# Lost Oar Rig San Miguel



## Wayward Boatman

The boat is still missing. Information from various parties suggests the boat probably descended down river from Norwood Canyon. If so, and considering current flows in both the San Miguel and Dolores rivers, the boat could be far down river by now. 

We visited both Stateline Rapid and the diversion dam above it. No sign. 
A party that ran 11 miles from the "ballpark" near Naturita on Sunday saw nothing. 

At least two parties ran down through Norwood Canyon over the weekend, and did not see the boat. 

Regulatory agencies have been notified up and down the drainage as far as Lake Powell.


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## Rojo

We must have been just ahead of you on Friday June 10.
(Green 14' raft, 13' Yellow cat, 14' blue raft, red IK, purple IK.)
We launched from Lower Beaver around 1:00 and ran the 18 miles to Green Truss Bridge in about 2.75 hrs river time on around 1450 cfs.
Swift current the entire way, but no sign of any yellow rafts.

Saturday we did see a trailer with a smaller yellow raft and small 13' yellow cat headed towards Placerville. Our group did Placerville down to Beaver, and Lower Beaver when I botched the planned takeout in a 12' blue Baby-cat. Another group recovered their blue IK from the log jam at the private lawn.

San Miguel was rockin' for sure!
Good luck with finding your rig.


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## Wayward Boatman

*Update*

It is with heavy heart I report that neither the rig, nor any of the substantial gear associated with it, have surfaced. A bright yellow, fully rigged 14’ raft vanishes without a trace on a little river.

I spoke with the head river ranger for the BLM on Monday afternoon. He had already reached the conclusion I was nearing. The boat is most likely hung up on one of the several man-made obstructions downriver of the Piñon Bridge, and upriver of the town of Naturita. I have focused my efforts on that reach. ---Particularly from the Nucla power plant down. A rancher who has two pallet fences across the river near town has reported back after inspecting them. No boat. The Public Works Director inspected the Naturita diversion dam less than a mile below the plant: nothing. Other parties, including the sheriff’s deputy, have looked around: nothing.

Several parties have run the Norwood Canyon stretch and have reported nothing.

I am currently contacting ranchers and landowners up river of the power plant appealing to them to check the river along their properties.

I have spoken with dozens of people. This thread has had over 800 views. So word is out.

I estimate the flow was near 1500 cfs, and rising, when the boat was lost. Now it is holding around 1000 cfs.

Perhaps the boat fell into the wrong hands and was absconded with. It’s hard for me to even go there. In nearly 40 years of running rivers, I’ve always known river folk to go to great lengths to restore lost gear to rightful owners. 

Please keep an eye out. Thank you.


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## daairguy

I wish you the best of luck in retrieving all/some/any of your gear. This would be so devastating to lose that much gear, I'm sure I'd be sad for long time, as it's taking me years to get the gear I have now. I hope this story can gets a happy ending!


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## rtsideup

We boated Norwood canyon last Sunday. I'd seen your post and had my eye out for gear; the only thing we found was a backpack FULL of books. The books were trashed (a dry-bag can be used as a trash-bag but, a trash-bag can't be used as a dry-bag). If this was part of your wreck, I have some shoes, nalgene, and a backpack that I'll gladly return to you. Sorry to have so little consolation.


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## Wayward Boatman

daairguy: Thanks for the sentiments. Its not just the monetary value of the loss, it is the time and care it took to put it all together, as you well know.

rtsideup: That would indeed be part of the wreck. I pulled the day pack off the rig after wrap in order to get to and off-load sleep kit and clothes bag, which I figured we'd need to survive the night. The pack was left on the rock and is presumed to have been washed off the rock by rising water during the night. I don't know why I always drag so many books along (poetry and classics) ---and in a garbage bag to boot! The pack, the shoes, etc., would be great to have back. I do expect to be back in the area soon. Maybe I can pick them up in person. Otherwise, I'll arrange shipment. No hurry. I'll send you a PM with info. 

The nalgene bottle is an interesting find. We don't recall any in, or attached to the backpack. There were two floating free in the front bilge at the time of the incident. Perhaps the same current vectors placed them together downstream where you found them. 

Thank you for watching out, for retrieving, and for following through.

I hope you had a great trip. We'd really like to have seen the rest of that canyon.

Kind regards.


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## Wayward Boatman

I spoke with the head BLM river ranger out of Montrose. They ran a patrol last week from the confluence of The San Miguel and The Dolores down to Gateway. They saw nothing. They also did not see or talk to any trips running downriver from there toward Dewey Bridge.
I have not heard of, or from, any boaters in that stretch. One friend was in there last weekend, but took out before the missing rig would likely have shown ---if it went that far.

I would love to hear from someone boating in that area. It is still running near 1500 cfs.


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## climbdenali

I find it hard to believe that the entire rig "sunk". Even if it were hung up on something, it would be unlikely that it would be completely invisible to people on the lookout for it. My money is on someone having found it floating downriver, or hung up in an eddy or whatever, and "salvaged" it. Did you have name and contact info clearly labeled inside the boat? I'd watch CL postings for the next several months.

I guess _maybe_ it's gotten down as far as past Gateway, but the further down you talk about it having gone without any eyes on it, the less likely I imagine it to still be ghost-boating.


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## Wayward Boatman

Yes, I know. Well, and painfully understood.

There is was one personal ammo can that was well strapped to the running board with wallet, ID, phone numbers, phone, etc.

We'll see how this plays out.


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## DirtyHands

I ran the Miguel from Deep Creek to the confluence last year. 89 miles. I would guess you boat is stuck in a low head dam above the power plant. Have you had anyone check that area? No one floats the Naturita section due to the fences the landowners have set. Nasty and dangerous obstacles along the way. When our small group came upon the low head we found a monster log stuck in the hydraulic. Ended up lining the boats through. Good luck!

Just curious...what oars are you running?


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## Wayward Boatman

Greetings Dirty Hands:

I have a list of names and numbers of ranchers and land owners above the power plant. I am in the process of contacting them. What would you guess the water level was when you made your run? Do you remember how far below the bridge, or any other identifying landmarks for that weir? 

Having not been sighted at all in over a week suggests one of two likely remaining scenarios:
1) Hung up between Pinon Bridge and Power Plant. 
2) Stolen.

The oars are 9' Ash Gulls, with pitex (sp?) wrap under stops. The tips were fiberglassed (old school). I pulled both oars (untethered) up onto the rock during the wrap. I cracked one trying to lever the boat off the rock/log. I jettisoned it. The other was left on the rock with some other gear I detached from the rig and presumably washed off during the night. There were two spares. They were tied for quick release, and so would not likely stay fast in a violent situation, or with repeated agitation such as one would expect in a head dam. One oar was spotted the next day hair pinned directly into the tip of a log jam a couple hundred yards below the incident site. 

I expect soon I will return to the area with an IK and search that troubled, untravelled stretch myself.

Thanks for the info.


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## rtsideup

My guess; your boat never made it past Naturita. "Sotar what? That's just a big pile of money that we can turn into meth!" 
Sorry but Naturita isn't known for being a kind hippy river town, not that there aren't good people there.
I'll send what I found tomorrow and good luck.


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## Randaddy

If your name wasn't on the boat it wasn't stolen, it was found.


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## wildh2onriver

By that logic it's perfectly legal to pick up a bag of money that fell out of a Brinks truck and keep it. Ahh, not. Besides, that's complete and utter bullshit, and the wrong thing to do.


Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


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## jlamb17

Wayward Boatman. I was with Dirty on the miguel float last year. The riverwide lowhead dam is very clearly visible if you follow google maps satellite imagery. We even extracted GPS cooridinates before we ran last year so we could be prepared when we came across it, like he said it's a very nasty dam that we lined our boats through. I definitley could see that thing hanging on to a raft for a very long time, it was probably around the same level when we ran it as you're describing now. 

If you like i could track down the coordinates on my GPS, or you could grab them yourself using google earth. Like i said if you follow the river corridor on sattelite imagery it's pretty easy to spot.

Good Luck.


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## Wayward Boatman

Thanks jlamb17. I've got it. I have studied the satellite imagery, especially from the power plant down, as sources had said that was the reach with the most boat-stopping riff-raff. My focus became the dam operated by the city of Naturita. Somehow, I had missed this particular one above. It indicates it is county land there on both sides. I'll be looking into who this belongs to, and who has legal access to it. Thanks again.


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## BruceB

Think about calling a local aviation company out of the local airport, probably Montrose, and see if they will take a detour over the river corridor and have a look. Will save you a whole lot of time and effort.


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## Wayward Boatman

Good suggestion BruceB. I will do that. Thanks.


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## Randaddy

wildh2onriver said:


> By that logic it's perfectly legal to pick up a bag of money that fell out of a Brinks truck and keep it. Ahh, not. Besides, that's complete and utter bullshit, and the wrong thing to do.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


If you know it came from the Brinks truck you should return it. Most bean farmers don't read Mountain Buzz. Someone might have it and not know who is looking for it.

When I find gear on the river I call the owner if the name and number is on it. If not, I check the buzz. If not on L&F it's mine. 

Good luck finding your boat. I didn't mean to imply anything other than without a label on the raft it's hard to call it "theft". A $2 sharpie can save thousands...


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## wildh2onriver

Or, you can call it in to the proper agencies such as the BLM, sheriff, police, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


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## restrac2000

wildh2onriver said:


> Or, you can call it in to the proper agencies such as the BLM, sheriff, police, etc.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


^This. Randdaddy's suggestion that a raft and its cargo are somehow comparable to finding a small item on a suburban sidewalk is inaccurate and not healthy for our community. Yes, writing your name on your boat is helpful (and law in some places) but should not be the final line in the sand. The suggestion is especially egregious on a thread in which the OP is genuinely trying to seek out their hard earned gear after an unfortunate experience on the river. The OP is going through some herculean hurdles of private property ownership, man-made obstacles and miles of river to reclaim their property. 

I wish the OP the best of luck and hold out hope that some one is doing the right thing in aiding them in the process. 

Phillip


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## Wadeinthewater

BruceB said:


> Think about calling a local aviation company out of the local airport, probably Montrose, and see if they will take a detour over the river corridor and have a look. Will save you a whole lot of time and effort.


Think about chartering a plane and flying the river corridor yourself. Will save you a whole lot of time and effort.


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## Wayward Boatman

*Missing Rig Located*

The missing oar rig was spotted this morning from the air. I will refrain until later from revealing the location so as to avoid potential vultures.

I must say, I have been in contact with dozens of people from all walks of life, up and down the river and in nearby towns: ranchers, rangers, law enforcement, pilots, boaters, business owners ---you name it . Folks have been exceptionally helpful, decent, and responsive.

I'll post an update after the rig is extracted.

Thanks all.


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## wildh2onriver

I really hope it's in good shape and you recover everything, crossing my fingers for you. 


Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


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## Paul7

Hoping for the best! 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Mountain Buzz mobile app


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## MaverickUSC

Captain's box one time!


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## Rich

See post today by Tom R Chamberlain about San Miguel.
Good luck with retrieval.


