Car Campin' & Canoe Flippin'

**FBG** · 07-07-2013, 22:18

The girl child and I went car camping this past week at Washington State Park in Desoto, MO. I tried to get her to agree to Hawn, but I think she's addicted to the waffle cone ice creams we get after a day playing in the Big River.

We headed out Wednesday when she got home from summer school. I was a bit worried we'd not get a walk-in site with it being so close to the holiday weekend, but we lucked out and grabbed the last spot and it had trees no less! Our evening was spent setting up.

All day Thursday was playing in the river and Friday we tried our hand at our yearly canoe trip. Would have been a blast had I not tipped the darn thing over 10 minutes in.

I knew we were going to tip as we were being slammed against a tree and starting to take on water, but I was still holding on for dear life trying to force the canoe forward and pivot the front end around. I was so proud of my daughter, I let her know we were going to flip and to hold on as long as we were upright. The second it flipped I reached out for her, but she was already standing on top of the overturned canoe. I was amazed, I had no idea she could move that fast. Later she told me her life vest had popped her up and she didn't know what to do so she just scampered up.

*insert warm motherly heart flutters here*

Other than being a little bit shaken and slightly bruised, me more bruised than her, both came out just fine. Even managed to recover all our gear from the canoe while it was still upside-down and wedged in place under the tree. I had no cell signal so we waited 30 or so minutes before deciding to trek back to the drop point and look for help, but as we were about to head out a very nice couple came around the bend and were nice enough to help me un-wedge the canoe and get it to shore and emptied.

I'd love to say the rest of the trip down river was carefree, but I have to admit it made me gun-shy. I don't know about you other parents out there, but the second my daughter was born this annoying switch in my head was flipped and for almost everything she does I involuntarily think of at least a dozen ways she can be maimed or killed. I cringe to think about what went through my skull the second I realized she was going to be thrust into a section of fast moving river with tree limbs jutting out every which way. We came to two additional sketchy turns in the river and I pulled out for both to get a good look before attempting them. My heart couldn't take another flip. About two hours later when we stopped for lunch I finally started to relax a bit and enjoy the remaining time on the river.

When we were returning our rented gear I found out the lovely couple who had helped us hours earlier, and who we had passed several time on the river and joked with, had relayed our story to the staff and had considered getting another canoe and coming up behind us "just to be sure we were still safe". They truly were wonderful people with a great sense of humor.

We ended the day with a few hours playing in the river followed by yet another waffle cone ice cream.

Saturday morning was spent breaking camp and talking to a few people about our hammock setups. Apparently our canoe debacle made us quite the conversation piece as two of the conversations started with, "Didn't I see you on the river yesterday? Heard what happened, glad you're okay. Are those hammocks you're sleeping in?". I even had the guy camping next to us tell me he was impressed by the entire setup. The way he said it I'm not sure he meant he was impressed by the setup itself, or that I could rig it. Regardless, I took it as a personal compliment.

We packed up and cruised down to the river one more time before heading home. After a few hours we ended our adventure with the last waffle cone ice cream - this time a double scoop.

I wasn't able to get a picture of the overturned canoe, misplaced my camera for a day and a half, but I was able to get pictures of both our setups, the campsite, breakfast being cooked over the camp fire, and the awesomely huge chocolate chip muffin I baked in my IMUSA grease pot!

The first hammock setup is my daughter's double layer tablecloth sporting a JCPenny underquilt.

Second setup is my Ticket to the Moon double with a franken-underquilt fashioned from an old sleeping bag. I LOVE my underquilt, but it's bulky and will be replaced with a puffer shortly.

Very last picture is what my daughter looks like seconds after her hammock is setup, every morning waiting for me to wake up, every evening right before bed, and the last day during breakdown until I kick her out of it and make her stuff it into it's sack.

**RADIOHEAD** · 07-07-2013, 22:47

Sounds like y'all had fun! For what it's worth my daughter went on her first canoe float and we got casized against a tree on the Niangua a couple of weekends ago. Current was so streong it swept the pants off of her(she was weaing shorts underneath, fortunately!). She wanted to go on the float down the Eleven Point late July but I think she will paddle some calmer water first.

**FBG** · 07-07-2013, 23:15

After the initial shock of the flip I think she was more freaked out at the prospect of being stranded. I gave her a whole list of things as to why we were just fine.

- Neither of us is hurt
- Another canoe will come along any minute
- We can hear traffic so we're not far from where we put in and can walk for help if need be
- If we actually become stranded we have snacks, a fire starter kit, tackle box and 2 fishing rods. We're not going to freeze and we won't starve.

I think that helped put it in perspective and the look of fear faded a bit. lol

EDIT: Tell ya one thing I learned and had even read about here on the forums, but didn't think about when packing, keep items on your person. My phone, ID, fire starter kit and car keys were all in the dry bag and even though I didn't see it go down stream I was petrified it wasn't still in the canoe.

**SilvrSurfr** · 07-07-2013, 23:56

How did you manage to flip the canoe again? We need details.

I have only managed to flip my canoe once. I was paddling with my son and daughter on the river, and I was in the center of the canoe. I rested my butt on the yoke, and it gave way, throwing the whole canoe off-kilter. Luckily, we flipped in three feet of water.

Old Town Canoe sent me new nuts and bolts for the yoke free of charge. Great customer service!

**FBG** · 07-08-2013, 00:47

Truth be told it was all about a single paddle forward, when it should have been backwards.

Back in the day *insert laughter here* I never needed to think about how to canoe, it was just something I did. Now that I've come off many many years of not canoeing it's no longer second nature.

I was coming up on a fairly narrow spot with a fast moving current and a big tree covering most of the water. It could be passed to the left, which is what I was trying to do, when the back of the canoe started drifting out to the right. I paddled the wrong direction and instead of correcting the angle of the canoe, I made it worse and I knew I had made it worse the second I'd done it. The full force of the current caught the canoe broadside and slammed it against the tree trunk.

It looked as if the tree trunk had been trimmed down so the canoe was resting against a blunt cut which ended a few inches above the water's surface. The current was pushing the canoe under that trunk hard enough that while the right side rested on the tree the left side continually dipped down allowing water to flood over the side. Despite my best efforts to push the nose far enough out and pivot around the trunk, the canoe simply flipped over. What I didn't know was that the water was only a few feet deep so when it did eventually flip it immediately became lodged under the tree trunk.

And that my friends is how I flipped muh canoe!

**nothermark** · 07-08-2013, 06:10

That is a classic way to do it too. Glad every one came out OK. Camp looked sweet. Daughter looks like she has things figured out for now. Thanks for sharing. ;-))