"Adventure is at Hand" Final Chapter

Book One: "Adventure is at Hand: June 29-July 1, 2012"
Final Chapter
The Struggle

Our only other option is to continue the 14-16 miles of shallow waters and with minimal food left. We talk to the owner of the grounds. He suggested we head up river about a mile and there is a nice camp area on the right. Once we arrive at this clearing on the right of the river, John and I immediately start to set up our camp. He sets up his tent and I set up my hammock sleep system in full force. The rain fly, bug net, lights, and the hammock of course. Tonight is going to be great. We get the fire going and take a nice hour or so of relaxation in the river swimming and sitting. I am feeling itchy, maybe a rash from the river water, my wilderness soap doesn’t seem to help since I am washing in the same water that probably gave it to me. I am a little miserable though.

 The fire has died at this point and it is hard to keep lit due to the wet leaves and wood around, we get all the dry kindling we see. The last of our food is some corn chips and cheese which is melted on top using the fire. We quench our thirst with filtered water from the river and get into our shelters. My air pad keeps the chill of the night off my back and a more comfortable sleep in the hammock. A good night’s rest is ahead.

Waking up to the sound of Blue Heron mating calls is not very pleasant, especially when it goes on forever and ever when you’re dead tired.  We slowly get up and out of our sleeping bags and out into the morning sun. It’s a slow start and hopefully our last day out here, since we are now without food and I have a vacation to get to and a Beach Boys concert I am not missing.

The day goes on and on and on. Our bodies are dehydrated and lacking energy. The calories burned off are not being replaced and it takes all we have to push forward. There are some nice rapids along the way, a lot of still deep water and a lot of shallow water too. The still water seems like we are going backwards and the shallow kills us even more. Scooting, dragging the kayak, whatever to get it going. We both almost flipped at different points due to frustration and weakness.

The water rushes in, the weight pulls me down into the rushing water. I get out of my craft and hold on to it. I guide it onto a nearby rock and start to empty it. John helps catch some of the items that have floated out. I want to give up, but I fight my deprived body and push on. We get a little rest and paddle on yet again, never ending.

The water is calm for a while and in the distance you can hear more rapids coming up. All of a sudden a momma deer and her fawn cross the water, heron fly above, the sky is beautiful and it is like a scene from a Nat Geo calendar. This was the push we needed. God gave us that assurance then and there that everything will be just fine.

We begin to see life again. People fishing, swimming, and canoeing. We ask them where we were and for some reason, none of them knew. It was like bizarro world. My back begins to hurt, the discs slowly slipping out again, this could be the beginning of the end. I struggle through the pain. One person says we are about a mile or so from the end. Calories depleted, starving almost we are thirsty for that finish line. But it doesn’t come. What is going on!? Where is the end? Another person says about a mile. Hold on, the last person said about a mile. So we paddle some more and some more. Still no landing.

Then it came. At first it was disbelief, we can’t be here, is this it. Delusional, I question if this is the right spot, even though I have been here tons of times with Joe. Sure enough it is. We glide up to the landing and look up to the steep incline of the launch site and dread what is to come, but this is the end.

The boats gather more battle scars on their bellies as we drag them up the launch. We reach pavement and literally crash right there. People are having to step over us but we apologize and explain what we just went through. John calls his dad and I pass out. I am awakened with two ice cold Gatorades on my sweaty chest and thank God for this blessing. A fellow adventurer spared four drinks for John and I to get a pick me up. Finally our ride arrives but we are not home yet. We have to go get the Jeep at our original finish line and then pack that.

After the Jeep is packed, we rush to Five Guys and get a huge burger and have a feast fit for a king, at least it was to us. Nothing has tasted so good. Yet again, the trip is far from over. Another 35 minute drive back to the starting point to get the Silverado, I have been worried about that the whole time too in that storm because it was parked under trees, but only a limb invades the bed of the truck. Dad will be glad it’s safe. John and I part ways and I head the hour back to my house where I can finally get that shower and packed for the beach trip. Upon my return, I get a closer and clearer headed look at my body and discover that what I thought was a miserable rash turned out to be the most uncomfortable month of my life with head to toe poison ivy. I ended up having to take steroids for 3 weeks to help the healing, along with calamine lotion. Nothing helped the itch and discomfort except for sleep.

Thank God we both made it home safely and for a great adventure with many stories to tell, with more stories to come in the future. 

