In case you haven't figured it out, the tale is actually true and the two armature canoeists are Karen and I. Last weekend we went up north to the cottage, which is north east of Huntsville. We were there about a month ago and we were told that you could travel from Sand Lake down the Magnettawan River to a few other lakes and eventually get to Kearney, a city nearby. This seemed like fun, so this time we decided to do it. We packed our canoe with the essentials: shoes (in case we went hiking), sandals, towels, a cooler packed with food and water, and our camera.
It took about 1.5 hrs to find the river after canoeing around Sand Lake looking for it. Once on the river, it was quiet since there was only wilderness on both sides of the bed. It was peaceful, and I was hoping to see some wildlife, like a bear, a moose, or even a beaver. But no luck. Soon we passed under a tiny bridge that you needed to crouch in order to get under it. We decided to wait for a short while to have our lunch, so we kept canoeing down river.
At one point we came across some pathetic rapids. We thought that it didn't look that bad and people had told us that you can canoe up and down stream, so we continued. Soon the rapids picked up and we were flying down the river at mach 4, just trying to steer the canoe the best we could. At one point steering wasn't an option and we went flying into a tree that must have blown down over half the river in a storm. At the time I was cursing the tree. However, I found myself soon hugging it. Karen went flying into the tree/log first, holding on. I ran to the front of the canoe to help her, but the pressure of the rapids spun the canoe around and I went flying into the log as well. At some point we flew out of the canoe. I managed to grab onto the canoe in the process and Karen managed to grab the log. We tried to spin the canoe around so that water wouldn't slash into it. Doing this was useless because the rapids were too great and the canoe tipped over pouring our stuff out. At this point I tried reaching for the canoe, but it took off down the river on its side. Somehow I grabbed on to the last branch I could find from the log, or I would have been sent down the river as well. It wasn't until we lost our stuff and the canoe that I thought we might be in danger. Karen was hugging the log tightly and I slowly made my way back to her. We were about 15 feet from one side of the river's edge but getting to it would be difficult. I grabbed Karen by the back of her pants and held onto to her as tight as I could while she slowly edged along the log to get to the shore. You wouldn't believe how much pressure the river was throwing at us. I felt that if I slipped on the rocks, or relaxed my legs, or even let go of the log, I would have been swept down the river. We stopped and prayed for safety for a minute before continuing.
We did make it to the river's edge, and we saw are canoe downstream snagged on another log. So, barefoot and all, we walked through the forest following the river to get to the canoe. I went back into the river to see if I could get to the canoe, but the rapids were still too great. Being thankful that we were alive, we decided to leave the canoe there and start looking for civilization. We hiked through the forest in our bare feet looking for a road or house or something, all the while thinking about "Deliverance". We didn't have any luck finding help, so we decided to follow the river back to Sand Lake. We knew it would be quite a hike, but given it was still early afternoon, we thought we would have enough daylight to make it back. Walking in the woods barefoot was something Karen never thought she would do. Remember I mentioned that we wanted to wait a while for lunch? It was because Karen didn't want to have a picnic on the river's edge because it looked like it could have a lot of bugs and animals. Well, her we were just 45 minutes later walking in the forest without feet protection. I was really proud of her, because she hardly complained. After 1.5 hours of walking in the woods, we came to a dead end. All around us the forest was thick and we couldn't continue. So we decided to jump back into the river and swim upstream, since we passed the rapids.
Soon after a boat came by and saw us. Thankfully, they were friendly and weren't hicks like the people in Deliverance. They helped us in their boat and brought us back to Sand Lake and our car. Still being drenched in our clothes, we drove back to the place where we rented the canoe and told them that we lost their canoe. They seemed angry that we took their canoe to that river and said if they knew that, they wouldn't have let us since they knew the water level had been raised 2 feet in the previous 4 weeks due to storms. Karen and I felt pretty dumb, but still happy to be alive. Then came the bombshell. They said that if they couldn't get the canoe back, we would have to pay them $1500 for the canoe, since it was a new one.
Thankfully one of the workers owned the area around the river and knew it well. So we went in to the forest by 4x4 and then hiked the rest of the way in to where we lost the canoe. The canoe was found and dragged out of the river and then we brought it back to the store. Instead of paying $1500, we had to give them $100 for the lost paddles and the damage to the canoe. So our sum total for the day was around $500, since we lost our camera, shoes, sandals, cooler, the paddles, and the canoe damage. Some people pay big money for adventures like that, so we didn't care too much. We felt really blessed to both be alive. I would post some pictures of our trip, but yes, you guessed it, they are somewhere in the bottom of the river somewhere.
