My dream became reality one day when I was at Fleet Farm and came across a great deal on a raft. Maybe it was on sale at 50% off. I can't really recall, but it just seemed like a great thing to buy and to put to use.
Justin was my victim. Chris and I would do about anything, but he was too young for this venture. As I found out he was too young and I was too naive!
We took a hot summer day, fishing poles and a big lunch. My plan was to raft down the Eau Claire River from Hwy Y to the Schofield Dam. Barb was raised only a few blocks from the Schofield Dam so I knew that I could rely on my in-laws for help. Marna, my mother in law, agreed to pick us up around 5:00 pm. I figured that 8 hours was plenty of time (WRONG).
Justin took along a book to read when he wasn't fishing. We put the raft on top of the car and drove very slowly to the docking site. It was a struggle to get the raft into the water because rivers are shallow and have a current. So you have to jump in real quick along with all of your stuff - fun.
We made it into the river, but right away there was trouble. We kept rubbing on the bottom of the river! So from the bigggining I had to sit on the side. Here we are slowly going down the river and unknown to everyone but Lewis and Clark is a water falls. Right away there it was. You can't see it from the bridge, you don't see a lot from the bridge!
We hit that falls hard. Of the original 2 oars we ended up with a part of 1 oar when we got through. 20 miles to go with only a part of an oar!! Typical of Justin he had nothing to say, but I did have a feeling of just what he was thinking. Oh well we might as well make the best of it.
After the falls the river moved along pretty good. Justin had a book and did some reading and I steered us down the river - real relaxing!! Like I said there are things that you don't see from the bridges. One of them is fences going across the river. I think by now there is some law against running fences across rivers, but not then. What do you do when you are rafting down a river and there is a fence going across the river?? Stop? Nope that old currnet runs night and day. "Justin there is a fence up ahead and we need to jump out and throw the raft over the fence". Justin, "OK". (Barb would of been mad at me).
Out we jumped with the current running and us just winging it because there were no directions on the side of the raft. We grabbed the raft and threw it over the fence just in time. We swam under the fence and got back on. Fun.
Do you know that the back waters of the Eau Claire looks like ancient history? Stumps, rocks and trees all over the place. It is beautiful from the bridges. I told you about our fence experience. Well you need to do the same thing when there is a tree across the river. "Justin up front is a tree across the river, guess what"? "OK".
We were absolutely soaked, it was 9:00 pm and Marna had been waiting since 5:00 pm. Ever hear of Kluck's Tavern? Well that was the next stop. We were approaching Hwy J and I said to Justin. "I think that we better call home". We pulled off and I walked (crawled) to the phone at Kluck's. Barb answered and of coarse had called the sheriff. I mean we were only off by 10 miles and 4 hours!
I have not been brave enough yet, but some time I am gonna ask Justin if he had a good time that day.