"Adventure is at Hand" Chapter 3

Book One: “Adventure is at Hand: June 29-July 1, 2012”

Chapter 3

Attack

I’m jolted. My nervous system is in shock and I don’t knowif it is pain or paralysis. I feel the fangs set into my skull and the warmblood that was once inside run into my mouth. The grunts of a bear are the lastsounds I am going to hear, John’s asleep and I can’t scream. Forgive me…

Scared, I let out a cry of distress and awake to sunshineand crow calls. My nightmare disrupts John’s sleep too. We get up semi-restedand emerge from the woods using our rope to keep from falling down the mudslide.Surveying the area with a clear sky brings our spirits up to know that we madeit through what we later learned was one of the biggest storms to hit Virginia.Killed seven and millions were without power. 

You can tell it stormed. Leaves and limbs everywhere, thesmell. My KSOs and John’s tent peg are on the island. Can’t believe they didn’tget washed away, but I am thankful that my shoes are back with me. He provides.

Tearing down the camp doesn’t take too long. We layeverything out on the small island and take an inventory of what we have.Everything seems to be in order, some things are wet but our dry bags keepeverything else bone dry. We lay the tent out to dry as we clean the mud off ofus and our gear and get breakfast going. John, the chef, cooks up a protein filledmeal of scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. I heat up some of my Samurai Chaitea, so good.

The tent is dry enough to pack up and we start fresh with aneatly organized convoy of kayaks. We shove off leaving our worries behind andstart our second and final day out here. The water is still low even after allthe rain. Not too far down, we begin to see massive trees that have fallen intothe river. I imagine if I had continued farther like I had suggested in oursearch for our campsite, God led us directly where he wanted us to be. Anyfarther up or down the river we could have been crushed. In awe we look on the surrealnature of the fallen timber as we paddle.

11 miles of grueling heat, shallow tides, rocks, draggingboats, pumping water, and exhaustion behind us now and we approach the RappahannockRiver Campground. Here we dock our kayaks and unload a 2 serving meal pack toeat. Chicken and Potatoes. There are a few campers here and John goes to thecamp store to get information as I cook our meal. Much needed after munching ona granola the whole day. I eat my portion and John returns and eats his.

Power is off here at the campground and John’s dad is on theway to pick us up. We are tired and over estimated how far the trip was becausewe still are 14-16 miles away from where we wanted to end up. Time passes by asI relax in the water watching the little campers play. John is on the phonewith his father directing him to the campground until we get the news that hecan’t come and get us. All the roads are blocked off due to downed power linesand the only other way would be a 3 hour drive around it all. We are trappedhere.

“Adventure is at Hand” Chapter 2

Book One: “Adventure is at Hand: June 29-July 1, 2012”Chapter 2Hellstorm

No time to waste, with our headlamps on and kayaks in tow we rush towards the river bank. The wind barrels in over the river like a compressor pushing the rain like sheets in front of us. The light reflects back at us and our eyes can’t focus. The quick strobes of lightning illuminate the sky for us to see but the reality of the storm finds us huddled under a cove of falling trees and roots. We are screaming just to hear each other over the thunder, wind and pelting rain. It’s at times like these you realize that God is bigger and stronger than you, but you can rely on Him to see you through it. We pray, pray hard. Protection and guidance.

I reach for my phone to see if there is any signal to get a call out. Two bars and 4G, there are a lot of housing developments around the area and we aren’t far from VA 3 either.  My parents and Addison are the ones I call, John calls his parents. They can barely hear over the storm and confusion but we assure them we will be alright and will see them soon. We contemplate a rescue call. Seeing the helicopter swooping in over the river to save us seems a bit extreme but awesome at the same time. I have never been in an aircraft before, don’ t know if I ever will. It’s not the technology that scares me, it’s my lack of trust in the pilot. I get nervous in public transportation as well. We don’t call for a rescue, we are toughing this out and taking on this wilderness survival experience. Plus, we would have had to sacrifice thousands of dollars in gear as well, over my dead body.

All jokes aside, that was the cold heart truth of the situation. This is dangerous and a matter of life or death. We can’t sit idle on this bank; we are too exposed and too vulnerable. I put on my sandals that were under my kayak seat, they are easier than putting the KSOs on with mud all over my feet. And then remembering, I rush out to the sandy island, our rope was still tied to a make shift dock. You never know when you might need a rope, except this time. I knew exactly when how I was going to use the rope, I am not going to lose this. I then grab the machete off my kayak and brave the storm looking for an entrance into the woods. Not too far back up river I spot a flat spot and a gully and I hack up the slope, sliding down and sinking into mud and muck.