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## Wayward Boatman

Rich, great thanks for the head's up. I responded on that thread.


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## Mtnbuzzer

Glad to hear your efforts are paying off. Good luck.


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## DirtyHands

Wayward Boatman,

A buddy of mine found your broken oar several weeks ago. That's why I asked about what type of oars you were running. Doesn't sound like its salvageable.

I finally got a chance to run Norwood Canyon Fri/ Sat. And hey!, I found two of your oars. Not sure if you are planning a trip back down any time soon but let me know and I would be happy to get them back to you. 

What was the final outcome?


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## Wayward Boatman

Thank you so much. I just sent you a PM.


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## PhilipJFry

so did you find the boat? leaving us all hanging here...


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## Wayward Boatman

Hi Philip:

Its a messy, complicated situation. Resolution is coming piecemeal. I will post a detailed narrative when matters are sewn up. Its a tale worth the telling.

I appreciate your concern and your interest. ---And especially your patience.

Thank you.


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## asleep.at.the.oars

Did you get to the point you can complete the story?


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## Quiggle

I need closure


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## carvedog

Enquiring minds want to know....


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## Wayward Boatman

*Patience.*

Dear Mountain Buzz Community:

Thank you all for your attentiveness and helpfulness. Hang in there with me. God knows, I need closure too! The narrative is not yet fully resolved ---getting close. Many pieces of the puzzle are in, but not yet enough for me to draw a conclusion. 

There is quite a story here, and I will tell it. But not until all is in.

There is strong evidence of foul play on the part of one particular party. But I will not level that claim until I have learned all I possibly can. 

There are several other parties that deserve great credit for their constructive roles in this debacle. 

Promise Pards… The tale will be told.

Wayward Boatman.


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## Randaddy

I call BS.


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## okieboater

After reading this really far out story and wondering just how could all these mistakes be made by an experienced rafter, I am not yet ready to throw the B/S flag like Randaddy
has done.

However, the longer we wait for the wrap up, the closer the flag throwing gets.


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## PhilipJFry

90+ days to describe your rafting accident and recovery is a little odd.. this much drama in a relationship usually causes problems. looks like it is here too..


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## yesimapirate

I don't know the OP, but perhaps there's a legit reason he's refraining from spilling the entire story on the internets. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt ....especially since he did say "bare with me".


Perhaps there's a lawsuit pending?
Perhaps insurance companies are involved?
Perhaps the perpetrator has been found and prosecuted, but details can't be shared until all restitution has been paid?


Tons of perhaps's.


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## Andy H.

yesimapirate said:


> ...I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt ....especially since he did say "bare with me".
> 
> Perhaps there's a lawsuit pending?
> Perhaps insurance companies are involved?
> Perhaps the perpetrator has been found and prosecuted, but details can't be shared until all restitution has been paid?
> 
> Tons of perhaps's.


Ditto. Just because there's an audience out here on the interwebs eagerly awaiting the details of this saga doesn't mean the story should be told now.

-AH


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## Wayward Boatman

*Part 1*

Perhaps I should begin by telling the story in a series of installments:

Part 1:

It begins with Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. My favorite small river in the American West, along with The Salt and The Bruneau. All of which I have run several times over the last few decades. And all of which are less and less frequently raftable due to diminishing snowpack. Having watched the snowpack and run-off I became delighted in mid-May that The Dolores might be granted a spill. The folks at McPhee Dam were predicting a release over Memorial Day weekend, but due to cooler weather, it was delayed to the subsequent weekend. They promised water, 1000 cfs over the weekend to Monday. After scrutinizing all the data I determined that there was enough run-off pending that it would likely run for up to a week. 

We packed up the rig for an eight-day trip (the shortest I’ve run in years) and arrived at Bradfield Bridge Sunday night, launching Monday morning. We camped at Doe Creek Canyon, planning on spending a couple of nights if flows allowed. The first night the water dropped an estimated 100 to 200 cfs ---not a good sign. The next day, parties that had just launched, informed us the dam folks intended to ramp down 200 cfs per day ---with no indications of further releases. The second night it dropped again. I seriously considered staying put and waiting for what I believed was imminent: more water. But considering the consequences of being wrong (hell, The Dolores may never run 1000 cfs again!), we decided to play it safe and work our way down to The Dove Creek ramp ---just in case. I could tell as soon as we were underway that we were probably on as little as 600 cfs. Very little water for a 14’ Sotar oar rig with a PRO Grand Canyon style frame fully provisioned –probably a thousand pounds, not counting the two of us. It’s a great rig for multi-day trips on rigorous white water ---nice low center of gravity ---huge capacity ---but it requires a little bit of liquid beneath it. We made the miles without incident.

We spent the third night at the Dove Creek ramp where we had the pleasure of making friends with several other boaters from the local area ---people keenly knowledgeable about the region, the politics of water, and highly committed to the formidable task of trying to preserve a doomed gem of a river suffering extreme duress. We all concurred there ought to be more water coming ---the math just didn’t add up. One of them knew and had the phone number of one of the three people who make the final decision on McPhee releases. He went up top and made the call. “Ramping down and no more coming.” There was a large trip upriver in the gorge near where we had camped. Some members of the party had come as far as from Vermont for this venture. They were stubborn. “Hell no. We’re camping right here until the water comes back up.” That day we worried about them. Later I would admire and envy them.

One of our new friends suggested we jump watersheds and run Norwood Canyon on the San Miguel. He had very detailed information about possible put-ins, and the last crucial takeout: Piñon Bridge, a diversion dam we’d have to negotiate, etc. He said make sure you have at least 800 cfs (we would find it flowing twice that). This gentleman impressed me and struck my as very well experienced and well informed ---and most importantly, as intrinsically cautious (an assessment I hold still). We decided to go for it. It was a long day, hitching a ride to town and then all the way to Bedrock to retrieve the truck, de-rigging, etc. By nightfall we were camped in the high country above the San Miguel. We learned later that the next day the folks at the spigot turned The Dolores up to 1200 cfs and held it for a few days. We could easily have finished our trip as planned.

It infuriates me that the people at the spigot at McPhee Dam can disseminate misinformation in the vain hope that it might garner them a few extra drops of water to the detriment of all downriver creatures, whom for all practical purposes have already lost that river. It was entirely evident from the data that they had adequate inflow to let the river run at 1000 cfs for a week straight ---without losing a drop. Why lie? Why confound an already complicated issue?

To be continued...


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## mania

great story keep it coming!


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## Matty

And then?


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## jpbay

More! This is a good read


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## Wayward Boatman

*Part 2*

Part 2

Next morning we began to scout the river, from bottom up. The bridge take-out looked sketchy, all factors considered. We found Cottonwood Campground and determined that would be our take-out, but the small ramp could be easily missed. I carefully took note of landmarks. There was a flag tied to a willow at water level. This mountain creek, The San Miguel, was now a full-sized river, and it was hauling ass. Hopefully it would drop a bit before we arrived here in four days.

We drove up the canyon, scouting from the road repeatedly ---my biggest concern: strainers. None were seen. There were no real structural rapids ---but also, there was no respite from the none-stop onslaught of continuous, essential maneuvers: bends, boulders, holes ---no mercy here ---and no rest for the weary. We opted to rig and put in at Caddis Flats. It was unseasonably hot.

We heard word of a near-fatality the day before. A passenger on a commercial trip was pulled from the river lifeless, and then remarkably revived via CPR. She was expected to make a full recovery. Cold water ---Ice cold, cascading off the ice fields above Telluride just hours before.

We rigged. And we rigged to flip. Everything was double tied down. 

Just as we finished rigging, a living spruce tree, freshly uprooted, forty feet long, came ripping around the corner. It almost struck the back of the raft. I decided we’d give that thing 20 minutes lead-time to lodge somewhere, or else to move on ahead of us.

I said out-loud, “We shouldn’t be doing this”. ---An entirely feeble proclamation. 

My sole companion on this journey, my girlfriend, my mate, (Swamper? No!), first mate, we’ll refer to her from now on as “The First Mate” ---she does not look happy. Its been a demanding five days. She is a young, savvy, fit, worthy outdoorsman ---with tremendous common sense. She has lots of experience in the back-country backpacking, hiking, camping, including solo. This is her second river trip. Her first river trip being the 20 miles we’d run on The Dolores in the days prior. She’s completely out of her element ---alienated. She has no sea legs. She doesn’t know ropes, knots, rigging, river rescue, etc. She’s never rowed a boat in her life. I’ve already told her: something serious takes me out on this “crick”, you abandon ship and take to shore, and walk. ---One hell of a position in which to put a loved one.

We’re not on The Dolores anymore Dorothy.

To be continued...


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## pepejohns

This is getting good


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## luckylauren

Nothing jump starts a relationship like creating an atmosphere of impending doom.


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## Tyrrache

Great story thus far. Thank you for sharing.


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## mattman

Ya, this is turning out to be a very well told tale!


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## daairguy

Please go on!


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## SBlue

Following


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## BilloutWest

mattman said:


> Ya, this is turning out to be a very well told tale!


Its like a movie where the first thing you see is most of the ending.
Then the flick jumps around.

With a loud crowd in the theatre encumbered by too many intermissions.


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## mattman

BilloutWest said:


> Its like a movie where the first thing you see is most of the ending.
> Then the flick jumps around.
> 
> With a loud crowd in the theatre encumbered by too many intermissions.


Like Star Wars!!


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## mattman

Or a bunch of us MTN. Buzz monkey's trying to fuck a football?


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## B4otter

Nathan, maybe cut to the chase: how did you wrap/pin your boat, and what were the contributing factors?


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## Wayward Boatman

*Part 3*

Part 3

So we pushed off. It was late: nearly 6:00 PM. It was busy boating from the “get go”.

A few miles downstream the canyon opened up a little ---and showed signs of braiding. The Spruce was spotted broached sideways across the main stem of the river, entirely obstructing it ---fortunately there was a secondary stem with just barely enough water and we caught it, circumnavigating the strainer. Hopefully folks running in the subsequent days would be equally attentive and fortunate.

We were underway for less than an hour. No eddies. No place to get off for a breather. I was hoping we’d be able to pull in to Beaver Creek for a respite (we had not scouted that access due to the late hour). It proved to be but a twelve foot wide opening in the willows and river birch, and it was gone as quickly as it appeared. So now we were alone. Nobody was coming down behind us ---and likely, there was nobody below us.

The very stern continence of The First Mate was quite evident. I asked, “ Are you enjoying this at all?”

“No, I’m not! I’m terrified! I can see you are very good at this. But I can also see that the slightest mishap means serious trouble.”

I checked in with myself. She was absolutely right. I wasn’t having a lot of fun myself ---truth be told. What was the point? When I was a young man, on the river most all the time, adrenaline was my favorite intoxicant. What a rush of bountiful energy to harness and focus! Now, a large dose of adrenaline, especially if sustained, just makes me want to puke.

Finally I was able to auger into a gravel bar and stop the boat. Full sun, and hot. But we were able to rest a bit, snack, and drink water. 

