When HYPOTHERMIA becomes uncontrollable shivering and muddled decisions,
BAIL OUT! BAIL OUT! BAIL OUT!
Well, yours truly stuck his foot in it this time.
Embarking on a 4 day trip on the Current River with our (to us) new canoe, we encountered very low water, and ROCKS! That persisted in tipping us several times.
A couple of those times, I ended up completely submerged in the 58°F water.
I started shivering. Then uncontrollable shivering. I finally yelled at Kent, as the trip leader that I needed to pull over and try to get warm.
The wind started blowing, and I could not get warm. I added several layers of clothes, but they just got wet, and I continued to stay cold. We had only made 4 miles on our first day, and by the time we stopped around noon to help me get warm, we had only made another 3 miles.
We stopped at Akers Ferry for lunch, and tried to start a fire to help me get warm, but the wind was gusting, and coming from different directions, so a fire was not going to help much.
There was a Ranger station/store there, where Terry bought me a thick hoodie, and sweat pants. Then we discovered that there was a possibility to hire a shuttle that would pick us up there, and drive us back to our launch site and pick up our car. $30. Cheap at twice the price.
Duane and Cindy were also planning on bailing out at that point.
I still wasn’t warm, so with encouragement from the rest of the crew, and me being a little befuddled and not thinking too well, (another sure sign of hypothermia) and the weather only going to continue getting colder, with the possibility of temperatures near freezing that night, I agreed that shuttling back and getting our car and bailing out from the trip was the better part of valor. Live to fight another day, and all that.
The shuttle arrived amazingly quickly. Terry and Cindy stayed with the boats, while Duane and I rode the shuttle to CedarGrove to pick up our cars.
Terry and I packed the canoe on top of our Jeep, and decamped to a Lodge with a cabin we could stay in for the night to get warm.
It was an adventure! We all survived! Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, right?
From all reports, the rest of the group had a great time for the rest of the trip! I can’t wait to see their trip reports!
See you On The Water!
Harmon