05caddyext
06-10-2008, 08:31 PM
While some of you may think "good I hate that F$cker," my friend and I almost died today. And yeah, it was our fault "sorta."
My friend asked me this morning if I wanted to go canoeing so I said sure, where do you want to go. Well we decided to go out on the lake in Palmyra, not sure what its called, I think Lower Spring lake or something like that. So we get the canoe in the water and its really windy so we decide to go towards where the beach is, looked a lot calmer there. Well, little did we know they opened up the dam over the weekend, there are 3 on the lake. The dam that blocks the river that feeds the lake broke, so the lake was really full. To fix this they had to open up the dam that drains the lake.
So here is the short version. Pics to come later. We are paddling as hard as we can towards the calm water and we notice we are hardly moving. Should have turned around, but decided to just go closer to shore. We then got caught in the current of the water rushing out of the lake and got pulled very quickly towards the dam. We both got a little nervous, tried to remain calm.
The dam has 3 sections like this I x I x I x I. The x's represent big concrete slabs that close the dam. The first 2 starting from the left were closed, the third one was wide open. We could see through the 3rd one and we could see a "waterfall" and raging river through the hole, so we obviously tried to get the F out of there.
Thought we were going to get lucky, the canoe got stuck on the dam and we werent moving at all, current was amazingly strong. Then out of nowhere, the canoe started to turn around and head towards the opening so I grabbed onto the dam to stop us. It took all my strength to hold us there, but it became futile. My friend was in the front, I was in the back. The canoe tipped and some water came in so I stood up and grabbed the top of the dam with my right arm, I could barely reach it. At that moment my friend tried to get out of the canoe, we could touch the bottom, was maybe 3 feet deep. As he started to get out the whole canoe sank in an instant. I jumped and got a hold of the top of the dam with my other hand, my legs were in the water almost up to my knees. I saw him standing, and a second later he got sucked down and disappeared under the dam.
I freaked out. I literraly could feel my heart nearly pound of my chest. It took all my strength, (I lift weights 5 days a week) to get out of the water and on top of the dam. Without even thinking I ran across hwy 59, almost got hit by a car. I went to the other side of the road and saw the worst raging river ive ever seen in my life. I froze for a second, looked down river and saw nothing but carnage. The shore was washed out, and several huge trees were down.
I then ran down the bank hoping to see my friend, I saw nothing. I didn't know what to do so I just scanned the river and I see the CANOE! Its wedged against the shore, hung up on a tree. The canoe is a 14ft aluminum boat, maybe 4 feet of it was out the water. I then see a life jacket, neither of us were wearing it, we were sitting on them. Dumbasses. Im thinking hes here somewhere I know it, the water is moving way to fast hes gotta be here. I look across the river, and hes hanging on the underside of a huge fallen tree. He was able to pull himself up and crawl across the tree to the bank. I asked him if he was ok, perfectly fine just a lot of scratches, me as well. We just stood there in shock and then he finally said "thats how people die" Then we discussed what happened to each other, the chain of events.
6 hours later with the help of my dad we were able to pull the canoe out of the river. Both of our hiking backpacks were still strapped inside. We found the cooler down the river a little ways, the only thing we lost were the paddles. Both life jackets were caught in a tree, recovered those as well.
The canoe is a total loss, its bent and the entire back of it is nearly ripped clean off. He said the only thing that saved him was quick thinking. The canoe and him went under the dam and he said somehow he was able to roll halfway into it before it went off the waterfall. Then just out of pure luck he was able to cling onto a tree.
I have no doubt in my mind that if I saw him in the water I would have jumped in and we would both be dead. They always say never jump in, its so much more dangerous. I wasn't even thinking, I just ran across the road and looked for him. I have never been so more scared/full of adrenaline in my life.
Ill post some pics of the river later, he took some with his camera when we went back with a pickup to pull the canoe out. I don't think I will ever go on a lake again, at least not for a very long time. We are so lucky I can't even believe it happened yet.
My friend asked me this morning if I wanted to go canoeing so I said sure, where do you want to go. Well we decided to go out on the lake in Palmyra, not sure what its called, I think Lower Spring lake or something like that. So we get the canoe in the water and its really windy so we decide to go towards where the beach is, looked a lot calmer there. Well, little did we know they opened up the dam over the weekend, there are 3 on the lake. The dam that blocks the river that feeds the lake broke, so the lake was really full. To fix this they had to open up the dam that drains the lake.
So here is the short version. Pics to come later. We are paddling as hard as we can towards the calm water and we notice we are hardly moving. Should have turned around, but decided to just go closer to shore. We then got caught in the current of the water rushing out of the lake and got pulled very quickly towards the dam. We both got a little nervous, tried to remain calm.
The dam has 3 sections like this I x I x I x I. The x's represent big concrete slabs that close the dam. The first 2 starting from the left were closed, the third one was wide open. We could see through the 3rd one and we could see a "waterfall" and raging river through the hole, so we obviously tried to get the F out of there.
Thought we were going to get lucky, the canoe got stuck on the dam and we werent moving at all, current was amazingly strong. Then out of nowhere, the canoe started to turn around and head towards the opening so I grabbed onto the dam to stop us. It took all my strength to hold us there, but it became futile. My friend was in the front, I was in the back. The canoe tipped and some water came in so I stood up and grabbed the top of the dam with my right arm, I could barely reach it. At that moment my friend tried to get out of the canoe, we could touch the bottom, was maybe 3 feet deep. As he started to get out the whole canoe sank in an instant. I jumped and got a hold of the top of the dam with my other hand, my legs were in the water almost up to my knees. I saw him standing, and a second later he got sucked down and disappeared under the dam.
I freaked out. I literraly could feel my heart nearly pound of my chest. It took all my strength, (I lift weights 5 days a week) to get out of the water and on top of the dam. Without even thinking I ran across hwy 59, almost got hit by a car. I went to the other side of the road and saw the worst raging river ive ever seen in my life. I froze for a second, looked down river and saw nothing but carnage. The shore was washed out, and several huge trees were down.
I then ran down the bank hoping to see my friend, I saw nothing. I didn't know what to do so I just scanned the river and I see the CANOE! Its wedged against the shore, hung up on a tree. The canoe is a 14ft aluminum boat, maybe 4 feet of it was out the water. I then see a life jacket, neither of us were wearing it, we were sitting on them. Dumbasses. Im thinking hes here somewhere I know it, the water is moving way to fast hes gotta be here. I look across the river, and hes hanging on the underside of a huge fallen tree. He was able to pull himself up and crawl across the tree to the bank. I asked him if he was ok, perfectly fine just a lot of scratches, me as well. We just stood there in shock and then he finally said "thats how people die" Then we discussed what happened to each other, the chain of events.
6 hours later with the help of my dad we were able to pull the canoe out of the river. Both of our hiking backpacks were still strapped inside. We found the cooler down the river a little ways, the only thing we lost were the paddles. Both life jackets were caught in a tree, recovered those as well.
The canoe is a total loss, its bent and the entire back of it is nearly ripped clean off. He said the only thing that saved him was quick thinking. The canoe and him went under the dam and he said somehow he was able to roll halfway into it before it went off the waterfall. Then just out of pure luck he was able to cling onto a tree.
I have no doubt in my mind that if I saw him in the water I would have jumped in and we would both be dead. They always say never jump in, its so much more dangerous. I wasn't even thinking, I just ran across the road and looked for him. I have never been so more scared/full of adrenaline in my life.
Ill post some pics of the river later, he took some with his camera when we went back with a pickup to pull the canoe out. I don't think I will ever go on a lake again, at least not for a very long time. We are so lucky I can't even believe it happened yet.