I estimated that within less than an hour we would be in Norwood Canyon proper and that hopefully we would find some ideal camp wherein to plant a stake and relax for a few days ---the whole objective of this venture to begin with. God knows, we were provisioned.

Beyond the end of the paved road we came upon a luxurious resort on river right. Several Jackson Hole style lodges. It was well kept, but we saw no human activity, no cars or trucks. We passed under a low hanging cable, and I noted a medium sized track hoe with a long extension arm and shovel parked on a flat above.

A little further the river turned right. I observed an area that looked inviting on the right bank, and pulled off the main stem of the current to take a look. A place to camp? Then I saw the apex of the roof of yet another cabin. This was still private land and part of the resort. After only eight seconds of diverted attention, I turned my focus back to the river. There was a large boulder that I had already observed. Most of the river was running left of it. That’s where we wanted to be. I started pulling toward the objective. No way. I was not going to make it. Buts “Its OK”, there was ample water running right of the boulder (volume-wise at least 40% of the river. It was about twenty five feet from the boulder to the bank.). It had a steep tongue. So I started pushing, warning The First Mate that we would certainly bump the rock ---but with the nose in the tongue we should slip through. Not the prettiest run ---but do-able. 12 feet from the boulder I suddenly observe there is a log wedged invisibly under the pillow, the end of which was protruding, now quite visibly, directly into the tongue 4 or 5 feet (its broken end was at least 10” in diameter). In the tongue, it was just barely below the surface right were the water was approaching full acceleration, and right where I intended to go. I knew instantly that we were seconds away from a catastrophic situation.

I hollered to prepare to highside. I hollered to prepare to exit onto the boulder. The rig hit the rock and then the log in quick sequence, turned on its side, seemingly slowly, and commenced to perform a perfect wrap. We were onto the left tube, and then immediately onto the boulder. I’d taken both free, working oars with me. I stood there, oars in hand, watching the 1000 lb. raft at my feet sink half way into the current and suck up tightly against these obstacles. With it, my heart sank. And my heart wrapped itself, half-submerged, around some invisible rock and timber in a lower story of my soul. 

To be continued….


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## Spade Hackle

Rocking this story.. Can't wait for the next episode.

SH


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## BilloutWest

This guy writes for the _Longmire_ series.

We may not see another episode till THE next fall season.


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## Wayward Boatman

OK ye American barnacle boaters, cod bucket cobblers, dead sea gypsies, nematodes, and otherwise landsluts ---- where's your patience for good old fashioned story telling run off to, where's your attention span gone? Please! This is not a sound bite.

The best is yet to come.


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## rivh2o

Wayward Boatman said:


> OK ye American barnacle boaters, cod bucket cobblers, dead sea gypsies, nematodes, and otherwise landsluts ---- where's your patience for good old fashioned story telling run off to, where's your attention span gone? Please! This is not a sound bite.
> 
> The best is yet to come.


 this is your best sound bit so far


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## BilloutWest

Wayward Boatman said:


> OK ye American barnacle boaters, cod bucket cobblers, dead sea gypsies, nematodes, and otherwise landsluts ---- where's your patience for good old fashioned story telling run off to, where's your attention span gone? Please! This is not a sound bite.
> 
> The best is yet to come.


You need to bring in a pro to work the crowd prior to each set.


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## bigben

finish the FUCKING STORY man!!!!

what happened.... 
what about the glands???!!??!?!?!!


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## Sherpa9543

Pictures?


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## Phil U.

Wayward Boatman said:


> OK ye American barnacle boaters, cod bucket cobblers, dead sea gypsies, nematodes, and otherwise landsluts ---- where's your patience for good old fashioned story telling run off to, where's your attention span gone? Please! This is not a sound bite.
> 
> The best is yet to come.


Please take your time.


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## BilloutWest

Phil U. said:


> Please take your time.


Speak for yourself.

I go on medicare in 5 weeks.


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## TupperwareBill

To make a short story long...You are the Milkman...Milk it...


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## Phil U.

BilloutWest said:


> Speak for yourself.
> 
> I go on medicare in 5 weeks.


I'm already on Medicare.  Jeeze, we're all about instant gratification these days.


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## BilloutWest

Phil U. said:


> I'm already on Medicare.  Jeeze, we're all about instant gratification these days.


Like wanting a wrapped raft back now.

You're right.

People need patience.
Too much complaining.


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## ColoradoDave

This was all happening when the normal beginners section of the San M. from sawpit down was 3+ with holes an IK'er ( Me ) skirted around for self preservation.
One of our IK'er's flipped below Caddis and we tried to get his boat for over 3 miles un-sucessfully until it finally eddy'ed at the house where the lady in the commercial trip had almost died.
The woman who lives there said she had made cookies for all the rescuers.


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## SBlue

Take your time, this is by far the best read on the Buzz in a while..


----------



## BilloutWest

Shakespeare never mentioned any books in his will.
Mark Twain, among others, pointed that out.

Shakespeare's books included a vocabulary of over 31,000 words. It is estimated that his total vocabulary could have been in the 65,000 range.
The average english speaker has a vocabulary of 10,000 - 20,000 words.
There is no known english speaker with the vocabulary of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare didn't write all those books.

=======

Stay with me.
At some point we may come to the realization that this 'SM story telling' is by multiple authors. On the understanding that this couldn't have all happened on one river float if nothing else.

======

Is this San Miguel Epic a Comedy or a Tragedy?


----------



## okieboater

Is this San Miguel Epic a Comedy or a Tragedy?

Right now I would vote for a comedic tragedy story!

Comedic due to the fact all of us (myself included) just cannot stop checking this thread hoping for next installment.

Tragic due to the way this Gent has hooked all us Buzzards on a story that seems too dramatic to be true, but who knows till we get the next scrap thrown our way.


----------



## BilloutWest

Did any Shakespeare capture Stockholm Syndrome?

You know. Where those being held hostage start liking their captor(s)?


----------



## BilloutWest

No river runners from Ashland here?

OK. 
I'll say it.

The Taming of the Shrew is arguably Stockholm Syndrome used for the husbands benefit.
IT IS A COMEDY.

Just for perspective.


----------



## SigNewt

See this? 

The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop

I would like to see some analysis on this thread by the time we get to the end of this story.... 





BilloutWest said:


> Shakespeare never mentioned any books in his will.
> Mark Twain, among others, pointed that out.
> 
> Shakespeare's books included a vocabulary of over 31,000 words. It is estimated that his total vocabulary could have been in the 65,000 range.
> The average english speaker has a vocabulary of 10,000 - 20,000 words.
> There is no known english speaker with the vocabulary of Shakespeare.
> 
> Shakespeare didn't write all those books.
> 
> =======
> 
> Stay with me.
> At some point we may come to the realization that this 'SM story telling' is by multiple authors. On the understanding that this couldn't have all happened on one river float if nothing else.
> 
> ======
> 
> Is this San Miguel Epic a Comedy or a Tragedy?


----------



## BilloutWest

SigNewt said:


> See this?
> 
> The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop
> 
> I would like to see some analysis on this thread by the time we get to the end of this story....


That refers to just words created by the artists.

Not ones they knew and utilized in their art.

However, with the explanation that Shakespeare was not just one artist it casts an interesting light.

It would have made Muhammad Ali smile.


----------



## Electric-Mayhem

BilloutWest said:


> That refers to just words created by the artists.
> 
> Not ones they knew and utilized in their art.
> 
> However, with the explanation that Shakespeare was not just one artist it casts an interesting light.
> 
> It would have made Muhammad Ali smile.


You didn't read the article did you?

It is an accounting and analysis of the number of individual words used in the first 35,000 words on their albums and compares it to Shakespeare. Included within that are the words they created, but also "normal" more widely words. He also included "slangiffied" words like "Fo Sho" and "Nahmeen" as seperate from "for sure" and "no what I mean". Shakespeare is know to do similar things with his words to fit the iambic pentameter, so that seems fair to me.

The rapper with the highest vocabulary as specified by that article had 7392 different words compared to 5170 for Shakespeare. So at least compared to the first part of Shakespeare's career there ARE modern equivalents.

Both hip hop and iambic pentameter lend to an expanded vocabulary due to need to stick to specific cadences and rules. Hip Hop is much more freeform, but each song usually sticks to a beat and you have to find words to fit with the flow of that beat.

The possibility of Shakespeare being multiple people or for him to have collaborated or hired out for other writers is certainly there. However, I also think that extraordinary people come around often enough that I believe he could have just had a near super human ability to form words as well. The entire western world was focused on art and creation during that time. Today we see it more in science and business, but the geniuses of that time often focused on art and music and the prestige it brought them.

hahaa... the water really has dropped and everyone is getting bored huh? Who here expected a thread about a stolen/pinned raft to evolve into a thread about the vocabulary of Shakespeare?


----------



## formerflatlander

This thread may just get us through til spring boating. Don't poison the vine!


----------



## BilloutWest

Electric-Mayhem said:


> You didn't read the article did you?
> 
> ..........


No I didn't read it.
I don't value the making up of words actually.
The use of a complete vocabulary, yes.
Or quality over quantity per John Milton.
Shakespeare didn't have a superhuman ability to form words. They just had a need to fit verse.
Time will tell on Hip Hop language influence so I shouldn't be dismissive.


----------



## Electric-Mayhem

How can you have a commentary on it if you didn't even read the first paragraph of the link?

I'm no big fan of Hip Hop....but its sort of the equivalent of Shakespeare in the modern age. I can't say every Hip Hop/Rapper out there is that way by a long shot, but there are many that have quite the way with words. For the really good ones, they don't need to make up words. Even the ones that do make up words, it still only makes up a small percentage of the ones they actually use.

The Broadway hit Hamilton is a great example of Hip Hop with substance and artistry and there is a whole sector of the genre that takes a similar route. Its as much spoken word and poetry as it is music.

At the end of the article it mentions that many of the most successful rap stars like Jay Z, Snoop Dog, and Kanye West may have a more robust vocabulary then their songs show but have been quoted as saying that using that vocabulary in their songs does not translate to popular or financial success so they choose not to do it.


----------



## BilloutWest

Electric-Mayhem said:


> How can you have a commentary on it if you didn't even read the first paragraph of the link?


I looked over the graph linked.

It showed a comparison.

It failed to even mention the largest contributor to English. John Milton.
That being determined by words that actually made it into our lexicon. Milton was something over 500 I recall.

I moved on.

==========

I do acknowledge that Shakespeare and Milton both plagiarized heavily. It was not just common but openly tolerated at that time. This brings just how many words each may have 'created' into question. 
Not the case for modern artists who are at least fairly limited by copyright.

I couldn't read Paradise Lost, even though Milton was a distant family relative, nor can I enjoy Rap, no known relatives there. But I'll still go with Milton needing mention in an article of that nature to get my wandering time.

Shakespeare and Rap are both very political vehicles. True.

=======

Hamilton is in a different league.
Again, quality vs quantity.

Forgive me, but what new words were created by the play Hamilton?


