Huntsville Canoe Club members began arriving at Ft. Toulouse Friday afternoon. Annora Day being the first to arrive reserved the best campsites in the campground; this proved to be unnecessary since we were about the only campers there. There was plenty of firewood stacked up, and with the first cool nights of late summer made for great camping. By late evening all had arrived. Brenda and I, Steve and Evon, Lewis and his two boys Rutland and Temple, Richard and Nancy, Si and Moonyen had dropped by earlier, but they had planned to stay the night with her brother who lives in the area. Ron Thomas drove down Saturday morning, missing the Wetumpke exit he went all the way to Montgomery making him run a little late. “It could happen to anyone, Ron”. Si brought his brother-in-law and nephew along bringing the total number of paddlers to fourteen.
At the put in we watched in dismay as a group of about thirty developmentally
challenged kids between the ages of twelve and sixteen received their crash
course in running whitewater. With helmets cinched down and paddles in
hand, the down river command was given, it was total chaos, reminding me
of a scene in a old movie I once saw of the Oklahoma land rush, canoes
were turning over, people falling out, kids going in every direction. I
bet those three trip leaders were asking themselves, what have we gotten
ourselves into? When we returned from doing our shuttle everyone had cleared
out, but toward the end of the run we found evidence of them passing by
a broached canoe wrapped around a rock. The difficulty of the river that
day was about class II + at Moccasin Gap, the hardest rapid on the river.
The rest of the river consisted of long pools, shoals, and some very squirrelly
eddies, nevertheless in my opinion this was too much river for those kids.
We stopped for lunch on the rock island, at Moccasin Gap, a good place
to scout the rapid and watch the play boater. Ron studying the rapid very
carefully, seemed to be somewhat intimidated by this rapid, and had just
about decided not to run his beautiful Prospector through, Annora, Ron’s
tandem partner was really getting excited watching all the action. She
asks Brenda if she would run through with her, and Ron not to be outdone
asks me if I would run with him. All went well and we had a good run. Lewis
and his tow boys ran first, hitting the big curler at the bottom and becoming
airborne, Rutland leaned out to brace, grabbing nothing but air, they capsized.
Brenda and Annora got a chance to practice their rescue skills, although
the boys would rather have kept on swimming. Si led the rest of our group
down river right, We made one more river rescue, a lady and her two kids,
that had no idea of what to do. This is a deep wide river with very few
places to self rescue, I’m sure they were glad we happened by. Richard
and Nancy approaching a rapid that was blocked by a raft, were unable to
maneuver around, hitting the raft and knocking it loose they capsized,
luckily they were able to self rescue. When we passed Moccasin Gap, Evon
seemed to be relieved when I told her the worst part was behind us. Although
I did not hear Steve myself, Evon and Steve becomes very vocal when he
gets excited. I thought they looked very good that day.
That night we were sitting around the campfire and Steve asks Evon if
she would rub his back. Evons reply! “You should have thought of that before
we went through that first rapid.” A quote worth remembering. We finished
out the evening back at the campground sitting under oak trees draped with
Spanish Moss, eating Gumbo, crawfish and drinking our favorite beverage.
Great trip, see you next time!