Rough Day On The Buffalo

[TroutRinger]

First off, the river was very low but the Buffalo is a beautiful river and I can't wait to float some other sections some day. Now the interesting part.

I was sick as a dog. I had (well there is no nice way to say this) diarrhea in the morning before we left camp, but I thought I was fine after even though I didn't have an appetite for breakfast. Well about 45 minutes into our 7.5 mile float I vomited the first of six times on the river. Couldn't even keep water down. Let's just say it was a miserable float (never thought I'd say that). I was dehydrated, hadn't had food since the night before, and had no energy. I guess all those things combined caused my back to hurt as well which it normally doesn't even on much longer floats. By the time we dragged all the gear and cooler up the hill at Hasty I was completely exhausted and couldn't even sit up. Not sure what made me sick but I'm still not completely right today.

On a side note, my girlfriend who was on her first float was a real trooper doing most of the paddling and carrying the cooler. She may be the one.

[tjulianc]

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[GloryDaze]

Man that sucks- i had the same thing happen to me on the big piney. Woke up not feeling well, spent the entire day puking and not able to even keep water down. Thank the good Lord it was our last day and my buddy paddled the whole way home. In couldn't even make the drive home to KC and spent the night sick as a dog in a hotel in Rolla.

When I got home I looked up my symptoms........ Heat exhaustion is what I had. Sure was a good thing I got off the river when I did . Ever since that trip ( I used to take bottled water, but had trouble keeping track of how much wtater I was drinking) I now bring gallon jugs of water. I make myself drink 1 gallon off water a day and in the gallon container it's really easy to track how much I'm drinking. And it's less trash than all those water bottles.

[TroutRinger]

Ironically this was the first float trip that I packed a little home-made first-aid kit but had no pepto tablets in it. That will be changing.

I also do the gallons of drinking water from the grocery store. I poor just a little out and freeze them the day before. You can leave them outside of the cooler almost the entire time, and the ice will melt at a rate commesurate with your drinking so you'll always have enough cold water. I drank (and then threw up) the entire gallon.

[DaddyO]

Isn't that called chumming?

JK. I hope your next trip is a better experience.

[Mark]

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are, except to Troutringer!

[The Kayak Kid]

Man, sorry to hear. Nasty virus? Food poisoning, maybe? I hope your recovery is going well.

Always a reason why these things happen....sounds like now you know your girlfriend is a keeper. True colors come out on the river. My wife of 11 years took her first float with me, after just a few months of dating in college. Camped at Alley Spring. 15 miles on the JF on a hot July day. After a cut on her knee from dragging the canoe and falling down, bringing me cold washrags from the cooler when I was burning up in the tent, and agreeing to try wild onions on her hamburger....I figured she'd had enough. I guess a couple days on the river can point a man in the right direction, in more ways than one.