----------



## Electric-Mayhem

You were talking originally about vocabulary, which is a different discussion to how many words a specific person created themselves. I've never read any Milton so I can't say on his, but if there is an art form that most approximates Shakespeare in the current timeframe then it is certainly Hip Hop....or at least the "high brow" version of it as seen in Hamilton and the more "wordy" Hip Hop artists. I'd have to really look at a libretto to be sure, but I suspect very few words were created while writing it. Plenty of words used well though.

For what its worth, they do include Herman Melville in that vocabulary analysis and found that 6022 unique words were used in the first 35,000 of Moby Dick. When they say "unique", in this application they don't mean words created but that they are only counting each word the first time it is used.


----------



## BilloutWest

Electric-Mayhem said:


> You were talking originally about vocabulary, ................


As a means to illustrate the possibility that multiple authors of the SM Epic could be possible. Especially owing to their gaps in submissions.

We could have undertaken a finding of other authors at the time of Shakespeare who may have written some or parts of plays by Shakespeare. Except that we know of the unprincipled plagiarism problem.

The story telling on the SM Epic may be available eventually to an analysis.

If the author(s) observe the literary mandate: _Never let the truth get in the way of a good story_. Then we may find stories being terrifically embellished in a simple google search.

Without more fodder pandemonium awaits.

======

Brief quiz:
Which four words in this post were Fo Sho 'coined' by John Milton?


----------



## DoStep

While y'all await the next chapter of the SM saga, pick up a copy of 'The Professor and the Madman' by Simon Winchester. It describes the editor of the OED, Professor Murray, and his relationship with the most prolific contributor of new words to the OED as it was being compiled in the late 19th century, Dr. Minor. By the book's account, Dr. Minor blows everyone listed in this thread away as far as the number of words he contributed to that tome, and it's not even close. No spoilers here as there are several twists in the fascinating story.


----------



## nemi west

This guys shit show is better than another groover or grand side hikes thread. 

OP...... Before you ate shit did you drain your cooler ?


----------



## lmyers

nemi west said:


> This guys shit show is better than another groover or grand side hikes thread.
> 
> OP...... Before you ate shit did you drain your cooler ?


No kidding. I'm waiting for the part where Grif walks over from the resort in his Speedo and offers to throw them a turkey leg!


----------



## CO14

Yeah, did he mention if his girlfriend had a whistle?


----------



## ob1coby

I think part of the reason he may be drawing this out is because of legal issues. Does anyone know anything about maritime law? Items left in and on water fall into a special category of ownership and possession. Salvage vs abandoned vs lost etc, and he may be under court order to keep it under lid until resolved.

In the mean time, My A.D.D. riddled mind can't handle this thread. It's like a reality show with fake, made-up drama and the OP seems especially talented at piling it on and drawing it out. I'll come back during Christmas vacation and see if anything has happened. I do wish the best for the OP. If someone is using the law to hold on to his rig...


----------



## ob1coby

I do have one question from the OPs first post. How did you know that the boat broke came loose at midnight?


----------



## BilloutWest

DoStep said:


> While y'all await the next chapter of the SM saga, pick up a copy of 'The Professor and the Madman' by Simon Winchester. It describes the editor of the OED, Professor Murray, and his relationship with the most prolific contributor of new words to the OED as it was being compiled in the late 19th century, Dr. Minor. By the book's account, Dr. Minor blows everyone listed in this thread away as far as the number of words he contributed to that tome, and it's not even close. No spoilers here as there are several twists in the fascinating story.


will do.

Thanks

In the meantime.
How did _quiz_ come about.


----------



## Gremlin

Can we rename this thread? Perhaps, "The Tragedy of the Inflated Vessel on the Mighty San Miguel".


----------



## bucketboater

ob1coby said:


> I think part of the reason he may be drawing this out is because of legal issues. Does anyone know anything about maritime law? Items left in and on water fall into a special category of ownership and possession. Salvage vs abandoned vs lost etc, and he may be under court order to keep it under lid until resolved.


 Msn news just reported about this. The Supreme Court has suspended the current debate of high capacity magazines and Syrian refugees to focus on opies lost boat. Thread cracks me up. Either Opie can't tie a knot or run a rapid. End of story.


----------



## rtsideup

Well, it's been awhile and clearly the people want more...

While clearly not as verbose as the OP, I did play a small role in the story.

Batting clean up, we launched from Beaver the following weekend. Myself, solo, in a 14' cat and team Awesome (mom, dad and, 2 preteens) in their 16' SB. Having read the OP's initial post we were on the look out for river booty. 

As we pasted the Cascabell fishing club, I observed a huge wrap rock on river right. Easily avoidable but, nothing to mess with. A small voice in my head said "this is where shit went south". If you were to wrap on this rock, getting to the "good" side of the river would be nasty.

At 1200CFS this section of the San Miguel is, what most consider class 2+ with a class 4 swim. It gets trickier at lower volumes.

The rest of our trip was beautiful and uneventful. Within a mile of the take out I noticed a bit of color dancing in an eddy. With a couple strong oar strokes ,and a dive over the front, I plucked a backpack from the river.

Minutes later, at the take out, we gathered around to see what our pirates booty would behold.

Gold, jewels, maps to a land of un-dammed rivers!?

Nope, just some soggy, mud filled, bags of books, lots of books. The zipp-locs were apparently not "rigged-to -flip". A pair of soggy boots , and a nalgene.

Most of our pirate crew let out a collective "meh" while one of the pre-teen rebels went full on ape shit. "Books!" he cried. This kid is a full on book fanatic; when he get's grounded, it's from books. These books were not for the eyes of babes, and they were muddy bricks.

Where was the rest of the treasure? What happened to the crew?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see....


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 4*

Part 4

So what to do now? I unclipped the throw line from the left oarlock. Then I crawled back into the raft and tried to unstrap my personal ammo can from the foot well. It took three attempts as the water was roiling furiously ---but I got it out and placed it on the rock. So now we had wallet, cell phone, truck keys, headlamp and other items. Then I crawled onto the back of the raft and deflated the rear chamber. If anything, the boat just sucked down tighter. I took one of the oars and wedged it between the raft and the boulder to use as a lever. I applied pressure and it immediately cracked and I jettisoned it into the river. 

Could we spend the night on the boulder? Not likely. It was not flat and was in fact ridged in such a way that one of us had to serve as a banister for the other when we moved back and forth. I had explained as best I could various scenarios that might unfold to the First Mate, and what the response would be for each. She was shaking somewhat violently. I asked her if she was cold. “No” she said. “I am f**king scared to death!” “A very appropriate response,” I said. “This is a bad situation,” I concurred. “But it could easily get worse. We have to be extremely methodical, and careful. If you notice anything changing ---anything that catches your attention at all –speak up. If you end up in the river, make haste for the right bank. Now we are going to get ourselves off this rock.”

I crawled back into the boat to retrieve our sleep kit and clothes bag. First I had to free a daypack, and a mesh rigging bag. Both of these went onto the rock. Then I was able to unstrap the two river bags. Now we had a little pile of gear on the rock with us. I crept out to the front left corner of the frame and anchored the throw line with a bowline. I explained the next step. I would take the throw bag and slide into the current and make for shore. After a few more words of encouragement and good faith, in I went. I came to the end of the rope before I got to shore, and the bag was ripped from my right hand. Ten meters more and I was on shore. It took some fifty meters of downstream travel to cross eight horizontal meters of current. 

While The First Mate gathered up the throw line I quickly gathered up and piled kindling and small pieces of wood for a fire. Each of our life jackets had a river knife, a whistle and a dry canister of waterproof matches. 

It took her a couple tosses to get the throw bag to me on shore. It was difficult to communicate because the river was so loud. When I got the line, I tied it off to a Juniper on the bank. I was hopeful there was enough line to keep the boat anchored to shore and still have enough left to get the gear and The First Mate off the rock. The length was just shy. I instructed her to crawl out on the edge of the raft and untie the throw line. She was unable to untie the knot. “Cut it!” She did, and backed up the side of the raft and returned to the boulder. 

I untied the line from the Juniper and tossed the bag back to her. She tied off the ammo can and pitched it into the current. I quickly had it on shore next to me. I tossed the bag back to her and she started to tie the two river bags together to launch them. 

I looked up to see the headlights of two four-wheelers bearing down the right bank toward us. It was damned near dark.


----------



## Spade Hackle

More! MOre! MORE!


----------



## mania




----------



## Andy H.

Awesome, Dana! My sentiments exactly!


----------



## Treswright3

This is a pretty epic tale, and I can't wait to read more. If y'all want a story to hold you over check out this one that my buddy wrote up about a trip last year. I posted it to a new thread and thought y'all would enjoy it since its a similar story and it has a real ending. 
http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f41/my-story-escaping-desolation-62989.html#post446187


----------



## Flaco

*Great Story*

Where's the popcorn?


----------



## BilloutWest

*The missing oar rig was spotted this morning from the air.*



Flaco said:


> Where's the popcorn?


Better go long on the popcorn.

After the initial series of Lost & Found posts by the OP in the first two weeks we then see the more complete installments.

Part 1 was two weeks ago.
Part 2 was one week ago.
Part 3 was one week ago.
A teaser one week ago.
Part 4 seventeen hours ago.

_So allowing for the general Buzz timeline ............

carry the 5 ............_

Columbus Day for part 5.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 5*

I observed two couples ---one couple in each four-wheeler. Caretaker B, piloting the first machine, was promptly at my side, with rope in hand, with all the right questions, in all the right order: “Is anybody injured’ “How many people are involved?” “Is there anybody else downstream?”

“Listen,” he said, “We’re going to get her, and all your gear, including the raft, off the rock right now. Tonight.”

“Well, I appreciate your ambition, but..”

“Look. We have heavy equipment. A backhoe. Come-alongs. Etc.” 

I interrupted, “Getting the boat off the rock means getting me with a good line back onto the raft. ---Not going to happen under darkness! Now that you are here, I am going to reprioritize, and get her off the rock. That’s enough. Leave the gear. The rest can wait until morning. That boat, and that gear, are going nowhere tonight.” He accepted.

I then reminded The First Mate, via hand signals and gestures, to hold the throw bag to her chest, with the line draped over her left shoulder, and to slide into the current, belly up, and to keep her face skyward.

He interjected: “What?” “You are going to have her jump into the river just holding on to a rope?”

“Yes”, I said.

“No. No. No. She has to be tied to the rope!”

So began a debate/argument between Caretaker B and me that lasted several precious minutes.

He declared, “Listen. We own both sides of the river ---hence, we own that rock! You are on our property, trespassing essentially, and I am not about to let you do that! She must be tied to the rope.“

I yelled, “I’ve done this dozens of times. This is how it must be done. This is really treacherous water. She must be free to let go of the rope. To be fixed to it could be deadly. Please!”

Finally, after quite a battle, he conceded. “Since you are “the expert”, we’ll do it your way.”

By then, Caretaker B, was at our side as well. He had apparently driven the two female companions back to the lodges to prepare for our arrival and he had returned.

