The Great Canoe Adventure

[Floyd 0]

THE GREAT CANOE ADVENTURE

(True Story Spring 1975)

 

One day in the early spring on the Huron river a few miles from Milford Michigan. The wife and I with our daughter (Floyd, Ella and Bonnie) came to the Proud Lake Recreation Area to watch the people go down the river in their canoe's. It was a nice spring day, and it was on a weekend to make it even better because there were more people. Anytime you have lots of people with little or no experience trying to paddle a canoe down a river that is swollen with the spring runoff is always good for a few laughs. We decided that the best place to observe this great event was by the bridge, because the water was about eighteen inches below the bridge which made the people portage around the bridge. As you may have guessed not all people chose to portage and this is what makes canoe watching a good form of entertainment. We were there for a while having a few laughs as some of the people were having trouble with their canoes while getting in and out of them. About seventy-five yards down stream from the bridge there were two large culverts. Here came two canoes with a young couple in each one. You could just tell by the way the young guys were acting that they were a couple of Macho Boys. I am thinking to myself this should be good. They were discussing whether to portage or go under the bridge. It seemed the girls wanted to play it safe and portage, but the Macho Boys thought they could make it. (No sweat) You must keep in mind that this water was snow and ice just a few days before, so if you fall in, it has a tendency to make some of your body parts pucker up just a little. Well Bonnie had been laughing quite a bit so she was primed pretty well by now. When the canoes got close to the bridge, the Macho Boys were telling the girls how they planed to get through without drowning or freezing to death. They were going against the current, so this means you have to work a little and not just set back and cruse on through. Their idea was for all of them to lie down in the canoes and with their hands reach up and grab the bottom of the bridge and pull themselves through. As they started under, the canoes were rubbing on the bottom of the bridge. After they were under the bridge and out of sight you could hear by the way they were talking that things were not going well according to the big plan. The I-Beams were rusty and full of old spider webs, so I don't think the girls liked to handle this very much. Bonnie is starting to laugh quite a bit now. There were twelve to fifteen people there that were having just as much trouble not laughing as Bonnie was. One of the canoes got stuck sideways under the bridge, which caused the young lady to question the brain power of the canoe captain which was still giving orders. The other canoe finely got through to the other side, and the young lady in the front grabbed a tree branch to hold their place in the river while waiting for their friends. Meanwhile, back under the bridge the captain and the first mate were not getting along very well. The captain was giving new orders but the first mate didn't understand or care, so it was determined by the captain that the first mate was stupid. Bonnie was laughing pretty well by this time. Most people there were trying to control their laughter, because the captain was getting a little upset. After they were there for a while the genius in the other canoe decided to go back and help, so he told the young lady in the front to let go of the branch. Now they are coming back with the current, backwards. They started under the bridge using only their hands to control the canoe. The current was too much and they rammed the other canoe which caused quite a commotion with the two first mates. As we were trying to look under the bridge, a cushion came floating out, then a few seconds later a paddle. This collision must have helped dislodge the first canoe because it came out. You could tell by the expressions on their faces that they were not having as good a time as the people watching were. Bonnie was cracking up by now. Laughter is contagious sometimes, and this was one of those times. Well the young couple made it to shore and she reached out and grabbed a bunch of grass on shore. He gets out and goes back to the bridge to help his friends which are now stuck sideways. The young lady sitting in the canoe holding the grass was pretty embarrassed with all the people laughing. So she decided to get out, and she stands up still holding the grass and starts to step out of the canoe. Holding the grass and with one foot on shore and the other in the canoe. You guessed it. The canoe starts to move downstream. Well when her feet were about three feet apart she took a not so beautiful swan dive into the very cold Huron River. Well this was all that Bonnie could stand. She just lost it. She let out a scream of laughter that could be heard for quite a distance. She fell down holding her stomach and rolling around on the ground. When this happened, the whole crowd lost it also. The young lady grabbed the canoe and climbed out of the water. She was so embarrassed that she pulled the canoe up on shore and went behind a big tree trying to make herself as small as possible. Her captain was back at the bridge giving helpful hints' to his friends still stuck under the bridge. After a few minutes they managed to get the canoe back through the bridge. Bonnie was still rolling around on the ground. The two captains decided that the better part of valor was to throw away plain "A," go to plain "B." ( Portage around the bridge). They picked up their canoes made the portage, and was last seen going upstream for a nice spring day canoe adventure.

(This is a true story)

(By Floyd Robertson)

[Chase Creek 0]

Oh, to be young and bullet proof again!

Those were the days, when a guy knew everything about everything. :yahoo:

[Rick S 0]

There is no telling some people and the young are all ways bullit proof. I had a similar encounter with 2 young fisherman whilst doing some keepering duties for a friend. Whilst walking the beats one morning with my dogs I came across 2 young anglers who were the guests of one of the rods they were about to cut across a field to save walking around the bend in the river. This would not normally be a problem but the farmer had turned out His pedigree Hereford Bull for some R&R and sunshine alll the rods new this bull as a bad tempered SOB who would charge notices to this were posted to warn the un-wary. I pointed this out to the 2 said anglers adding that something thats the size of a dump truck with the speed of the average car deserves to be given repect My answer was that notice is allways there and any how its only a fat old cow! Off they set and approx halfway across the bull sighted them and started His run in the pair squealed like a couple pf girls and ran back the way they had came a sight i can vouch for both being in full chest waders and trying to hold on to a small tackle store. They just made it over the gate minus 1 Tackle bag and a SAGE rod the bull promptly stopped and went back to trample all over the left behind bag. The two of them running and calling for help was to much for me so I done what should be done and burst out laughing even My dogs were having a chuckle I also could not resist passing the remark that shure can shift for a fat old cow!

[lykos33 0]

:hyst: says it all....

[JSzymczyk 0]

Back in the 80's during the Lake Erie salmon boom, it was always a circus at Walnut Creek and the other access areas. When I get time I'll write a book about the guys in the 10-foot jonboat getting ready to go out in the lake (one of them weighed a good 400 pounds, the other maybe 115 soaking wet, which he quickly was...), guys filling gas lanterns at night while they were still ON (a gallon of white gas is VERY flammable, just like the label says) and the train of buried tow trucks on the beach where some dumbass insisted on taking his new bass boat out of the channel in 6-foot seas.