paddle,
I was sucked off a tube without a life jacket into a hydraulic and
rescued by a drunk accountant. I know what it feels like to be
tumbled like clothes in a washing machine. It seemed like I was in
there forever. It was so aerated I couldn't tell up from down until I
would get smashed on the rocky bottom. I thought I was going to drown.

Jeez, I can just imagine how scared you must have been.



More recently, about five years ago, when I should have known better,
I put on the Nantahalla River in NC late in the day with a friend
thinking I could boat scout the 27 Class II-III rapids of which I new
nothing about. This is where the U.S. Olmpic team practices.

Sage, that is only about 2 hours from my house. Next time you are out
this way, give me a shout. There are a lot of good whitewater rivers
around here. I'm a Class I girl myself.




This trip taught me
a big lesson about knowing the weather. About a third of the way into
the trip the temperature changed and a dense fog settled on us. I had
never experienced such a thing. We might as well have been blind
folded! The canyon was too steep to exit and you could hear the
rapids coming. I am suprised we lived through it.

Ah...the Smokies..yeah, I know. Fog moves in quickly in those
mountains..I haven't been down that part, but I have heard about it.


How did you break your arm on the river trip? I have not heard this
story.

May of 2006 DH decides he wants to build canoe, but has never paddled.
Bev decides we need to rent a canoe so that he can learn to paddle and
decide if it is something he likes to do.
On vacation-a camping trip no less, instead of going with plan A, which
was rent a canoe at the lake, we go with plan B, which was to take a 14
mile-6 hour trek down the Elk River in TN. Now this is a slow,
flatwater river normally, but it had rained the week before, so it was
faster than usual. Also, we had never been there before, had no
knowledge of the river, had no guide, no companions, only me and DH and
our paddles and our lunch. I had not been in a canoe in 20 years, DH
had never been in a canoe. In 14 river miles, we never saw another
person after the drop off...no sign of civilization..only wildlife.
Despite the mishap, it was beautiful and I can recommend this trip.
So we have been paddling 2.5 hours, kind of getting hungry, hoping to
find a shoal to lunch upon. We are paddling from one side to another, I
am the bow paddler, looking out for rocks and depth, etc. Ahead, I see
a strainer, and there is a little fall about 8" high. The opening we
need to shoot through is about 12 feet wide. There are logs and debris
on both sides of the opening. I could see that we were not lined up and
we miscommunicated, sending the bow into the log on the left side of the
opening. We were stuck parallel to the current and perpendicular to
the fall. Before I could tell DH what to do to get us off the log, he
put the paddle in the water and we dislodged just enough to kick the
back end around. We went over the little spillway backwards at about a
45 degree angle, and the drop twisted the boat in such a way that I was
propelled out of the bow and into the log jam with such a force that my
arm was caught in the debris. Luckily, it was not deep and the current
was slow enough for me to be able to get to my feet and remove myself.
DH got dumped, too, but into the water. He caught the canoe and righted
it and helped me to the bank. There was a shoal about 3x5 that we stood
on, shivering our butts off, to take inventory and recover. Lunch was
no good..cigarettes were wet. My arm turned blue instantly and started
swelling..I had a huge hematoma on my bicep..I should post the
pictures..lol..maybe I will...I had other scrapes and wounds, but the
arm was the worst. I took off my overshirt and wrapped it around my arm
to act as an icebag(the water was still cold that year). So there we
were, the banks were too steep to climb out and we couldn't just leave
the canoe. We had no phone, no way to get help. The only thing we
could do is paddle out, so after standing on that shoal for about 20
minutes until I settled down and regained control(and sharing the one
cigarette that we decided we could try to smoke- you laugh, but that
smoke was like morphine for the pain), we got back in the canoe and
headed down the river. There was one other time that we almost did the
same thing again-but we got lucky. By the time we got off the river,
over three hours later, my arm was huge and I was in shock. I did not
realize it, but now I know that is what it was. We went to the nearest
town and hit a CVS for bandages and neosporin and such, and in the drug
store, I was in such bad shape that the pharmacist actually came out and
asked me if I needed assistance. They helped me get what I needed and
get back to the car. We should have gone to the hospital, but no...we
were on vacation, and I could move my arm so I thought it was just a bad
bruise. We get back to the campground and I went to bed..
We ended up cutting our vacation short and coming home, but that
happened on a Thursday, I think, and I did not get to the doctor until
Tuesday. They say that it is hard to break the humerus, but I disagree.
I still have trouble with my bicep on that arm(left arm) I suppose I
always will.
Now, we don't paddle alone. We carry a first aid kit, and we research
the river before we go.

Bev





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