So, on signal, The First Mate jumped into the river. I had her on a pendulum to shore in less than half the distance it had taken me to swim it. Caretaker A was right there to help her out of the current. We two piled into the back of the four-wheeler, with them in front, and they whisked us off to safety. I learned that this was a fishing lodge, and that they had no guests due to the high water/poor fishing. There were multiple cabins on the premises.

True sanctuary after tremendous peril is heavenly. In this case, a gorgeous, huge cabin with a large slate patio, and a triple sized sunken slate hot tub. We stripped down and clamoured into the tub. They brought us black coffee and whisky. The caretaker’s wives took our clothes away to tumble dry. The two caretakers retreated. We were left to bask in the bubbling hot water and to consider our fortune. ---All grins and giggles and sighs. We were elated to be alive and safe, unequivocally.


----------



## fdon

At the very least the guy knows the correct time and location to wrap a boat. Hope the final conclusion ends as well.

This thread would get a lot more exposure and interest if it were in a more popular category. How often does anyone go to Lost and Found anyway?


----------



## restrac2000

Pushing 30k page views, not too shabby for a thread. I am starting to wonder if this isn't a lost episode of "How I Met Your Mother". It just needs a Bob Saget voice over.


----------



## swimteam101

*So Sad*

"Listen. We own both sides of the river ---hence, we own that rock!"

30,000 views for this thread. So sad we can't get together and protect access and rights to our navigable waterways. When will Coloradans stand up and stop the privatization of our rivers and wilderness. While you read this very post some rich Texan just bought another section of the Yampa you will never see. Bullshit!! Forget about Trump and Hillary and handle some local business. Suggestions ?


----------



## duct tape

fdon said:


> At the very least the guy knows the correct time and location to wrap a boat. Hope the final conclusion ends as well.


Based on earlier hints and intimations from the OP, the hot tub may be the high point of the trip.


----------



## Tyrrache

swimteam101 said:


> "Listen. We own both sides of the river ---hence, we own that rock!"
> 
> 30,000 views for this thread. So sad we can't get together and protect access and rights to our navigable waterways. When will Coloradans stand up and stop the privatization of our rivers and wilderness. While you read this very post some rich Texan just bought another section of the Yampa you will never see. Bullshit!! Forget about Trump and Hillary and handle some local business. Suggestions ?


Colorado could learn some lessons...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Stream_Access_Law


----------



## fdon

restrac2000 said:


> Pushing 30k page views, not too shabby for a thread. I am starting to wonder if this isn't a lost episode of "How I Met Your Mother". It just needs a Bob Saget voice over.


Yes, I agree this has a following but it seems quite a few regulars have not chimed in and what follows the hot tub with cocktails could go in many directions as well. Could be April 1 before the finale.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 6*

Part 6

The caretakers reemerged. I sensed there had been some serious discussion going on. It also seemed to me that they had been into the whiskey a bit themselves. ---Hard to say regarding Caretaker A, because he had hardly said a word. He was very reserved and seemed uncomfortable. On the other hand, Caretaker B was quite vociferous. He said, let me explain the situation to you, “The Owner of this resort has had very bad experiences with river runners. They have trespassed, trashed the place, disrespected our clients and been, by and large, belligerent. As he owns both sides of the river, by Colorado State Law, he owns the rock upon which your raft is stuck. You are on his property.”

“OK…” 

“We cannot do anything for you without his permission and approval. He lives out of state and we are not able to reach him right now. We expect to be able to reach him first thing in the morning. In the meantime, since you have your wallet, truck keys, phone, etc., we propose that you spend the night in a motel in Norwood. We hope that’s OK with you.”

There was a long pause as I fumbled for words and a footing to propose some justifiable alternative.

The First Mate punctured the silence, “Listen, you have been very attentive and generous to help with our rescue, to welcome us into your resort, warm us, dry our clothes ---everything. If it is your preference that we spend the night elsewhere, that is fine. We are much obliged. We’ll dress and we can leave.” She was right. There was no other appropriate response. 

I mumbled something about the boat wrapped on the rock, and the gear, and the need to… 

“Forget about the boat. You are lucky to be alive. That is all that really matters right now. You are safe and alive.”

My guts hurt. 

In the truck, Caretaker A drove. Caretaker B talked. “So, if your were stranded on a desert island and you could take one book with you ---What would it be?”

“Well,” I said, “Considering the events of today: Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.”

Not waiting for The First Mate’s answer, he said, “For me, the answer is easy. The Bible.”

The First Mate and I flashed a quick glance with one another in the back seat. Uh oh.

I responded, cheerfully, “Well, that’s a good choice. The Bible is great literature.”

‘Have you read The Bible?” he fired back.

“Much of it. Yes, I have. Not all of it, though.”

“What’s your favorite book in The Bible?”

“Again, considering recent events, I’d have to say right now: The Book of Job”.

“Have you read The Book of Job?”

“I have. In fact, there is a copy of it, a more recent translation that I had intended to read on this trip. It is on the raft wrapped on your rock.”


----------



## Noswetnam

Do I hear banjo music


----------



## Spade Hackle

Oh my!


----------



## restrac2000

*1*

There was once a man in the land of Ut whose name was Wayward. The man was floating and stuck upright on a rock, he feared the worst and turned away from his boat to shore. There was one first mate and many books with him.


----------



## rtsideup

Cascabel fishing club is the only civilization on this stretch of river and, in my experience, they've been pretty hospitable to boaters. Rafting season and fishing season, on this this river, do not coincide. We've stopped at the "beach" in front the club to regroup and lunch-on-the-boats (It's really the ONLY place to stop). Being offseason for them, a caretaker came down, he politely let us know that we were on private property (which we knew), we promised to leave no trace and to pass along the message that this was not a lunch spot. He allowed us to stay and finish our lunch. Pretty reasonable in my opinion. 
To get their help in rescuing your asses and putting you in a hot-tub... man you need to give some props and get your sorry, soggy ass to a motel!


----------



## BmfnL

This is great storytelling. I just wish I found this thread after it is done - I can't stand suspense.


----------



## BilloutWest

Wayward Boatman said:


> Part 6
> ..................
> ‘Have you read The Bible?” he fired back.
> “Much of it. Yes, I have. Not all of it, though.”
> “What’s your favorite book in The Bible?”
> “Again, considering recent events, I’d have to say right now: The Book of Job”.
> “Have you read The Book of Job?”
> “I have. In fact, there is a copy of it, a more recent translation that I had intended to read on this trip. It is on the raft wrapped on your rock.”


Is Caretaker A from Noah's Ark?
You know how much fun they make of us when we wrap rocks!


----------



## grumper13

Hmmm....kinda sounds like the raft may not have worked itself off the rock during the night, but that maybe it had help getting off that rock....by parties yet un-named....


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 7*

Part 7

By now we had learned a few things. The caretakers are devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. They perceived our crisis as a kind of “come to Jesus” moment. As a result, they seemed to consider us ripe for conversion. We had learned Caretaker B was new on the job ---having been there only two months. Caretaker A had been there at least a couple years.

“What about you? Where do you stand with religion and The Bible?” Caretaker B asked The First Mate, having apparently given up on me.

“That’s problematic. I’m Armenian. ---Essentially a culture in diaspora. ---A culture forever embedded within some other culture struggling to keep its identity. We are Apostolic Orthodox Christians. ----Its part and parcel of our identity. Regardless of our level of faith, or belief, it is an essential component of who we are. And we hold to it fiercely.”

How do you treat Jehovah’s Witnesses when they knock on your door? 

“With respect. I tell them what I just told you.”

After I gave Caretaker A my phone number, and I secured his (with some reluctance on his part), and his assurance that he would contact me first thing in the morning after talking with the owner, we were dropped off late at night in the morbid light of a motel in Norwood, wearing the clothes we swam in. I was in a pair of tattered cotton shorts and a hammered white dress shirt. We had my ammo can. We had our life jackets. We pushed the buzzer to call the manager. She arrived after about 20 minutes.

While checking in, I felt a pang of hunger. “You must be famished!” I said to The First Mate who has the metabolism of a humming bird. 

“I’m about to drop.”

The manager had overheard from the other room, and when the paper work was done she said to The First Mate, “Come with me”. There was a suite where her son sometimes stayed. From the pantry she pulled snacks and sweets and canned fruit. It’s quite remarkable how kind and considerate people fundamentally are, by nature. We collapsed into fitful sleep. I kept having a terrible reoccurring dream ---every time to wake up and realize, that no, this had all really happened. It was not just a bad dream.

In the morning, I called the shuttle driver. He picked me up and took me to the truck in Naturita. The First Mate and I had a good hot meal at the Happy Belly Deli. At 9:30 I received the following text from Caretaker A:

“We took a look at midnight and the raft was gone, we were able to retrieve one blue bag, you are welcome to come and get it anytime…”


----------



## TupperwareBill

I would have come back with "Do unto others..." and "Forgive us our trespasses..." when they asked about the bible bs.


----------



## mania




----------



## ag3dw

hey wait a minute, whats wrong with being a Jehovah's Whitness?


----------



## mkashzg

ag3dw said:


> hey wait a minute, whats wrong with being a Jehovah's Whitness?



Nothing if you happen to enjoy people knocking on your door trying to change your life with absurd values.


----------



## Dave Frank

Fortunatley I just finally clicked on this thread, so i wasn't waiting on most of the story.

There needs to be a way to be notified only if the OP replies. Not a whole lot of interest in reading the side comments (like mine).

It originally sounded like he was missing the ammo can that he in fact had on the first night, with the keys and wallets. 

Is your first mate still your GF? Will she boat again?


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Dear Mr. Dave Frank:

The material loss was just shy of total (certain folks on the river immediately after us, and on the banks below, were stellar in salvaging a little of the gear). The First Mate and I, however, did not lose one another---Thank God. She is of hearty soul and spirit, with tremendous fortitude. 

---As to your second question? At this juncture, I’m not sure either of us will ever boat again. ---Or, if so, in what capacity. The river has been my life ---not hers.

Her ammo can was strapped to the right running board and was lost.

My objective here is to bear down and get the story told. Hopefully readers will benefit from the telling. And finally, I hope to post some of my own reflections as to how and why this happened. 

My best to you and to yours, and to all the great folks out there who make up the larger river community.

Wayward Boatman


----------



## mattman

Awesome storry!!! But some artistic liberties involving Grif throwing stuff at people WOULD be pretty awesome, and we could forgive the fiction..... Just saying, you know. Nudge nudge


----------



## kevinthediltz

This thread is beautiful.


----------



## duct tape

mattman said:


> Awesome storry!!! But some artistic liberties involving Grif throwing stuff at people WOULD be pretty awesome, and we could forgive the fiction..... Just saying, you know. Nudge nudge


It's actually getting pretty hard to tell, having read the opening post as a true story, where fact ends and fiction begins.


----------



## BilloutWest

duct tape said:


> It's actually getting pretty hard to tell, having read the opening post as a true story, where fact ends and fiction begins.


Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Never call out a story teller unless you always tell the truth.


