My older brother Andrew invited Collin and me to go white-water canoe/kayaking on the Big Pine when it was at 5 feet flood stage yesterday. The Big Pine is up near Lafayette where Andrew is still a graduate student in Engineering, and it has some of the best whitewater in the state. That might not be saying much considering it is still Indiana, but it had some pretty sweet waves when we went up.
We met up with Andrew and his friend Caleb and first checked out the water levels. Annie enjoyed splashing in the water while the guys got all excited watching some kayakers surf the waves.
Then we dropped the guys and their boats off upstream, and Annie and I settled on a picnic rock just below the first set of rapids to take pictures. Annie had a great time pulling up roots and wading in the water.
When we did finally see Collin, it wasn't exactly a pretty sight. Some of the waves were five feet tall, and a couple of those swamped and finally flipped the canoe. Fortunately, Collin, Caleb, the boat, and all their gear made it safely to shore. The only causalities were a bump, a scrape, and a couple bruises between them. Well, that and a lost shoe, but it turned up downstream.
Right below the rapids there was a quiet eddy where the guys could dump out the water and re-group. Here they're talking with a raft full of Purdue Outdoors Club guys (who Andrew knows), and comparing notes on the rapids.
Annie and Collin check out the downstream section during a break.
Collin and Caleb did a lot better on the second set of rapids. They went through them and over this drop perfectly.
This was as close to canoeing as Annie got that day. Hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to take her out on a quiet lake and see what she thinks about boating.
After the second set of rapids Andrew volunteered to hang out with Annie so that I could do the last (quieter) stretch of paddling with Collin in the canoe. We went through plenty of 1-2 foot waves and I got really soaked up in the bow, but we didn't take on too much water and never swamped.
It was dusk we finally reached the take-out point, and we were happy to pull out our picnic dinner and head home. Since we didn't reach home until close to midnight, we all went to bed without showering. Unfortunately, the result was that Annie, Andrew and I all got poison ivy to varying degrees. The moral of the story? It's never too late to shower. And canoeing through whitewater is pretty sweet.
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