Canoeing-Camping in Big Bend: The Flip

            As mentioned in my previous post, the wind on Day Two of our canoeing trip was treacherous and greatly impacted out transportation speed. The current on the river is moderate if you can catch it, but staying with it is the hard part. There are many bends in the river (hence, Big Bend) and if you stick with the current it often leads you towards rocks or the bank. On the topic of rocks, there are small rapids dispersed intermittently throughout the river. The most trouble we had with them was when our canoe bottomed out on the rocky river bed, that is, until “the flip.”

            Before we began our four-day trek, Cameron had mentioned that we would canoe through a Class 2 rapid on the last day. I realize now that Class 2 doesn’t sound very intimidating but it still requires some skill and planning to make sure not to flip the canoe. Therefore, I figured the rapids we’d encounter on the first three days would be a breeze…wrong. The river had risen since the last TCU group had canoed our same route. When the river rises it changes the landscape of the rapids. Some rapids become more prevalent while others fade to irrelevance.

            As we neared the end of a long second day, my canoe came upon a fork in the river created by a large boulder situated in the center of the water. After the fork, the water funneled into a second boulder on the right side and a third boulder, also on the right side.  On the left side were much smaller rocks surrounded by shallow to no water. It was going to be a lot of teamwork to conquer this unexpected rapid.

As the person steering, I chose to veer left at the fork. Looking back, it was the wrong decision. After clearing the first boulder, the river unapologetically shoved the side of our canoe into the next boulder. No matter how hard I paddled or steered, there was no escaping this forceful current. So as we hit the boulder, our canoe tipped over and my partner and I took a dip into the cool river. Thankfully we had life jackets on so I was never afraid of drowning but I had no idea if there were dangerous rocks below or in front of us. I just kept my legs in front of me, held onto the canoe, and hoped for the best.

I looked back behind us only to see the next two canoes flip, too. The fourth canoe, while it didn’t tip, filled with rushing water. We were 4-for-4 on water-logged boats. We were able to rescue all of the canoes and have everyone safely on a bank. Since everything was strapped in, the only thing we lost was our warmth and the functionality of Cameron’s cell phone—R.I.P.

It was getting late and we still had ground to cover. In order to continue back on the river, we had to quickly empty all of the contents of our canoes, dump/pump out the water, then repack and tie our boxes and bags.

It was good for us all to experience what we now refer to as “The Flip.” It allowed us to be more prepared for the Class 2 rapid because we’d already experienced a worst case scenario.  We were all a bit shaken, physically and emotionally, after it happened. For some reason, we couldn’t stop laughing, we were all slap-happy. It was like a coping mechanism. Everything was funny. It is definitely a favorite memory of the trip.