----------



## grumper13

BilloutWest said:


> Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
> 
> Never call out a story teller unless you always tell the truth.


Yes. And if you weren't there....and none of us were.


----------



## wildh2onriver

They lost their boat, but they gained salvation. That's the main thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


----------



## Gremlin

Wayward Boatman said:


> The missing oar rig was spotted this morning from the air.



So, did you ever get the your boat back? I'm confused.


----------



## daairguy

Gremlin said:


> So, did you ever get the your boat back? I'm confused.


I'd like to get an ending to this story too!


----------



## jbseay

Speculative ending based on clues in early chapters, highlight white text below if you like guesses:

~I bet the use of an aircraft proved fortuitous because the lost raft was discovered on land...
Perhaps the landowner who "owns both sides of the river, and that rock in the middle"? Seems like the kind of person who would view the raft as finders keepers since it was trespassing on his rock. ~

I'm looking forward to finding out!
[/COLOR]


----------



## Paco

*Nah.*

Not possible. The people you are referring to are Christians. They follow the teachings of Christ and wouldn't do something he wouldn't do.

:roll:


As for your super sneaky stealth white text trick-----mind blown.

How many other white text messages are embedded in this thread? There could be hundreds, telling the real story, or at least adding clues for us sleuths to ruminate on.

I'm going to highlight the whole thread, post by post. Then, for good measure, the whole rest of the forum. Just not sure if I should start at the beginning and work forward, or start now and work backward. Or start with Chunderboy. Or start with 'Bout Lost My Life.

Man, there goes work for the rest of the day.

John is dead!


----------



## yesimapirate

Paco said:


> As for your super sneaky stealth white text trick-----mind blown.
> 
> How many other white text messages are embedded in this thread? There could be hundreds, telling the real story, or at least adding clues for us sleuths to ruminate on.
> 
> I'm going to highlight the whole thread, post by post. Then, for good measure, the whole rest of the forum. Just not sure if I should start at the beginning and work forward, or start now and work backward. Or start with Chunderboy. Or start with 'Bout Lost My Life.
> 
> Man, there goes work for the rest of the day.
> 
> John is dead!


Or you could just come to the dark side and see his and all others from the beginning! Scroll allll the way to the bottom and look on the left.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 8*

Part 8

How in the Name of God did the Caretakers manage to secure one of the two blue river bags left on the rock when we escaped that night? There was very little distance to travel by foot downstream on the right bank as the terrain turned immediately steep with brush and scree. Any of the items left on that rock that might have been washed or blown off would have been immediately and swiftly swept downstream, ---likely, far downstream. I guess anything is possible.


----------



## Wayward Boatman




----------



## Wayward Boatman




----------



## Wayward Boatman




----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Images*

The above images were made at 3:15, the day after the wrap, June 11, 2016. The river level against the upstream side of the boulder was about a foot higher than when we wrapped.


----------



## lmyers

jbseay said:


> Speculative ending based on clues in early chapters, highlight white text below if you like guesses:
> 
> ~I bet the use of an aircraft proved fortuitous because the lost raft was discovered on land...
> Perhaps the landowner who "owns both sides of the river, and that rock in the middle"? Seems like the kind of person who would view the raft as finders keepers since it was trespassing on his rock. ~
> 
> I'm looking forward to finding out!
> [/COLOR]


Sorry, but I removed your "hidden white text". First post, I had to verify you weren't spamming us...

and as far as those pictures go, that is a simple class II move. Kinda sad that you wrapped it and had an epic...


----------



## duct tape

lmyers said:


> Sorry, but I removed your "hidden white text". First post, I had to verify you weren't spamming us...
> 
> and as far as those pictures go, that is a simple class II move. Kinda sad that you wrapped it and had an epic...


Ditto. Kind of makes post #59 seem a little melodramatic. Not saying bad things didn't happen, but... were you asleep, drunk, stoned...?

Having posted this I fully admit I was goofing off one time and almost wrapped on Winnie's rock.


----------



## climbdenali

lmyers said:


> and as far as those pictures go, that is a simple class II move. Kinda sad that you wrapped it and had an epic...


It does look like there was plenty of room to the left, but in fairness, it also looks like there was a pretty significant bend just upstream, and that because of the bend most of the current is being thrown to the outside, right side of the river. 

Probably not quite as easy a move as it looks like in October, at low water, from the comfort of your couch.


----------



## caverdan

Why do I get the feeling that the boat ended up on shore..... by the rock it was stuck on????


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Class II move, no doubt. No excuses.

My immediate demise was the log (and allowing myself to be distracted scouring the bank for a place to bivouac. I should have been focused entirely on getting down into the canyon proper which would have put us well left of the boulder ---and presumably at a decent campsite). Had the log not been there, stopping the nose of the boat and giving the current the right tube to bite and submerge, I'd have made the turn into the chute. The log was still there when the above images were made. Because of the higher flow (about a foot at the rock), it is no longer visible. I could see it was there from the bank. (I can barely see it in the original photo files.) One of several reasons for returning to the sight was to look to see if the log had broken, thereby freeing the boat. From the beginning, it was difficult accepting that the boat, and the items left on the rock, had washed away of their own accord. 

I was not impaired in any way (other than general fatigue and a compelling desire for a piece of shore).


----------



## jbseay

lmyers said:


> Sorry, but I removed your "hidden white text". First post, I had to verify you weren't spamming us...


Not sure how I could spam via font selection? But the edit is certainly your prerogative; I learned the trick on other boards as a way to mask tv show spoilers and speculation, of all things :roll:. 
Joined in 2009, Could've sworn I'd posted here before, but maybe I was always just a lurker. 

JB


----------



## BilloutWest

Wayward Boatman said:


> Class II move, no doubt. No excuses.
> ........


In hindsight. Would cutting the bottom free, to possibly assist a release from the rock, been worthwhile?

I've heard just one cut on the rope holding the boat to floor can .............


----------



## Groover69

lmyers said:


> Sorry, but I removed your "hidden white text". First post, I had to verify you weren't spamming us...
> 
> and as far as those pictures go, that is a simple class II move. Kinda sad that you wrapped it and had an epic...


Agreed. Admittadly, I'm a noob, only bought a boat earlier this year, but did put in a full season of rafting and my initial thoughts when seeing the pics are, "are you f**king kidding me?". I dare say that I believe I could eject my self from my boat, into the drink, and swim my Super Duper Puma through those ferocious rapids, whilst still able to pull myself back into my boat after.

Or....I could lay back on my cooler and snooze through the left side. I called BS on this story after the second post from WB.


----------



## Duce

What are you calling BS on? He wrapped his raft on a rock. It happens, often in times in spots you would least expect it.


----------



## wickums

The victim shaming is ripe in this thread. Personally, I don't care if that rock is completely avoidable or if the story is real or not (still an epic read and let's hope we're not being rick rolled) but the man made a mistake and admitted to his errors and what happened happened. 

I've seen my share of wraps and ejections on the river but I keep my judgements to myself and will always discuss what went wrong in the accident and why. 

Here's a great read from teton gravity and I feel like the overall message transfers over to the whitewater community perfectly. 

http://www.tetongravity.com/story/snowboard/why-we-victim-blame-avalanche-survivors

Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Mountain Buzz mobile app


----------



## lmyers

jbseay said:


> Not sure how I could spam via font selection? But the edit is certainly your prerogative; I learned the trick on other boards as a way to mask tv show spoilers and speculation, of all things :roll:.
> Joined in 2009, Could've sworn I'd posted here before, but maybe I was always just a lurker.
> 
> JB


Yeah, I suppose I could have just checked it out and left it, but I was in a hurry and we have had many, many spammers post some bad links in hidden text.... just being overly cautious.


----------



## Groover69

Duce said:


> What are you calling BS on? He wrapped his raft on a rock. It happens, often in times in spots you would least expect it.


I agree, things happen. But did you look at the pics!? You couldn't wrap a rope around that rock. and considering that flow, and the width of the river to bank, that's a pretty easy swim. And if that was too tough, swim left, as that side is almost at a stand still. Not to f**cking mention...he's been boating since '79!!!!


----------



## DoStep

Groover69 said:


> that's a pretty easy swim...


Swimming in 40 degree spring run off in bank full current with no eddies is not easy.


----------



## carvedog

Groover69 said:


> I agree, things happen. But did you look at the pics!? You couldn't wrap a rope around that rock. and considering that flow, and the width of the river to bank, that's a pretty easy swim. And if that was too tough, swim left, as that side is almost at a stand still. Not to f**cking mention...he's been boating since '79!!!!


Ohhhh how the righteous indignation of this one is setting up a cluster fuck of glorious magnitude.

Sometime, someplace when you least expect it The River will make sure that you know who is in charge. But after a full season of rafting I am sure you have all this shit figured out. 

Until we catch up to you we are all in between swims. Just very recently I was able to put my 17 foot Maravia sideways through a 7 foot entry at Cove Creek on the Middle Fork. Everyone with me was shocked at the screwup first and that I actually deformed my boat enough to get it through. 

Pretty funny actually that I cleaned the very challenging first couple of days and then a tiny little rock tap at the wrong time.....and Bam! Chest deep in water tugging on my boat.


----------



## Paul7

Couldn't agree with Carvedog more. Most stories of carnage and suffering I've heard or been involved in myself were doing mundane things. Damn near almost killed myself on my mountain bike riding one of the easiest trails that I ride. 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Mountain Buzz mobile app


----------



## Andy H.

Groover69 said:


> I agree, things happen. But did you look at the pics!? You couldn't wrap a rope around that rock. and considering that flow, and the width of the river to bank, that's a pretty easy swim. And if that was too tough, swim left, as that side is almost at a stand still. Not to f**cking mention...he's been boating since '79!!!!


Groover,

Welcome to whitewater boating. Yeah, the photos make it all look pretty tame and easily avoidable, however, in addition to what the three posters after your comment said, here are a couple of things that you'll learn pretty soon: 1) Photos seldom show anything near the full extent of what the water's really doing, or the severity of the rapid pictured, or hydraulics beneath the water's surface, or what may happen at different flow levels. 2) If you weren't on that rock with him, observing the situation, and bringing a lot of experience as basis for your comments, there really shouldn't be much second-guessing. When I've seen appropriate "after action" critiques by folks that weren't directly involved, it's been from experienced boaters who were intimately familiar with the scene, or situation, of the event.

Be safe, rig to flip, dress to swim, be humble about the river, and give the folks who were actually there the benefit of the doubt.

