Northern Tier Canoe Base Expedition

July 10 - July 20, 2002

Monday, July 15, 2002
Old Swampy

We were sure happy to get breakfast done so that we could get out on the water and away from the bugs! Someone forgot to tell them that they weren't supposed to be out in the daytime. The morning was hard even though we'd reached the juncture of the Bloodvein and the Gammon, and were once again on the Bloodvein. The afternoon though seemed easier. By then we'd all pretty much figured out how to steer the canoes and could paddle from either side at will, changing sides only to rest the muscles or to provide some variety. The distance for that day to our next campsite was about twelve miles, and we made it without incident - almost. We were getting ready to portage, one of the last of the day. The portage trails were sometimes difficult to find, and we had missed that one. It turned out that we'd paddled too far up the river and had actually gone past the trail. We needed to turn around and go back a short distance. The rapids that was the reason for the portage was flowing towards us, since we were still headed upstream. Since we were now expert canoe pilots it seemed to make perfect sense to just barely ease the bow of the canoe into the current and let it swing us around so that we could go back to the trail. Wrong! We eased into the current alright, but instead of turning we promptly got ourselves upside down in the river.
We were swamped.
The gear and food packs were buckled to one of the canoe thwarts so we didn't lose them, and somehow we managed to both hang on to the canoe and to our other personal gear and paddles as well. One of the other boats came to rescue us and helped us make it to shore, where we emptied and righted the canoe, reloaded the gear, and generally tried to calm down (and dry out). We were wet, but otherwise ok. We'd just received an object lesson as to why swamping and recovery drills are part of the canoeing merit badge. My camera, that had been in ziploc bags in my pocket, had gotten a little damp and had quit working. Camp was mercifully nearby and as it turned out, relatively bug free. We settled into the now familiar routine of setting up camp, cooking dinner, doing K.P., relaxing for awhile, and getting to bed.