I wish I had thought about the tide before we headed down the creek moose hunting. My buddy n BIL n me had the idea of tying our 2 coleman canoes stern to bow like a train. One person in front middle n back. Probably Worked better because we were having record breaking rain falls n the creek didn't have many turns n all the beaver dams were ripped out. We got to our camp site in record time. Thinking we were really bad arses. This camp was in my favorite honey hole. After setting camp I grabbed my mode70 n set up over the ridge behind camp. Didn't get but a couple hundred yards n was blessed to harvest a nice bull moose. And packing was all down hill. Not even a big slope we had meat on the pole that evening.
We loaded up. Oohhh boy. We had near 2" of free board and stacked a foot high. Things got bad fast. We were headed towards a sharp turn that was blocked by a birch tree that had slid down a landslide blocking the white water boiling creek. I'm in front n hollered get to the bank. We somehow got to the bank just before the tree swamped us.
. My bil in the back grabbed a willow branch hanging over the water and the canoe with his feet. Buddy in back of me bails right I go port to balance, probably. I'm in bad shape. I have hip waders on under my helly Hanson slickers and they are now full of water. Good thing I'm tangled up in the birch tree. I had grabbed the bow line and was able to pull myself up for a quick breath and long enough to see my tackle box n anything not tied in floating down the creek. Then down. I must have been able to get my feet into some limbs n climb out, can't remember that part. The canoes sank upright. We unloaded them n were able to get them rolled up on to the bank. We made it out to the road. I hitched a ride down to the local bar n called home for a ride. We got my near hypothermia bil into our water bed he was close.
Getting everything out is another story.
I didn't think about checking the tide. We were on a creek that dumps into the Pacific ocean during a 28' tideal change and less than a mile from the ocean during record breaking rail fall. What a ride
We loaded up. Oohhh boy. We had near 2" of free board and stacked a foot high. Things got bad fast. We were headed towards a sharp turn that was blocked by a birch tree that had slid down a landslide blocking the white water boiling creek. I'm in front n hollered get to the bank. We somehow got to the bank just before the tree swamped us.
. My bil in the back grabbed a willow branch hanging over the water and the canoe with his feet. Buddy in back of me bails right I go port to balance, probably. I'm in bad shape. I have hip waders on under my helly Hanson slickers and they are now full of water. Good thing I'm tangled up in the birch tree. I had grabbed the bow line and was able to pull myself up for a quick breath and long enough to see my tackle box n anything not tied in floating down the creek. Then down. I must have been able to get my feet into some limbs n climb out, can't remember that part. The canoes sank upright. We unloaded them n were able to get them rolled up on to the bank. We made it out to the road. I hitched a ride down to the local bar n called home for a ride. We got my near hypothermia bil into our water bed he was close.
Getting everything out is another story.
I didn't think about checking the tide. We were on a creek that dumps into the Pacific ocean during a 28' tideal change and less than a mile from the ocean during record breaking rail fall. What a ride
