Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Wild Canoe Ride

Al and I bought a canoe this year for our 25th wedding anniversary.  This would give us something to do in our "empty nest" years.  We live in Wisconsin were rivers are plentiful and the Eau Claire River is in our back yard.  We decided to try out a new area of the river.  We knew that the Eau Claire Dells has rapids and rocks, but that was up stream a bit.  We asked our friend Leon - who knows the river and he said to keep left on the river - or did he say right?  We couldn't remember, but we were sure that it was up stream and not in the section we were on.   So we started out under the bridge on Hwy. Z.




Northern Wisconsin has received ALOT of rain this past week, so the river was high.



It was so calm and relaxing - at first....






There were beautiful rocks, bubbly sounds of water - this should have been our clue.  Then the river divides...do we go left or right?  The current was pushing us left.  I was in the front and could see what was up ahead.  There was another canoe with people in it down below - I could see them getting pushed from side to side.  I was scared!  I tried to hang my foot over the edge, grabbing a tree branch to stop us....nope, down the rapids we went.  It kicked our butts!  We flipped it!  



Well, I went totally under - but, my phone survived.  I was able to grip on to a rock.  When I looked back, there was Al trying to hold on to the canoe, paddle and seats.  He told me to climb on the rocks and walk up the hill and around till I saw him down stream.  He jumped in the canoe and went on down.  He is such a good husband!  






Al was waiting for me at the bottom.  He had a huge cut on his hand.  I don't know what we would have done if one of us would have been hurt - badly.  I have bruises on my knee and legs.  We jumped back in and paddled down to our truck - we had no idea it would take us 3 hours!!  We met up with the family in the other canoe.  They were down stream tipping the water out of their canoe.  They didn't tip over.  They were surprised with the rapids too. 

We had a good work out and so much fun.  We laughed about hitting every rock in the river - and we pretty much did.  Do you know those pinterest pictures that show what you imagine you look like and then what you actually look like.   Al said, you thought you were like Pocahontas or an Indian maiden floating in your canoe....then I see what I actually look like...maybe only I think this is funny.  

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin. 

3 comments:

  1. I've only been canoeing once and it was enough for me. It was when I was younger and a group of us decided to float the Flambeau River from Dead Man's down to Oxbo. I was in a canoe with an older cousin, who grew up canoeing that section of the river with my Mom and Dad, back when they were all younger. I felt that out of all the people going on the trip, "HE" was the one to be with!!! It was definitely an experience I will never forget. We never did flip it, but we got hung up on just about every rock in the river. We ended up breaking both of our paddles trying to push ourselves off of the rocks. We borrowed a paddle from another canoe and ended up getting stuck on another rock in a pretty decent sized rapids and broke our 3rd paddle. We had to wait for the rest of our group to catch up with us so we could get a 4th paddle. Thankfully that was the last section of rapids and it was a pretty smooth trip after 3 broken paddles. I think if I ever go again it will be on a lake, that is deep, and NO ROCKS!!! I am glad that you enjoyed your trip and hopefully the future trips won't be so WET! lol

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  2. I havent been canoeing in years. Now I remember why. We somehow always managed to tip it over! Glad you didnt get hurt. Hopefully your next adventure will be in calmer waters. But beautiful scenery!

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