Briars, briars and more briars. Taking my shirt off at the start of this trip has turned out to be a bad idea as my skin is stinging and scraped up. I’m on the flat and find a good spot to run my rain fly and set up our hammocks under. I descend back to John and we move up to our camp site.

Dragging the boats up the hill is a hassle in the muck. John throws me the rope and I haul the boats up as he pushes. The storm dies down and hopefully for good. We gather ourselves and decide our next plan of action. Build a shelter before the next wave of the storm comes and then eat something. It’s pushing one o’clock and my adrenaline is keeping me going, I’ve been up for 21 hours. I continue to hack and slash the briars and small trees out of the way of our camp and we get the rain fly strung across a small gully in between two trees. The hammocks are stacked under it and the boats below that. A nice set up in such a situation. Everything is too wet for fire building and I don’t have the energy to shave off sticks. The wet and coldness needs to go away so we get our camp stoves out and heat up the chili. It warms the soul.

A light rain continues through the night as we climb into our cocoons for a nice nights slumber. I don’t know if it was nerves, the frequent animal noises, splashes close by, or the realization that there is a huge burrow that something probably lives in to our left and the only trail now into the woods is to our right. I sleep on and off keeping watch and listening to the sounds of nature. My machete is within reach if I need it, I hope not, I want to sleep.

“Adventure is at Hand” Chapter 1

Book One: “Adventure is at Hand: June 29-July 1, 2012”

Chapter 1

The 3 Hour Tour

It was a long, hard days of work. Weeks of planning this adventure and I’m starting it exhausted from electrical work, high heat and heavy traffic. The sounds of idle cars and honking horns build my anticipation for this much needed get away. My first real adventure since Joe left. Couple of hours later I finally have the truck loaded up with my gear and kayak and I’m heading to John’s house. John is the kind of character that everyone needs in their life. Happy go lucky, manly, unique, rugged, collected, educated, and traveled.

Knock, knock… I arrive at John’s and I am starving, haven’t eaten since 10:30 and its now close to 7pm. I snack on some chili and a brat while John loads up and then we hit the road, Northwest, not to far but remote. It’s just what we needed.

We arrive at Kelly’s Ford after a slow drive down a dirt road and we commence our expedition. Light is slowly fading so we need to hurry so we can set up camp. Our kayaks are packed with the essentials for an overnight trip. My gear consists of my kayak, paddle, water bottle, water filter, solar charger for phone, the phone, my sleep system (hammock, bug net, rain fly: all by eno), a military blanket, my air pillow and sleep pad, Petzel head lamp, eno string lights, flint, Pocket Rocket stove inside my GSI cook set, some Clif bars, a dehydrated meal, life jacket, first aid kit, hat, glasses, some toiletries, rope, my KSOs, and what wasn’t on my person was shoved into my 35 liter dry sac. Let’s not forget the important stuff, My axe, machete, and survival knife strapped onto the bow of my boat! A light pack for a light trip.

John brought the Half Dome 2 tent from REI, like the one I have, as well as his hammock, his trusty corncob pipe (which he fashions like a sir), his necessities similar to my gear set up and food. John was the chef for the trip providing his famous homemade chili (well famous to us), cheese, chips and beverages. For breakfast we will have eggs and bacon and my meal will be our lunch for the conclusion of our trip.

Ripples expand as we set our boats into the Rapidan. We board and paddle southeast towards Old Mill. The heat hugs you like a heavy wet blanket, but the water is refreshing. We dip our hats and arms in the water as we go to keep cool. It’s not too deep though, the boats drag in some spots and it’s hard to keep pace but we need to find a site to camp before night fall. We get about a mile in and decide on a little island, sandy and clear to stay the night. The water is so low and it’s been dry out so there is no fear of the water rising on us. With our boats docked we start to put up the tent to sleep in since there are no good trees around to hammock.

The wind begins to pick up and we look into the distance. Storm clouds are billowing and lightning streaks across the sky. The weather man said it was going to be clear until tomorrow night… what is this? We hurry the set up and get everything put away and get in the tent to wait out the storm. Only a few seconds later we realize that the tent has collapsed on us and our options are limited.

Scrambling inside the tent, we emerge to be pelted with wicked hail as we gather the gear and tent and shove it into the kayaks to keep from losing everything. Visibility is low and fear sets in as the storm grows strong. The crack of the lightning vibrates your body as your heart pounds into your chest like a hammer. It’s close, a little too close.