Damn flooded river swiped my CANOE!

[grannylib]

Thought we had it pulled far enough up into the woods to be safe; had it cable-locked to a tree.
Tree's gone, cable's gone, canoe's gone, about 6 feet of bank went, and heaven knows how many trees right along the river's edge where it was really undercut anyway...
We watched one go down as we were standing there, all of a sudden the ground started to shake and a tree about 10 yards away slid down the bank, fell into the river and sailed away.

Damn. I'm hoping that it might have gotten hung up on an overhanging tree or something down river, but with the water as high as it got, I'm betting it's in fuckin' Missouri or someplace by now...

[MonkeyFunk]

1. aw, that sucks!

Sorry to hear that! What river is flooding?

[grannylib]

2. The Watonwan, here in south central Minnesota. There are quite a few

flood warnings out in our area; we had a couple of late-season blizzards that dumped HUGE amounts of snow, and now the ice is out on the rivers and damming up in spots and then bursting through with log jams and ice jams and it's pretty powerful and destructive...

But it sure looks cool down near the edge of the river, to see sheets of ice suspended 6 feet off the ground, all around the tree trunks...it looks like a corps de ballet in the woods, with all the trees wearing icy tutus.

[MonkeyFunk]

5. Wow...

that must be something to see. I hope you and yours are safe.

[grannylib]

7. Oh, thank you, we're fine, we're up on top of the ridge a good 100 feet

or more above the river; one has to walk down the ravine and then across the flat for quite a ways before getting to the water itself, so the family/house are in no danger.

We have a couple of campsites with firepits and what not down there, but nothing more substantial.
We've sure forbidden the grandkids to roam down there without us though...that bank is so damn unstable, and kids' fascination with water is just too strong.

[jpgray]

3. Boo! If I lost a Mad River that way, I would yell at the skies like Max von Sydow

That's really rough. :(

[grannylib]

4. It was "just" an old 17-ft Alumacraft BEAST weighing about 85 lbs.,

and once we hauled it down the ravine to the river, I told Hubby, that's IT, it's STAYING down there, I am NOT hauling it back UP...if we go up north, we're either renting or buying a Kevlar or something lightweight so we can portage easily...

That monstrosity was NOT good for Boundary Waters camping! But it was our first canoe, and we waited an hour and a half before the garage sale opened just for that, and got it for $100, which we thought was the deal of the century, and we loved that big beige behemoth...

I hope we find her. But if we do, I bet she's smashed to bits by ice and logs...
*sigh*

[jpgray]

6. I love taking people out on Alumacrafts--less nerve-wracking on rocks than fiberglass/kevlar

But yeah, portages get trickier. :D I'm in MN myself, and used to do four-day BWCA trips every year or so. Then my harbor master/dad sold all his boats and moved to CO. :(

[grannylib]

8. Yeah, they're great especially for the novices, and I liked this one because

it had a really broad, flat keel and was pretty stable, so the kids liked it. It didn't feel too tippy to them, not enough to make them nervous anyway, so that was good.

[pokerfan]

9. Dang!

That sucks to lose your canoe but canoes can always be replaced.

Post your canoe pics, everyone!

These are from a week-long trip through the Bowron lake circuit in BC. It's a 103 mile canoe circuit with just a few portages. After a week of flatwater, whitewater and lazy rivers you wind up right back where you started!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowron_Lakes

The best thing about canoeing is that you can bring stuff you can't backpack like tables and chairs. Yeah, it rains a lot in BC.



We had a cow moose and calf walk right through this camp to get to water. There are few animals as dangerous and unpredictable as a cow with calf. We backed off but had the pepper spray ready.



That's my 17 foot Dagger in the back. Those wheels sticking out of the boats are carts used for the portages.

As you can see, the campsites are cleared and marked as the park gets lots of visitors. They limit the numbers so it doesn't get too crowded. We went days without seeing a soul.