# Epic river disaster stories.



## bucketboater (Jul 9, 2012)

I've seen some crazy things on the river and love a good story. On the Deshutes a few years back. Dude backed his van and trailer down the ramp. Jumped out with the van still in reverse. It rolled twice in the river and the trailer disconnected with the boat beat to chit. Guy driving was the owners friend. Had to pay a epa fine for recovery too. Another gem was mfs at 7 feet. Guy ran Murphs, lost boat that floated to confluence and he flew out. He ended up being ok. First year of guiding, three stack on trailer and one on the roof. Didn't strap roof raft down and it did a back flip going 45 on the highway. Aire did the repair at no charge. There's more too. Crouch not included. Please feel free to share.


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## heavyswimmer (Dec 20, 2014)

Was on a trip one time and the chef forgot Bacon. That's it... no Bacon is an epic disaster. 

Now I bring a 1 lb:30 PBR ratio to make sure it never happens again.


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## bucketboater (Jul 9, 2012)

heavyswimmer said:


> Was on a trip one time and the chef forgot Bacon. That's it... no Bacon is an epic disaster.
> 
> Now I bring a 1 lb:30 PBR ratio to make sure it never happens again.


You need to run bigger water.That sucks though. One time scouting the green wall on the Illinois my buddy didn't tie his boat and it worked its way free.. Raft floated out took a right after the entrance and ran Harveys hole sideways without flipping. Tp got wet though,disaster!


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## SpeyCatr (Aug 14, 2013)

One time I saw my grandmother in the shower.....


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## farmer (Apr 30, 2004)

A few years back on the grand we were just pulling out of camp in the AM. Another trip was passing frantically asking if we had seen a unoccupied raft float.We hadn't. Turns out it was a private trip with employees from a notable river supply shop and all their TP was on the boat that had come unglued from the shore overnight. Epic problem. We gave them a spare roll, hopefully it was enough to get them by, since the raft was about three or four days down river in the massive eddy towards the end of the trip.


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

We ran across a guy in Whiterock Canyon of the Rio Grande (27 miles with 3 class 3's) standing on shore shivering. He had a sit on top with no pfd and no helmet. He was wearing blue jeans. We got him on a raft and between 2 crews we came up with food, water, dry clothes, a tarp and a sleeping bag for him. As well as a ride out of the canyon. Temperature dropped into the 20's that night...


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## storm11 (Feb 10, 2006)

This past weekend. Animas River Days parade. Guy lets his buddy row his wood dory. Buddy flips it in Corner Pocket. Dory gets completely destroyed and is still sitting in pieces on the side of the river.

Photos on ARD Facebook page.


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## stuntmansteve (Apr 28, 2008)

storm11 said:


> This past weekend. Animas River Days parade. Guy lets his buddy row his wood dory. Buddy flips it in Corner Pocket. Dory gets completely destroyed and is still sitting in pieces on the side of the river.
> 
> Photos on ARD Facebook page.


We saw that dory yesterday sitting on the bank and wondered what the story was with it. Thanks for sharing.


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## finripple (Jul 25, 2013)

storm11 said:


> This past weekend. Animas River Days parade. Guy lets his buddy row his wood dory. Buddy flips it in Corner Pocket. Dory gets completely destroyed and is still sitting in pieces on the side of the river.
> 
> Photos on ARD Facebook page.


I saw that...indeed epic. The whole thing could have probably been avoided if that swimmer hadn't climbed into to stern just before the flip. She was super stern heavy going into the hole. No bueno.


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## jgrebe (Jan 16, 2010)

I had a fairly major f-up on a Grand trip in March this year. I'm pretty blind without glasses - I mean really blind. Day 4 I put on my PFD and pop a lens from my glasses into the river. Switch to my spare glasses and two hours later flip my boat in Sockdalager. Just a dumb move and bad timing. Anyway, I came out from underneath the boat without my glasses (yes I did have a keeper but got tore off anyway). During the recovery another oarsman got two fingers broken so we are suddenly two oarsmen down. The solution was to put the guy with the broken hand on front of my boat as my "seeing eye dog". Heard a lot of " big f'ing hole on the left" for the rest of the trip. LOL but we made it with further incident. Props to my (now) good buddy Andrew.


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## BlueTurf (Mar 9, 2013)

It's not really an epic disaster but it's kind of funny....

I flipped my brand new boat, on it's maiden voyage, on the very first rapid, less than 2 miles from the put in on the Main Salmon. Oh ya and it's a class II rapid. It's called Killam and at 4.6 on the Corn Creek ramp there is a hole that if you hit it exactly wrong it will flip your brand new 143R right over. The rest of the trip went much better. 

The disaster part was I lost my hat I guess. Can't wait to run that again sometime.


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

jgrebe said:


> I had a fairly major f-up on a Grand trip in March this year. I'm pretty blind without glasses - I mean really blind. Day 4 I put on my PFD and pop a lens from my glasses into the river. Switch to my spare glasses and two hours later flip my boat in Sockdalager. Just a dumb move and bad timing. Anyway, I came out from underneath the boat without my glasses (yes I did have a keeper but got tore off anyway). During the recovery another oarsman got two fingers broken so we are suddenly two oarsmen down. The solution was to put the guy with the broken hand on front of my boat as my "seeing eye dog". Heard a lot of " big f'ing hole on the left" for the rest of the trip. LOL but we made it with further incident. Props to my (now) good buddy Andrew.


Dude, that's the best solution to the problem!


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

My very first river trip, helping my buddy's dad take a commercial trip of Minnesota college kids down Dolores back in 1995. I have no clue how to row, never been on a river before. I was given a 15 foot bucket boat, gear and a few passengers. First two days I make a fool out of myself bouncing off rocks and messing up landings in high current.

Day 3 we come up to Snaggletooth at 5pm, decision to run it. I refused to murder someone, my buddy runs my boat down. Boats are tied to the rock at the bottom of snaggletooth by a student (all boats tied together). I am helping buddy's dad run his boat down, bailing like crazy. We bump the tied boats with a very heavy boat, rock comes loose and all boats going down towards the wall with my buddy and a few chicks.

Boats get hammered by the Wall. My right frame is broken, oar tower is gone. Solution? Me on one oar, 4 passengers with paddles on the other. Running it like a semi paddle boat, it was awesome!


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