Viewing post #786058 by JaeRae
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| Reminds me of almost freezing on what was supposed to be a fun day trip with a couple of canoes! It was a sunny morning in spring and my EX and I got a visit from a couple of friends. We decided to load 2 canoes on the truck and 2 would ride motorcycles. That way we could drive up north drop the canoes at the top of the route we'd planned and leave the motorcycles at the bottom so we could ride back up, get the truck, come to the bottom, load the canoes and go home. It was quite warm so we packed up some sandwiches into our cooler kit (which contained a couple of odd items always) and set off in summer clothes with light jackets. We found our spots, and did all we'd planned for the initial part and had a couple of nice paddling hours. The river was high from spring melt and there were rapids so we all got wet which wasn't a worry until 2 things happened, the winds came up bringing cold and we realized that our route was much longer by river than it appeared on the map. Soon it began to sleet and we were all soaked and shivering, then snow!!! We reached a shallow point shortly after our fork in the river, it was still full of chunks of ice that had to be broken through in order to move on. The snow and sleet alternated as it got dark; the winds roared and eventually we found ourselves unable to make headway. We dragged the canoes through the icy water up onto a shore. By that time I was vibrating with cold, I suppose we all were. My ex stayed with the canoes and 3 of us walked out to the road. One stayed road edge so we could find them again. The 2 of us headed toward the motorcycles but were quite a distance away. No cars came by, they weren't out because the weather had turned to an ice storm by then. We did eventually reach the bikes and had to drive them back up. The road was slick and my hands were so numb that I could hardly manipulate the accelerator but we did it. On the way to pick up the others we passed a little private motel with the no vacancy sign on. Once we got back to them, ex had managed a small fire (he did have some stick matches in a plastic bag in the cooler kit; we always did for 'camping') but the wood was too wet to do other than stand right there until we could feel our feet again. The fire kept going out and with nearly all of the matches gone, we decided, regardless of the no vacancy sign, to try the motel we had passed. If nothing else, we could make a call from there. We built a little marker of branches by the road so we could find the canoes again so by the time we got there we were all vibrating again. We knocked and knocked on the door and finally a woman came wrapping a coat around her. First she tried to turn us away, 1 girl and 3 guys showing up on motorcycles on a night like that. Eventually though, she believed our story and conceded that we could have rooms. We didn't have enough money amongst us to get more than one room and barely enough for that. Finally she reluctantly took us to one room (one double bed, 1 blanket, no amenities ...it was really like a hunter's spot, only open certain times of the year) but we were just happy to get out of the winds. A bit later she came back. She had a man (son? I think) that had a roll-away bed, and a pile of extra blankets and towels. She had a plate of hot roast beef sandwiches and hot chocolate. I know she made nothing off us, but while she never asked, we did send a check up to her later. The next day was sunny and while not warm, we were only damp. We got the truck, found the canoes, headed for the safety of home and a good time was had by all. Ha! Lesson learned: plant lots of tulips in fall because spring can be very pretty looking through a nice sun warmed window.  Woman on the eastbound train ...........................................Je Suis Désolé. (also a mule lovin', Charley huggin' girl) |
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