The Etowah River-April 1, 2017

What an amazing day for a new adventure and a new story! As I always tell the kids, if something doesn’t go a little wrong, the story isn’t nearly as interesting! We loaded up the canoe and the kayaks the kids got for Christmas to take them on their first run down a river. We had tried them on a lake and they loved it! We unloaded at Grizzard Park to hit a relatively short section of the Etowah! The kids were all amazing and Abby, especially, was a natural! They zipped back and forth and even back up river when they needed to! We saw tons of turtles everywhere, some heron and other birds and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. The kids loved the small rapids on this stretch which are easy, but a good test for them.
The first stretch was fun and everything went well. We took a snack break on a rocky bank after the first hour and then headed back out! That’s when things got interesting! As we headed over some rapids, Elisha and Seth were in the rear! We heard Seth call out that Elisha had been dumped off his kayak! They had all already gotten in the water and then gotten back on the kayaks, so we didn’t think anything about it! We had a little laugh and called for him to get back on and catch up! We were in a fairly fast moving section and we were a couple hundred yards ahead. As we looked back, Elisha was standing in the water by his kayak and not moving! We turned and started back up, but for our canoe, the current was strong! We told Abby and Seth to see if they could go back to him! Abby zipped up and over the rapids and right too him, but of course, he wouldn’t listen to her! We got close enough to hear him say he couldn’t stay on the boat! I called out for him to just jump in and float down to us! He just stood there! I think he was just paralyzed!
After what seemed like forever, he finally floated down to us and I could tell his boat was full of water. I was afraid it had a crack and leaked, but I figured if we could get it out of the water we could drain it and move on! Well, that was easier said than done! The first try, we ended up in a tangle of fallen trees hiding under water. The second try, we nearly turned over the canoe! Finally, we got Abby in the canoe and gave Elisha her boat! We had Abby hold the kayak while we paddled down river to find a bank to pull up on! That took a long while and as we headed down, maneuvering the canoe with Abby and the kayak was very difficult! I told Phyllis there was a tree up ahead and to go around and she did! At least her part of the canoe! My part got stuck on the tree and nearly dumped us all! Of course, I expressed my concern in a calm, cool voice and with no profanity involved (At least that is how I choose to remember it!) as I saw us slowly almost dip in the water, but we finally came off the tree and kept going!
The boys made it to a rocky bank and pulled over and as we were heading their way, I told Phyllis I guess there is a crack in the kayak because it was full of water! At that point, Abby says “Did you make sure the plug was in the front of the boat?????” PLUG!!! What plug??? Phyllis and I both looked at each other, and I slowly asked Abby, what do you mean! She said, “Seth and I saw a plug in the front of the boat and we made sure it was plugged in!” I looked at her like horns had popped up on her head! “You mean there’s a plug?” Yep, she says! I’ll bet it lets water in! Now, STUPID does not begin to explain how I felt! I had looked at those kayaks a dozen times and never seen a plug! I just thought they were water tight and sealed! But NO!!! Attached to the handle in the front is a small plug for a whole in the front of the boat! Now, why that hole is there, I just don’t know! If the boat were cracked, I don’t think it would help, and for what other reason would I need a hole in my boat?
Once we drained about 30 gallons of water out of Elisha’s kayak (AND PUT THE PLUG BACK IN!!!) it worked amazingly well! We all had a good laugh and I apologized to Phyllis for the profane words I had NOT used! We then headed back out again with all boats afloat and empty of water! Abby even managed to stand several times and use the boat like a paddle board!
Our last encounter was with a beautiful blue heron! The kids got within about 5 yards of the heron several times as it moved ahead of us! They had a blast watching it! It followed us almost all the way to the boat ramp at Heritage Park!
It was an amazing day and we all had a great time, even with one ship almost going down! The kids are naturals, although surprisingly, Elisha is the least comfortable! And of course, it was his boat with the problem! But he recovered well and they can’t wait to go back! This time, we will double check all of the PLUGS!!!!! (At least we didn’t carry it back to Walmart and complain about the boat leaking! I think they would have thought we had lost our minds when they poked the plug back in!!!)