boating at high water

[oldmanriver]

Last week week we had an incident while taking off the upper Saint at the millstream put in. The river was 7 feet over the old D bridge. We were pulling into the lower put in and tree branches were hanging in the river and trees were in the river. We had one kayak come in on top of another as they were ferrying to get to shore. Both kayaks went into a tree with a log stuck on it and pinned. both kayakers swam and one kayak washed down river. I think there are lessons to be learned. First one should go look at the take out so you know what it looks like and if you can make the moves needed to get off the river. Second remember when the river is moving fast what seems like adequate spacing shortens when you go into an eddy or slower moving water so make sure to leave adequate spacing. Third although we tend to focus on the Holes and waves in the middle of the river the trees on the side of the river represent a real danger and greatly limit where one can get to shore. hopefully this helps other not have a similar experience. The hardest lessons to learn are those that come from others expieriences rather than our own.

[Kathleen Pszonka]

The highest I’ve ever boated the upper was 37”. I get out at Fisherman’s, because I don’t have to worry about getting swept down, trying to catch that take out at Millstream. Perhaps that could be an option.

[oldmanriver]

Both fishermans and Hollywood beach(there was no beach) were in the trees with significant current. There were
5 boaters getting off the river. I think we should have looked at the take out no matter which we had chosen. I had been down the river the day before and we had stopped at the millstream “putin” without problem(however I had looked at it before we ran the upper and knew what it was like at that level). I made the mistake of not having the others that were with us on Friday going down and looking at what would be their takeout. We could have looked at the other potential takeouts. None were simple options. I still believe that if the spacing of boats had been different that the outcome would have been different.

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