Canoeing

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Cwalker935

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May 18, 2014
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Lida and I had quite the adventure yesterday. We went canoeing and fishing on the Tye River. We are very much novices when it comes to canoeing in rapids. This was my second time and Lida's first. This river was more challenging than my first river. Lida started out being paddling challenged and often did the opposite of what I ask her to do. Only a good marriage of 36 years will withstand this type of activity. I kept my cool for the most part and only told her to "just stop paddling" a few times and that was only when we were entering some tricky sections. She did help run us onto the rocks a few times. Once I had to get out to get us off a rock and she ended up going down the river leaving me canoeless in the middle of a bunch of rapids and rocks. I managed to escape with my life and largely in tact. Lida improved quite a bit as we went on and I thought we had gotten a handle on things. And then we came up on a big drop, I took the exact same line as the canoe in front of us who made it through unscathed and we ran bow first smack into a rock at the bottom of the drop. In an instant we were sideways and flipped over. I am a sinker and Lida is a floater. She continued through the center of the rapids skinning her knee on a rock. I ended up on my feet with two paddles and a fishing rod in my hands, I have no idea how that happened. But I was left in a predicament, how to get through the rapids. Very uneven footing in very fast water. After bumping into and tripping over numerous rocks, I managed to get out with a sore shoulder, toe and thumb. Lida also jammed a digit and we are trying to out complain each other. We managed the rest of the trip without incident. Despite our mishaps, we had a lot of fun, saw some ospreys, a bald eagle and a blue heron.
 
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BRobbins629

Passed Away Dec 28, 2021
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Many years ago I took my wife on a canoe trip. Parked the car and then they took us upstream for our 3 hour adventure downstream with a couple of life jackets and oars. When I told her to read the water as we approached the first rapids her answer was what does it say. I too had to get us off the rocks at one point. Was our last canoe trip - probably more than 40years ago. We talk about it from time to time but somehow never thought about another trip.
 

tomtedesco

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Centennial, CO
Two questions. Did you catch any fish?? Would you do the same trip again?
I would like to hear your wife's version of the trip:biggrin:
 

Cwalker935

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Richmond, Va
Two questions. Did you catch any fish?? Would you do the same trip again?
I would like to hear your wife's version of the trip:biggrin:

I got several strikes but didn't get one in the boat. The couple That we were canoeing with caught some. They were more adept at managing a canoe and fishing at the same time. They caught one pretty nice small mouth. I was not able to fish very well since I was often distracted by my wife turning us toward rocks rather than away from them. Surpringly, my wife enjoyed the trip and wants to do it again after we have recuperated a little more.

Here is a fish from my first trip

2D3A8588-B662-4D99-A29F-CD3D356D1812.jpg
 

mark james

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Medina, Ohio
I'm glad the finish was "good." My FIL and I were white-water kayakers 20 years ago; Yough, (mostly), Cheat, New. Many instances where things get "exciting" FAST! For 6 years he and I left for a camping trip on Father's Day weekend - Kayaking with a group, and reappearing home for a barbecue on Sunday. Sigh, great memories. He's 93 now, and well, he's 93.

Yes, a good marriage is an asset to tandem canoeing. You are braver than I!

Edit - I miss that activity, but vision, neck and back issues prevent sitting in a kayak for 3-4 hrs, plus I never had a 95% confident roll.
 
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