-AH


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Dear Groover69:

Not only have I been boating since 1979, I have logged an estimated 25,000+ river miles. ---Multiple runs on dozens of rivers, from the Arctic to Patagonia, including precisely 80 Grand Canyon trips (from rowing it at over 50,000 to motoring it in a 37’ S-rig at 3,000), 60, or so, Cat trips including a dozen, or so, runs over 70,000 (1 as high as 112,000), 40+ Deso trips, 40+ Westwater trips, 2 seasons on The Bío Bío, runs down The Fútaleufu, The Rio Figueroa, in Chile, as well as countless runs all over The West. Almost all of the trips I’ve run in the last twenty years have been single boat, two person trips ----including one such 30-day trip down Grand Canyon, and extended trips down The Dolores, The Salt, The Bruneau, The South Fork of the Owyhee, and all sections below. I’ve run rivers as small as The Escalante and as large as The Alsek. I’ve run in all kinds of craft: hard shell kayaks, IKs, dories, paddle boats, surplus ten-mans, various oar rigs, snout rigs, and 37’ S-rigs. I’ve lined rapids twice, and “ghost boated” some of the nasty ones on the Fu. I’ve flipped a raft twice (both in less than treacherous locations), and swam a couple times. Now, I’ve wrapped once on one mountain creek, The San Miguel, at very high water ---and lost pretty much all my gear.

I am trying to tell a story here for the benefit of all, and any, interested parties ---especially for “noobies” on The River such as yourself. Perhaps I’m a fool, and not qualified to tell the tale ---well, I aim to tell it anyway. 

Kind regards,

Wayward Boatman


----------



## BilloutWest

Wayward Boatman said:


> Dear Groover69:
> 
> ....... ---and lost pretty much all my gear.........
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Wayward Boatman


Ah Ha.

Another part of the San Miguel Epic final chapter, I believe.
Sadly.


----------



## restrac2000

wickums said:


> The victim shaming is ripe in this thread. Personally, I don't care if that rock is completely avoidable or if the story is real or not (still an epic read and let's hope we're not being rick rolled) but the man made a mistake and admitted to his errors and what happened happened.
> 
> I've seen my share of wraps and ejections on the river but I keep my judgements to myself and will always discuss what went wrong in the accident and why.
> 
> Here's a great read from teton gravity and I feel like the overall message transfers over to the whitewater community perfectly.
> 
> Why Avalanche Victims Get Publicly Shamed - And Why They Shouldn’t | Teton Gravity Research
> 
> Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Mountain Buzz mobile app


To the spirit of charity in these threads...I agree. Its too easy to jump to conclusion in life and the internet makes it easier. I have been on both sides.

A caveat, and where i disagree, is using the term victim in this case. I think we devalue terms like victim (even more irked by how people throw around the word tragedy) in situations like these. I dont see Wayward as a victim by definition or spirit. 

As well, there is a narrative unraveling to this entire saga that is leaving me uncomfortable with the OP. The thread has reached almost fifteen pages and the story has taken months to share. The innuendo is strong a this point and it seems to involve serious themes that affect boaters across the west. This approach doesnt fit the criticism of the attached link well at all. We dont see someone sharing a story in clear, humble terms (the grizzly gulch duo); the OP isnt being forced to participate in a public arena when they prefer processing it privately; etc.

I see the problem with casting blame or forcing accountability in a situation like this. But i also think the manner in which the OP is proceeding is just as problematic. It may be a good yarn but its coming off as manipulative to me. To say I am skeptical of the intentions at this point is an understatement.


----------



## liquidphoto

Pretty awesome story. I just started the read. Cant wait to hear the end. Going with my instincts, I'm thinking I know what happened. That boat didn't come off by its self.


----------



## Groover69

restrac2000 said:


> A caveat, and where i disagree, is using the term victim in this case. I think we devalue terms like victim (even more irked by how people throw around the word tragedy) in situations like these. I dont see Wayward as a victim by definition or spirit.
> 
> It may be a good yarn but its coming off as manipulative to me. To say I am skeptical of the intentions at this point is an understatement.


Here here.


----------



## Andy H.

restrac2000 said:


> ... Its too easy to jump to conclusion in life and the internet makes it easier.
> 
> A caveat, and where i disagree, is using the term victim in this case. I think we devalue terms like victim (even more irked by how people throw around the word tragedy) in situations like these. I dont see Wayward as a victim by definition or spirit.
> 
> As well, there is a narrative unraveling to this entire saga that is leaving me uncomfortable with the OP. The thread has reached almost fifteen pages and the story has taken months to share. The innuendo is strong a this point and it seems to involve serious themes that affect boaters across the west. This approach doesnt fit the criticism of the attached link well at all. We dont see someone sharing a story in clear, humble terms (the grizzly gulch duo); the OP isnt being forced to participate in a public arena when they prefer processing it privately; etc.
> 
> ... But i also think the manner in which the OP is proceeding is just as problematic. It may be a good yarn but its coming off as manipulative to me. To say I am skeptical of the intentions at this point is an understatement.


Phillip, I respectfully disagree with some of the sentiments above. I've only been skimming a lot of the posts and then reading some carefully, however,

I don't think the OP has referred to himself as a "victim" once in the thread, however if his boat has been stolen, then it seems perfectly valid to me. It's others who have made this reference. Also, it's up to the OP to post his parts of the story on his own time. We don't have any right to have him spend the hours typing it up, proofing and revising, etc. on our schedule. I'm just glad to see it coming and don't care that Wayward is doing it in installments. That's his perogative and we should just count ourselves fortunate that he's taking the time to compose a great story for us. 

And yes, there are themes relevant to boating in the West that are sensitive, primarily the way flows on the Dolores are completely jacked and riparian trespass from what I've seen. I'm not sure how describing them is a problem - it's just the backdrop. And is for sharing the story with humility, with the boating resume he has, to put it out there that he flipped his boat on that rock seems pretty humble to me. I could've missed something but until called out by Groover69 on his experience, I haven't seen any chest puffing so far in what he's written, quite frankly I've seen the latter.

I'm looking forward to the next installment. Whenever WaywardBoater wants to share it.

Also, if you change the number of posts shown per page, it's only 5 pages

-AH


----------



## duct tape

Wayward Boatman said:


> Dear Groover69:
> 
> Not only have I been boating since 1979, I have logged an estimated 25,000+ river miles. ---Multiple runs on dozens of rivers, from the Arctic to Patagonia, including precisely 80 Grand Canyon trips (from rowing it at over 50,000 to motoring it in a 37’ S-rig at 3,000), 60, or so, Cat trips including a dozen, or so, runs over 70,000 (1 as high as 112,000), 40+ Deso trips, 40+ Westwater trips, 2 seasons on The Bío Bío, runs down The Fútaleufu, The Rio Figueroa, in Chile, as well as countless runs all over The West. Almost all of the trips I’ve run in the last twenty years have been single boat, two person trips ----including one such 30-day trip down Grand Canyon, and extended trips down The Dolores, The Salt, The Bruneau, The South Fork of the Owyhee, and all sections below. I’ve run rivers as small as The Escalante and as large as The Alsek. I’ve run in all kinds of craft: hard shell kayaks, IKs, dories, paddle boats, surplus ten-mans, various oar rigs, snout rigs, and 37’ S-rigs. I’ve lined rapids twice, and “ghost boated” some of the nasty ones on the Fu. I’ve flipped a raft twice (both in less than treacherous locations), and swam a couple times. Now, I’ve wrapped once on one mountain creek, The San Miguel, at very high water ---and lost pretty much all my gear.
> 
> I am trying to tell a story here for the benefit of all, and any, interested parties ---especially for “noobies” on The River such as yourself. Perhaps I’m a fool, and not qualified to tell the tale ---well, I aim to tell it anyway.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Wayward Boatman


Pretty impressive river resume WB. 

- Jon


----------



## duct tape

carvedog said:


> Ohhhh how the righteous indignation of this one is setting up a cluster fuck of glorious magnitude.
> 
> Sometime, someplace when you least expect it The River will make sure that you know who is in charge. But after a full season of rafting I am sure you have all this shit figured out.
> 
> Until we catch up to you we are all in between swims. Just very recently I was able to put my 17 foot Maravia sideways through a 7 foot entry at Cove Creek on the Middle Fork. Everyone with me was shocked at the screwup first and that I actually deformed my boat enough to get it through.
> 
> Pretty funny actually that I cleaned the very challenging first couple of days and then a tiny little rock tap at the wrong time.....and Bam! Chest deep in water tugging on my boat.


Jerry, you are so right. There are daily doses of river humility, both expected and unexpected.


----------



## restrac2000

Andy H. said:


> Phillip, I respectfully disagree with some of the sentiments above. I've only been skimming a lot of the posts and then reading some carefully, however,
> 
> I don't think the OP has referred to himself as a "victim" once in the thread, however if his boat has been stolen, then it seems perfectly valid to me. It's others who have made this reference. Also, it's up to the OP to post his parts of the story on his own time. We don't have any right to have him spend the hours typing it up, proofing and revising, etc. on our schedule. I'm just glad to see it coming and don't care that Wayward is doing it in installments. That's his perogative and we should just count ourselves fortunate that he's taking the time to compose a great story for us.
> 
> And yes, there are themes relevant to boating in the West that are sensitive, primarily the way flows on the Dolores are completely jacked and riparian trespass from what I've seen. I'm not sure how describing them is a problem - it's just the backdrop. And is for sharing the story with humility, with the boating resume he has, to put it out there that he flipped his boat on that rock seems pretty humble to me. I could've missed something but until called out by Groover69 on his experience, I haven't seen any chest puffing so far in what he's written, quite frankly I've seen the latter.
> 
> I'm looking forward to the next installment. Whenever WaywardBoater wants to share it.
> 
> Also, if you change the number of posts shown per page, it's only 5 pages
> 
> -AH


We were eventually bound to respectfully disagree on something.

To be clear, my post was in response to Wickum's criticism and links. I think they were inaccurate terms and conclusions. I never claimed a right to any information or timeline. The OP can proceed how ever he wants. But the fashion, pace and narrative design is problematic in my opinion for a non-fiction account. And once the OP chose to publicly comment then his audience has the same privilege to comment.

For example, 4+ weeks ago Wayward stated (bold and italics mine) the following:



> Many pieces of the puzzle are in, but not yet enough for me to draw a conclusion.
> 
> There is quite a story here, and I will tell it. _*But not until all is in.*_
> 
> _*There is strong evidence of foul play on the part of one particular party. But I will not level that claim until I have learned all I possibly can*_.


I am uncomfortable with claiming to take the high road regarding accusations yet stating an opinion of foul play on a public forum when all the evidence is admittedly lacking. This is made worse by the structure of installments and the way several of them have ended in innuendo. A natural outcome of this style of writing is for the audience to fill in the blanks with guesses; that is fine with novels or fiction but problematic when dealing with real issues of private property and public access in the west. Relationships are plenty tense there already and i dont think this style helps in the long run.

Per the humility, i would have agreed until the OP fashioned the last few installments as he chose. Thats where my comment is situated. If the OP has more information then is being revealed but is withholding it for affect of storytelling than my manipulation summary stands. If the OP lacks the information needed to level such unfortunate claims but is choosing to fill in with innuendo than my red flags and criticisms are well-founded as well.

For now I stand by my skepticism. I think that is plenty fair and healthy when an OP strings people along for three plus months with vagueness and currently unsupported accusations. 

