Step back August 1996, the Yukon College Renewable Resources students are hanging around Mayo for their annual field methods course. A dozen students and two instructors, enthusiastic about the outdoors and all the fun experience one can have.
After a good week of classes, Ted and Scott took us to the Mayo River dam, so we could float down to town in three canoes and a raft. Sounds cool doesn’t it to end a great week of outdoors classes and nurture teambuilding for the coming school year? We searched for the river’s classification, but it was nowhere to be seen. But that was not important as according to our instructors since the previous student intake had floated down it like a piece of cake. Except that this previous intake had some badass kayakers and canoeists while most of us had very little experience paddling down whitewater river.
Up to that point none of us knew there was a bit of a drop and some whitewater. I felt confident, since I had floated down the Ogilvie River with Bob Jickling that summer and had acquired a bit more skills. So off we went, six people in three canoes and the raft with the rest of the class would follow behind. Not within three minutes of paddling did the river made a very sharp turn left along a very high bank. That with some boulders further down created some major ripples and swirly water pool. Something I knew had to be avoided at all costs.
The two guys in the first canoe tipped over and their canoe went floating down the drop to the bottom of the river. The next canoe held two guys, paddling, smoking and listening to their small portable radio player while floating down. To our surprise these guys just smoothly paddled to the shore and they managed to get off right against that high bank and continue walking their canoe along the shore down river for a bit.
I was in the last canoe with a classmate. We managed to move to calm water just above the big water pool and regain our thoughts to see how in hell we would ferry over the other side above this big water pool. We hoped in, paddled, paddled paddled but of course the current was way stronger and off we went in the big pool and tipped over. The canoe went floating down, met a big boulder, folded in half and kept going while I was bobbing down the river with my white béret and yellow life jacket.
My canoe partner was on the other side of the river and the class was watching this from the raft just below us. The raft had the radio guys’ canoe in and pretty well all the class students and instructors. My partner and I managed to get in the raft. This Noah’s arch floated down until we reached the first canoe that had tipped over. Now the raft had two canoes on it. We kept going and reached our canoe. It needed a bit of TLC, so out went duck tape to do the job, enough to paddle it in the quiet part of the river to the boat launch.
Were there some lessons learned would you say? You bet. Like maybe make sure you have the skills and knowledge of a river before you hop in! Like taking some of Bob’s course might have been a good idea! 😉
