Winter Floating

[bobber]

cold weather, along with cold water are not always a good thing!! i took a small group to the river. sunny ,and close to 40* seemed liked a great new years day ... untill around 3:30 late afternoon as we weaved in and out of tree limbs, and root balls. one of our members got sideways in a downed tree and before i could slow down i was right along side them .the force of my canoe hitting them pushed them out of the hang-up . and put me in a very bad place as the water rushed over the side of my canoe i leaned into the tree like you should do but all that did was flood the tail end of my canoe, and in the rushing water as i slowly sank... i looked for what wasn't clipped to the thwarts or tied down, grabbed my little canoe dog and bailed out!!about three or four hard swimming strokes we made to the bank. put my dog down on the gravel bar, and turned to get my canoe? ....it was gone!!.. it didn't go down stream. it just went down to the bottom . soon there after a dry bag popped up, then my cooler, my paddle spare paddle shot up about 4 feet. this took about 15 to 20 minutes. seemed like forever! my painter line was floating and i hooked it with the paddle T grip... pulling on it broke the thwart .so there i am holding the rope and a small pice of wood tied on the other end! i was alredy wet ,so i waded back to see if i could reach the canoe. at this time i'm feeling "frozen" i had been in the water cold and wet to the point of my lower body had the burning feel.I could reach down to feel my canoe, i started to push with my foot and the canoe would move a little so i kept on pushing, and rocking it until i heard a crack or loud pop! and the canoe floated away .it was another thwart that broke i guess that's what was holding it down. anyway we get it to the bank, dump it out ,and i reload to finish the trip . it was all i could do to keep paddling to get my blood flowing.my hands were numb , we had about a mile and a half to go.... i'm still cold typing this!!!!! getting in the car with the heater on full blast did'nt help one bit i'm just glad it was a day trip, and not an overnighter...

[smallmouthjoe]

Yeah I'm thinking that I may cancel the overnight trip and maybe just go down there and camp at different spots and fish the water in that area. I might do some hiking as well. I don't think I'll be able to handle my canoe by myself and If was going to do an overnighter I would need to be in my canoe because I can't cramp all of it in my kayak. No matter how comfortable or experienced you are at paddling there's always a chance of going in and I don't want to risk it. Thanks to everyone for their advise and thank you glorydaze for you offer.