Wet Wednesday in October 2011
I write this for the amusement of my friends but if you're spending anytime floating Alaska rivers there are a few key safety tips you might consider.
We were just returning from an incredible day of fishing in the Canyon section of the Kenai River when we got the call. A friend of ours had loaned his 16' cataraft to some friends of a friend and things had gone horribly wrong. The out-of-towners had taken a wrong turn while floating down the Upper Kenai River and had gotten the raft wrapped in a log jam and had nearly escaped death.
The great news is they all survived. The bad news is the raft is down a near impassable back channel and the out-of-towners are on their way back home. So our friend wanted to know if we could help him salvage it as we happen to be staying in Cooper Landing and had a drift boat. The raft is likely worth $2000-$3000 and although the out-of-towners had offered to pay him, he didn't want them to suffer further.
The story unfolded that the out-of-towners had been fishing the main channel of the Upper Kenai for a couple of days. The water was high, fast and unforgiving. The day before, they had seen a boat go down a back channel and thought they'd give it a try. The problem was they took the wrong back channel. Mistake #1 was not knowing your water. It's so easy to get GPS and aerial photo imagery of the Kenai it's crazy not to know it.
Catarafts will hold a lot of weight. The out-of-towners loaded it up with 5 guys and hundreds of pounds of gear. The problem is a heavily loaded raft significantly slows the oarsman's ability to react and get the boat to move. Overloading an already sluggish boat was Mistake #2.
As they came around the bend and saw the two log jams blocking the channel they had an opportunity to row to shore and stop and think their way out of the dilemma. Instead they opted to attempt to negotiate a 16' raft through a maybe 10' wide slot in between the two jams which had maybe a foot of water and less than 5% of the flow going through it.
That being mistake #3, put them broadside into the log jam crippling the boat but leaving all the people and gear on top. One guy jumped off, got to shore with a rope but had no chance of moving the raft pinned by the heavy current.
The others decided to get off the raft and onto the log jam. But evidently did so in a manner which shifted the weight causing the raft to flip and put all four into the water. Mistake #4. Three of them clung to the log jam and worked their way to shore. 1 didn't make it and was trapped under the jam by the current. He was to get his head above water for gasps of air due to him wearing a PFD but couldn't free himself from the current. It was only when his friend came from the shore was he able to break free and make it to shore hypothermic and traumatized.
So 5 wet, cold guys, having lost all their gear, guns etc., find themselves on a river bank in a channel that noone else is likely to come down with a really cold night approaching fast. Mistake #5 was instead of hiking back up the small channel to the main river which was less than a quarter mile. They choose to cut across the island through some of the most bear infested terrain in the world. Needless to say, several hours later when they emerged back at the main channel they were totally freaked out.
Along came a local fishing who rescued them and floated them to safety. Then this guy was nice enough to float back down and cut the raft out of the log jam and put it on the bank for them. A sizable job, done by a complete stranger, which reaffirmed my faith in the good in a few.
So the next day, these guys are beat up and headed home. I guess the near drowning victim was having post traumatic stress symptoms waking up freaked out, the whole deal. But my friend wants to salvage the raft.
After floating from Kenai Lake, we picked him and his gear up at the Russian River confluence. Had to stop just past the power lines river right, and catch 3 monster dollies. The longest was 28", woo hoo.
The plan was to park the drift boat at the head of the channel and hike down to the raft. So I clip the bow line on the boat and jump out and start to spin the boat. As I get it spun the line hook disengages and now the drift boat is headed backwards down the wrong channel and I'm not in it. Mistake #6 was not taking a visual inspection of my bowline hook up. My buddy was quick to get the oars back in and to shore but now we're committed to a channel that we're not sure is passable and the water is cranking through.
So we hike down to the log jams through bear central. My friend is carrying a 44 caliber Smith and Wesson in his hand as we hike. He says “I hate carrying this thing while I'm hiking”. I thought, "why are you?". Usually a holster is in order.
A few minutes later we're crossing the first log jam. My friend with the pistol takes the high road. I hate balancing across logs so I took a lower path. I look up and my friend goes down! He falls 3 or 4 feet into some gnarly dead trees. I hollered at him to no avail and suddenly had the image of punctured organs and medivac helicopters. By the time I get over to him, he's slowly getting back to his feet. He looks at me and says "that was a $10,000 fall". Unsure I'm guessing knee or hip injury. As he fell, he hit himself in the face with the pistol and broke his $10,000 dental bridge. Mistake #7 was taking the high road across logs with a loaded pistol in your hand.
Spitting out pieces of his dental work, we make it across both log jams to the raft. A black bear had made a bed about 5 feet behind the raft and we had to chase him off. They had lost an oar and some straps but overall repairable. At which point a plan was devised to get the raft across the stream and through a narrow slot between the jams.
We hiked the rest of the channel to make sure we could get the boats out and it was fairly clear with a few treacherous sweepers at the end. A sweeper is a tree hanging low over the river that will sweep everything and everyone out of boat if it goes under.
I brought the drift boat down on the same side as the raft and got them both upstream 10 yards. Then we got one guy in the boat and one across the stream. I tied a long line to the bow and to my waist (that part I wasn't so sure about). Then swung the boat out into the current feeding it line. When it was at the furthest swing my cowboy buddy shot a rope from the boat to the guy on the other side. Once he had it, I released and he swung the boat into the small slot and though the jam. It worked fairly well with the exception of a few missed shots by the cowboy.
So within a couple of hours, we have both boats on the other side of the blockage. My friend had brought a replacement oar but it didn't have an oar lock connection. So he had tied it with some straps. I questioned its’ integrity but he thought it would be fine. That was Mistake #8. You really need to two fully operable oars to maneuver.
As he takes off I can see he's struggling with the oar but he opts not to pull over and fix it. When he gets to the final set of sweepers the oar slips down and he can't use it. Ever tried to row with one oar? It doesn't work at all. So under the sweeper he goes. It takes the raft down then pops it up on the other side. He manages to stay on but the bag he had failed to tie down, mistake #9, got swept off and went to the bottom of the channel. It contained: the 44 magnum, a satellite phone, GPS, tools, straps etc., ouch! Probably $2,000 down the river.
He managed to get the raft back to Jim's landing. As we were getting in the truck for the trek back to Anchorage he said "you know I think I'm just going to give that raft away". Mistake #10 of course was actually the first which was loaning the raft to the out-of-towners.
I thought it was memorable and educational on reflection and wanted to share it. May there be many happy safe floats in your future.
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