Canoe disaster on the Shenandoah River

Ok. So, we ended up “Aqua-Blazing” this week. That is, when you go down the river instead of hiking the trail. Truth is, we hiked 50 miles into the Shenandoah National Park and weren’t that impressed. It was about 90 degrees out and humid as hell. This part of the trail was like a never ending green tunnel going up and down through a steam room at satan’s summer resort. We weren’t having any fun so we decided that we should try going back to town and eating Chinese Buffett in air conditioning.

While we were stuffing our faces with sushi and general tso’s chicken, we decided that we didn’t care what purists thought and that this heat would be best dealt with in a canoe.

Then, we did what any reasonable person does when they want to do something but know anything about how to go about doing it. We googled it. Found a random number. Spoke with some lady on the phone, she told us to be at the river at 8.

We get in the river and pretty soon run into some locals fishing. We ask them iF there were any big rapids and they laughed and said “oh yea…”. They tried to give us some advice, but for two people who have never canoed in white water it all sounded like gibberish. Then as we were pulling away from them, they shouted out to us “water’s real low. Going toBe a bumpy ride!”

When we signed up for aqua blazing, we imagined canoeing down a smooth and calm river. Both of us have been white water rafting before but that is about the extent of our experience in this field, or on the river, that is. When we immediately began going down rapids on the first day, it felt to me that there was cause for concern. We made our way down the first couple of rapids alright, it wasn’t pretty, but we made our way through.

It was in the early afternoon that we came across a far larger and more technical rapid. We tried our best to aim down river but before we knew it the boat had scraped against a shallow rock and spun sideways. Mere seconds later our canoe was pin up against another rock and water was rushing into the boat, filling it. We grabbed our backpacks and made for the shoreline (mind you, we are carrying all our gear). I get close enough to toss my pack onto some exposed roots, and then head lil Bell scream “help!”

I turn around and look to see that she had fallen into the rapid and was beginning to float doen river. She is clutching her backpack in front of her as the water starts rushing over her shoulders. “You have to let go of your stuff!” I yell. “I can’t!” She screams back, looking terrified. “Just let it go!” I shouted back. It was so dramatic, I felt like I should start singing the frozen song just to break the tension.

But then she let it go, and her back floated downstream. Luckily, the other hikers that were aqua blazing with us were there to grab her gear. Then they trudged through the rapids and helped us dislodge the canoe, which for all intents and purposes was now part of the river.

Gone were our camp shoes. Gone was one of my trail runners. And though we scanned the riverbank for the rest of the day we never found it.the whole ordeal set us back quite a bit on our trip and when some locals kayaked by us and told us that it would be impossible for us to make it to our designated campsite before it was dark. Then they offered that we stayed with them on their campsite. They fed us delicious pasta and slept the night away and dreading getting back in the boat the next morning.

From the other side,

Pan and Bell