Another successful float, in the books. \u00a0Yeah, we got rained on a bit, but after the monsoon conditions we’ve endured the last few years nobody was complaining. \u00a0(Actually everybody was complaining, just not about the weather for once.) \u00a0The trip started on Wednesday evening, when I met up with Munkirs & Bruce out in Grandview. \u00a0We consolidated vehicles and started the\u00a0arduous trek southeast, finally getting there some five hours later. \u00a0When we arrived we found a pretty sizable crowd already on site. \u00a0We quickly located our sect by the rather hulking presence of Zim’s brand spanking new\u00a0motor home, and commenced to campin’.<\/p>\n
Thursday morning I peeled my carcass off Zim’s floor, stepped over a few still-inert bodies, and walked out the door to find a beautiful morning waiting. \u00a0It was an easy decision to get on the river this day, certainly couldn’t pass up the weather. \u00a0(Turned out we were at least partially duped, as it rained on us a bit; \u00a0Not bad though.) \u00a0We enjoyed some breakfast sandwiches and got on the river at the crack of noon with a small four-canoe barge. \u00a0We floated from camp down to Dawt Mill<\/a>\u00a0that day, which was about the right length, especially considering our late start. \u00a0Highlights of the trip included seeing some bald eagles, and the “river dog” story. \u00a0To summarize the River Dog tale: \u00a0We’re merrily floating along, maybe half-way downstream, and we come up on another large bunch of our group. \u00a0They’re taking a break over on the bank, and there’s this brown dog running around with them. \u00a0The dog sees our barge and immediately dives in the river, swims over to us, and starts circling our canoes. \u00a0The other group starts laughing at us, and saying “He’s yours now!” \u00a0Hmmmm, what’s that mean? \u00a0I kid you not, that dog swam with us for at least two miles, until we finally hauled him in a canoe. \u00a0Turned out he’d been swimming with the other guys for quite a while too. \u00a0(And we quickly figured out why they wanted to get rid of him; \u00a0He’d been skunked pretty good.) \u00a0So, end of story, we took him back to camp and a few guys drove him back up river looking for his home. \u00a0A few campground owners said he was a stray that had been hanging around for a few months. \u00a0He was a good dog, (Aussie maybe<\/a>?) and one of the guys ended up taking him home. \u00a0After all that excitement, we settled in for a tasty chicken dinner and called it a day.<\/p>\n Friday we got around a little earlier, as we were planning to head up to Hammond Camp and float back down. \u00a0It’s two miles longer than the trip down to Dawt, so we have to plan for, ohhhhh, about an extra three hours. \u00a0The weather was top-notch again, and quite a few guys turned out for the trip. \u00a0Munkirs and I quickly settled in the center of a good sized barge, with a\u00a0generous five-canoe buffer on either side of us. \u00a0For those not familiar with the fine art of barge-canoeing, this is generally recognized as the safest place to be. \u00a0You really can’t effectively “steer” eleven canoes lashed together, so they sort of pinwheel down the river, and the canoes closest to the outside tend to absorb the most punishment. \u00a0What we hadn’t<\/strong> planned on was being tied up next to Todd and Bruce. \u00a0It’s a tight race as to which one of them has the worst luck in a canoe; \u00a0Suffice to say I don’t believe either of them has ever stayed dry an entire trip down the river, and there is usually a lot of collateral damage involved with their mishaps. \u00a0(Whose bright idea was it to throw them in a canoe together<\/strong> anyway???) \u00a0Sure enough, not too far down the river, they hit a rock full on and punched a 12″ hole in the bottom on their canoe. \u00a0Good grief. \u00a0On one hand, one could term that sheer bad luck. \u00a0On the other hand, why is it always the same guys? \u00a0I’m suspicious. \u00a0With their vessel out of commission, we agreed to haul Todd the rest of the way down the river. \u00a0Well, maybe “agreed” isn’t the right word; \u00a0He wedged his boots into the side of our canoe and we couldn’t pry him out. \u00a0After all the shuffling and re-barging, we ended up on the very outside position, doomed to an afternoon of getting slammed off rocks and trees. \u00a0Further proof that no good deed goes unpunished. \u00a0The rest of the trip was blissfully uneventful though, if a bit painful. \u00a0I snapped a few pics of our day Friday, and even got them posted<\/a> already.<\/p>\n