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Missing canoe!

A

Alan Gage

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Went for a paddle tonight and took out at the swinging bridge in town. Then it's just a short 2 block walk to my friend's house to get a ride back to the car. But when I get to his house dinner had just came off the grill and the baby was hungry. 1 1/2 hours later I finally get my ride and when I get back to the swinging bridge my canoe isn't there. Hmmm, did that pickup truck that was parked in the lot take it or did I not pull it as far up on shore as I thought?

Canoe wasn't floating around in the eddy. Already dark but I grabbed a flashlight and walked the bank for about about 3/8 mile until it wasn't walkable anymore. River is running high and there's nothing along that stretch to stop it anyway. Stopped by the cop shop to report an AWOL canoe in case they hear of something. Resisted the urge to grab another canoe and check farther downstream where I know there are more trees in the water but I talked myself down and will head out when it's daylight instead.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Jim, keep your eye out for Bloodvein 2.0 in case it comes floating by your shop! ;)

Alan
 
Sure hope it turns up. For some reason, people seem to assume that a canoe parked on the river bank or lake shore is abandoned and up for grabs. We had an incident here a few years ago where a paddler left his canoe beached on the far side of a lake to do some hiking. A couple of guys came along in a stinkpot while he was hiking and decided it would be smart to tow the canoe back with them. I can't remember the details of how it all went down now, but eventually the canoe and it's owner were reunited - and the motorboaters had some 'splainin' to do. Hope it turns out that well for you Alan!
 
No WAY !

Call if I can help !
You are probably already out by now.

Dam at Rutland will chew it up if it gets this far.
Call !!!
 
Put it out on facebook, and I'll share.

I'll go up to Rutland and talk to the camp host there also.
 
Thanks for the well wishes, they must have done the trick. Went out early this morning and found the canoe about 1/2 mile downstream of where I lost it. Must have partially tipped as it's about 1/4 full of water but at least right side up and not wrapped around a log. Everything was inside except for the paddles and the water jug that acts as Sadie's ballast. Kept paddling and found one of the paddles another 1/4 mile downstream. Kept going another mile but never did find the other one.

I tied off the canoe and will go back after work with a friend to paddle it back and hopefully find the other paddle.

Sure feel stupid about it slipping back into the water but relieved to have found it.

SaganagaJoe said:
You seem pretty relaxed! Hope it all ends well.
Click to expand...

It takes quite a bit to get me worked up. No point in getting too worried as whatever happened happened and if I find it I find it and if I don't I don't. I have very little control over the whole thing. Thankfully I was able to exercise what little control I did have (searching downstream) and came up with a canoe!

So you can forget about the canoe, Jim, but keep your eye out for a 50" Zav floating by.

Alan
 
Good news about the canoe !

I believe you'll find the Zavs on a snag. You may have to come all the way down here !

Jim
 
Alan Gage said:
So you can forget about the canoe, Jim, but keep your eye out for a 50" Zav floating by.

Alan
Click to expand...

Finders, Keepers!

The only carbon paddle we have was found in an eddy amongst much wood flotsam. We advertised it on MyCCR for 6 months before keeping it.
 
So the plan to get the canoe after work got changed a little when I went do deliver a car late this morning and saw very dark skies to the west. Called my only local friend who I think would be able to handle paddling the canoe back upstream and he was busy. So I grabbed my dad's grandson Evan, who is helping at the shop today, to see if we could access it from shore. We got lucky and found a trail from the local shore-fishing hot spot that ran off and on for a few hundred yards down the river to where the canoe was tied up in the water. Got it hauled out, the water dumped, and loaded up on the car. Looks pretty good having Bloodvein 1.0 (what I paddled this morning) and 2.0 on the racks side by side.

It was really nice waking up early this morning and paddling for a little over an hour before work. Makes me think I should do that more often but I get the feeling it's not gonna happen.

Alan
 
Alan Gage said:
1 1/2 hours later I finally get my ride and when I get back to the swinging bridge my canoe isn't there. Hmmm, did that pickup truck that was parked in the lot take it or did I not pull it as far up on shore as I thought?
Click to expand...

Alan, not to let my unattended canoe paranoia show through, but do you think the canoe somehow slipped into the water by itself?

I recall a similar Conk story about a canoe that “escaped” from a landing while he walked a block into town for lunch. In both cases, knowing the paddlers involved, I doubt the canoe was left half floating in the river, and my assumption is that some cretin pushed the boat into the water for sick funsies.

Hey Conk, that was a great story; spotting the boat floating downriver, hurtling through riverside back yards in chase, a police encounter, etc.

Please post that tale if you still have it. I won’t give away the eventual rescue methodology.
 
Mike McCrea said:
Alan, not to let my unattended canoe paranoia show through, but do you think the canoe somehow slipped into the water by itself?
Click to expand...

Not to let my nearly complete faith in humanity show through but, yes, I like to think that's the case. If I allowed myself to think otherwise my world would come crashing down around my ears.

In my recollection the canoe was pulled 3/4 of the way out of the water on far from smooth concrete (let's just dump the last of the load here). The stern was in the water and out of the current. There wasn't a breath of wind blowing. I felt ok with the placement of the canoe but something must have bugged me a little because a couple times as I was walking away I glanced over my shoulder.

What was bugging me was the angle of the canoe and the 15 pound water bag in the stern. The surface it was resting on wasn't flat so there probably wasn't a lot of surface area contact with the bottom of the hull. But in less than 5 minutes we'd be driving by in my friend's car and I could glance at it as we drove by and in less than 20 minutes I'd be loading it on my car. There's no wind or current to disturb its resting position so I'm sure it will be fine.

I was also slightly concerned about the two vehicles in the nearly always empty parking area with out of state plates. The driver's were talking to each other through the windows.

Of course that less than 20 minutes turned into 1 1/2 hours and as I got out of my car and started walking to the shoreline in the near dark I kept thinking I should see my canoe by now. I was very puzzled to find it gone. First instinct was to look on shore and see if someone had drug it all the way up out of the water. It wasn't swirling around in the eddy and even though I knew there were no trees along shore in that section I walked a ways downstream just to make sure. Figured if someone had stolen the canoe they would have dragged it out by the bow but there were no grooves in the mud from the dragging stern.

This morning when I found it it was next to shore above a downed tree and out of the current. Missing were the water bag, and 2 Zav paddles. Sadie's foam pads and my PFD were still in the boat, along with about 10 gallons of water. The bow rope was pulled out of the bungees but all of the rope was laying in the bottom of the hull. The thought occurred to me that maybe someone pulled it out of the water (by the rope), grabbed the paddles, and shoved it back in. But when I found one of the paddles hung up on a snag 1/4 mile farther downstream I dismissed that. I think the rope being loose was simply because it snagged on a tree.

As much as part of me would like to say there's no way the canoe could have slipped back into the water on its own I've seen enough impossibilities become possible that I don't take anything for granted. We're no slouches and more than once at our auto repair shop we've seen things happen where 1 week earlier we would have sworn under oath in a court that such and such could never happen.

Alan
 
I'm so glad you found your canoe. I hate having to leave anything behind like that, but I understand your rational. I also was thinking maybe someone helped it into the water.
Jim
 
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