Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Another Raft Trip Gone Wrong

Your reading comprehension skills are a bit weak!

I think Art a bit long in the tooth. He has seen better days if that helps. I will bet back in the 60's and 70's Art tore it up. I should show more respect to our elders so I apologies Art.

Please take your meds sir...We cannot afford to loose someone with all your experience.

And still no answer...

Says the Quaalude-i-Dude.... ....and it ain’t like you just missed a couple details in your ‘texting’ recently........wow!

(Try stick with the two or three letter answer options your were given. Hint: one is “yes”, the other, “no”. )

TheKid;
Good evening to you sir, hopefully this finds you well.

I've read the thread through now and felt that you deserved a sincere tip of the hat for knowing your personal limitations and not tempting fate in order to prove something.

Like you, I find water "cold and drowny" and while I don't mind canoeing on still, small water I'm always wearing a good PFD. As I told a cousin of mine once, "I ride a rough horse better than a smooth boat any day"

Our eldest daughter is a wee bit of an adventuresome soul and one year she talked our family into going whitewater rafting on the Clearwater here in BC.

We do have a pretty regulated system up here as to who can guide, etc and there was an excellent guide in every boat who first clearly communicated what was going to happen and what we had to do when told to.

It was only a couple hours too - so no surprises with changing water levels.

All that taken into account, I'd fully agree with your assessment of feeling completely out of control.

We didn't lose anyone out of our raft, but another raft actually had a chap bounce out - he was okay but a tad shaken up when they fished him out.

Anyway my heart goes out to the families of the folks who died for sure.

If it's all the same though, I'll just hike in and out anymore....

All the best to you folks this summer sir and thanks again for the honest post.

Dwayne

Is Walt a teacher?

I don't know who made the least responsible decision, the outfitters or the septegenerian rafters. What a tragedy. Once whitewater started becoming painful....

Those who can't, teach...

They were only 67 and 69, so not quite septuagenarians.

sexagenarians

Amazing the lengths people will go to get away from you.

Not really, he's an azzhole!

You guys are way too wrapped up in this.... Lighten up.

Decisions matter... bad more than good. Or vice-versa..

Sometimes there is a fine line between a miscalculation and a bad decision. They do tend to pile up, however...

That's how I got Sneer- my 18 foot flat-bottom. It wasn't exactly flat when we welded it back up, so the right front corner has a lift to it. It still floats tho, mostly, and the recently installed cheap bilge pump with manual toggle switch, works really great (leaky rivets, mostly. I think...)

Anyway, way it happened is I decided to shore at a backwater just upstream of a railroad trestle, on a 90 degree rock-wall turn and line it through. Should have chosen the lee side, as I mis-judged the force of the current, missed the backwater, and went head on into the rock rip-rap wall. It ain't easy to strain an 18 foot boat through a 12 foot trestle support span sideways, but we managed. Pinned in the boat as it hung up/went under by the 1" thick-wall lift pipe handle, I bent it getting out. Seemed not all that difficult at the time.

The Lab retrieved the handiest? piece of flotsam gear as we floated free, and took it ashore. It was the lunch, so he ate it. Survival situation, don'tcha know?

That was his story, anyway.

Not all employed by the educational system and/or school district are capable of "teaching".

I hope you taught math. You need to not get so worked up because your grammar is bleeding. Many of us on this forum have spent a lot of time on the water. I learned to work oars as a guide under Jerry Jacques for Denali Raft Adventures and spent many, many hours guiding clients who were older and inexperienced. I would never let a paddle crew out of my sight. I quickly became the office manager (They didn't trust anybody else with the money) and would work between the owners. I advised one of the owners(Jim) not to hire a manish female with a flattop. She just wasn't up to the experience or skill level taking a load of tourists through the lower canyon of the Nenana River(class IV). I ended up having to make the calls to the family of a 58 year old woman who drowned when she got bounced out of raft on boxcar when the guide took the wrong line. Its not nice. I also had to fire the guide for a series of safety problems in her guiding that followed the accident. I have had some bad experiences with rivers and know that things can get messed up quickly. It is simply inexcusable for most of us to test fate in that fashion especially with other peoples lives.

So, is it safe to say, based on your experience you would not put two inexperienced female sexagenarians (specifically 67 and 69 years old) together in an inflatable canoe in Class III water knowing the river was running high?

I would not let the clients travel down the river without a guide in the boat. The guides should lose their concessionaire's license from ANWR and their business license from the state.

I agree there should absolutely been a guide in every boat. I will back off the penalty part as circumstances weigh heavily there. Criminal through civil potentials are real IMO.