And to be clear, leveling these criticisms about his post exist right alongside a sincere sympathy for enduring a rough river experience and an almost complete loss of gear. I have intentionally stayed clear of judgement regarding his choices on the river because they are secondary to that unfortunate experience (and the OP did not express an interest in that type of assesment but initially focused on the loss of gear ). The river is obviously an important part of the OP's life and I wouldn't wish this outcome on anybody.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Dear restrac2000:

Thank you for your last post (and your excellent contributions to this thread all along). Your position is carefully fashioned and well thought-out, and eloquently expressed. And also, I must admit, well founded. More than anything, the form this telling has taken is mostly a result of my beginning the account without a clear sense of its resolution. 

You are right. There is insufficient evidence to level any claim of wrong doing against anyone (other than myself). Whereas I had some hope that such evidence might emerge ---that hope has since slipped away. There are no accusations pending. ---Nothing’s being withheld. The basis for my suspicions regarding the boat’s demise is already within the narrative. As such, it was imprudent of me to submit the lines in my earlier post that you have highlighted in yours. 

For anyone hanging on the edge of their seat, this story does not conclude with a bang, but with a whimper. What’s left to tell is mostly a testament to people stepping up in an effort to facilitate a positive outcome.

You (and some other key contributors here) have brought poise and discretion to an exchange that could easily have careened into rancor and chaos.

With much respect,

Wayward Boatman


----------



## BilloutWest

From the Jehovah's Witness New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (2013 Revision):



> "Matthew 14:
> 28 ) _Peter answered him: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you over the waters.”_
> 29 ) _He said: “Come!” So Peter got out of the boat and walked over the waters and went toward Jesus. _
> 30 ) _But looking at the windstorm, he became afraid. And when he started to sink, he cried out: “Lord, save me!” _
> 31 ) _Immediately stretching out his hand, Jesus caught hold of him and said to him: “You with little faith, why did you give way to doubt?”_
> 32 ) _After they got up into the boat, the windstorm abated._"


----------



## ag3dw

Lol, thanks, that was great!


----------



## CSHolt

duct tape said:


> Pretty impressive river resume WB.
> 
> - Jon


I agree!! That is one hell of a river resume!!! Enjoyed the story as well!


----------



## BilloutWest

ag3dw said:


> Lol, thanks, that was great!


Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

The movie '*O Brother, Where Art Thou*?' was openly based on _Homer's Odyssey_. 

Could the San Miguel Epic also be based on a greater story from thousands of years ago?
Not by plagiarism, but with the same appreciation as the Cohen Brothers.


----------



## bigben

Wayward Boatman said:


> For anyone hanging on the edge of their seat, this story does not conclude with a bang, but with a whimper. What’s left to tell is mostly a testament to people stepping up in an effort to facilitate a positive outcome.



Wait. So 44,000 views later and that's how it ends???
"I hit a rock and lost all my shit- you fill in the blanks"???

Kinda weak dude. 
Hopefully you at least had some kind of real resolution, whether you wanna share it or not.....

At the very least, 44000 views and the amusement of a bunch of bored buzzards in October counts for something, right


----------



## BilloutWest

bigben said:


> Wait. So 44,000 views later and that's how it ends???
> "I hit a rock and lost all my shit- you fill in the blanks"???
> 
> Kinda weak dude.
> Hopefully you at least had some kind of real resolution, whether you wanna share it or not.....
> 
> At the very least, 44000 views and the amusement of a bunch of bored buzzards in October counts for something, right



The five stages:

anger
denial
bargaining
depression 
acceptance.

The good news is with that post we only have two stages left.


----------



## bigben

No, I guess you could still count depression.
I was kinda expecting some big dramatic conclusion

Acceptance comes later


----------



## Quiggle

Wayward Boatman said:


> The missing oar rig was spotted this morning from the air. I will refrain until later from revealing the location so as to avoid potential vultures.


How about this part?Whom and where, spotted your boat? Sounds like your already counting it lost?


----------



## BilloutWest

Wayward Boatman said:


> The missing oar rig was spotted this morning from the air. I will refrain until later from revealing the location so as to avoid potential vultures.
> ........


That was from 06-26-2016.

Now we're reduced to a _*Back to the Future*_ sequel.


----------



## co_bjread

So, even if it does end with a whimper, once you make it to the end, do us a favor, and wite an alternate ending just for kicks. Then you can throw in all the flare of a great ending the story deserves. Al a Big Fish style, so you become immortal through the story...you know, like Grif.


----------



## villagelightsmith

I popped in to the last couple of days, looked at the page count, and ferried back to the beginning. Very good read! The installments are part of the greatness, the sniveling and whining are not. Keep it going, and do not let a good story die for want of a little embellishment!
Was the boat recovered on land or in a strainer? Were one or more of the JW's wrapped up in the thing when you found it? Or were they celebrating "Pistols for 4, coffee for 2" with another pair of (Quakers/Shakers/Tories/ or Whigs)?
I've enjoyed the comments about the Bard as well. Not being over-tutored on the subject, I just assumed the old boy voiced each piece as he desired, and that his superior intelligence, breadth of vocabulary, and depth of human observation allowed him step aside at times, to hew the frames, fair the lines and caulk the planks of his story and sail it whither he chose. I accept any good story as just that, and I'm looking forward to the next installment of this one. Keep it rollin', My Friend. I shall weep when it comes to its inevitable conclusion.


----------



## ag3dw

My one big takeaway...er...maybe not the best phrasing, I was not involved nor nowhere near any of this incident. 

Lets see, the one lesson reinforced by our epic saga is that when things don't go as u would plan and stuff hits the fan: forget the stuff. 

I am sorry u may have lost some of your material goods, but the fact that u and your coadventurer came out generally ok is the most important thing. Bruised and battered tho body, ego and pocketbook may be, u lived to fight another day.

If others may not have done the right thing, as u may be implying, that is for them to let their conscience deal with, or answer for when it comes to judgment. If there was indeed foul play, river karma is a bitch.

Happy many further epics!


----------



## case_seth

Your tale of woe has been written with both devotion and honor. Kanye's advice...haters gonna hate, just sit back and watch the thread views pile up.


----------



## swimteam101

*Wayward ?*

Wayward. Perhaps you could elaborate on the actual salvage and or recovery of the boat and gear. I believe this could be helpful to others finding them selves in a similar situation. I am interested in the private vs public land issues you have faced. In Montana your right to stay with the your craft and and secure a line to it would have never been in doubt. I hope that by sharing we could bring the issue of river access in Colorado to light for other to see and hopefully get involved. The Greed shown by most of the riverfront land owners in the San Miguel and Dolores drainage is astonishing. Rise up river community.


----------



## ag3dw

Wayward, I am beginning to take umbrage with your method of stating your situation. Do u really want a positive result for your plight as we know it? As a results oriented person, I want to know everything about what is going on. The boating community is wide ranging and may be of some assistance.

A couple of years ago, when a member of a kayak expedition in Kazakstan (or one of those neareast countries) was beset with an altitude sickness and the group had not been heard from. The call went out to the boating community and the results were amazing. Embassies were called, all sorts of resources were made available. 

Are u seeking results or sympathy? If we knew what was going on, we might b able to help. Someone may have contacts in the law enforcement or religious or other communities. So what is going on? Are u just wallowing in your shit or do u want a positive outcome? 

IF there are legal entanglements, the web is perhaps not the best place to state your case. But then we don't actually know what your case is exactly!


----------



## elkhaven

swimteam101 said:


> Wayward. Perhaps you could elaborate on the actual salvage and or recovery of the boat and gear. I believe this could be helpful to others finding them selves in a similar situation. I am interested in the private vs public land issues you have faced. In Montana your right to stay with the your craft and and secure a line to it would have never been in doubt. I hope that by sharing we could bring the issue of river access in Colorado to light for other to see and hopefully get involved. The Greed shown by most of the riverfront land owners in the San Miguel and Dolores drainage is astonishing. Rise up river community.


I'm pretty sure some where down there Wayward stated he did not recover the boat, nor most of his gear - just what he got the day of and a trickling of things afterword... I looked quickly but couldn't find it so if I'm wrong hopefully someone will correct me.

On the private land issue, I couldn't agree more. Every story I hear coming out of Colorado involving land owner issues make's me more and more thankful to the the many people here in the great state of Montana that continually fight for our stream access rights. It's one thing that has been done very right within my home state! It does take a lot of money and effort to maintain as it's under almost constant assault by greedy landowners, mostly from out of state. One very nearly damaging suit was funded by Coors, or large stakeholders in the company at least (I don't recall the specifics). Fortunately, all the suit ultimately did was strengthen the current law.


----------



## BilloutWest

While we're waiting.

How many states are similar to Colorado in riverfront ownership and management?

Is there an interesting history as to how this came about? Perhaps to facilitate the nefarious activities of mining interests or some such group of miscreants. 

I need to go exploring.


----------



## mttodd

Regarding stream access in Montana. Kristin Juras running for Supreme Court in Montana has said she opposes stream access. So does Zinke. Remember come Election Day. We don't want to end up like Colorado.


----------



## restrac2000

First, sorry to hear there is no closure, Wayward. That is devastating. I hope you and your first mate work through and make it back to the river if that is what y'all desire.

Two, i apologize for my misplaced skepticism and any harm it may have caused you personally. My concern was the style and its influence but your response cleared that up for me. My sincerest apology.

To others, Utah has similar private lands protections. We are in the midst of expanding those, not reducing. My original concern is situated in that unfortunate reality. I live in a community that very much harbors resentment for public lands and its influence on locals. I disagree with their priorities but have learned to respect their perspective and history. Sage Brush Rebellion part deux is very much happening, though it may falter. No matter i have seen time and time again how demonizing the other side just pushes people back intto their fox holes and erodes the chance of understanding needed to find compromise. That is my concern and sensitivity to the subject and why i approached this thread the way I did personally.

Wayward clarified his intention (with humility that is admirable) so I stand corrected.


----------



## elkhaven

mttodd said:


> Regarding stream access in Montana. Kristin Juras running for Supreme Court in Montana has said she opposes stream access. So does Zinke. Remember come Election Day. We don't want to end up like Colorado.


And Gianforte - though I don't think that's his "official" stance. He's known as a horrible neighbor at a minimum.

Wyoming is very similar to Colorado. Idaho seems to be very similar to Montana but I'm not sure what the official policy is. Oregon is also pro access, but I recall hearing there had been some challenges to that in the past decade. Unfortunately public rights are always shrinking and typically once a right is lost it's probably not coming back...

When I moved to montana you could bird hunt on any land that was not posted (and there were fairly stringent posting rules). That ended shortly after I got here... Next came the no open container law while driving. It just never stops!


----------



## caverdan

elkhaven....have they changed your speed limits yet?


----------



## elkhaven

caverdan said:


> elkhaven....have they changed your speed limits yet?


oh yeah! Then they took away our right to haul ass! 

No actually reasonable and prudent was a nightmare - it was totally subjective. The citizens hated it, the cops hated it... the only ones that loved it were the out of stater's blissfully barreling down the highway at 120 thinking they weren't going to get pulled over. The irony is anything over about 80 was likely to get a light flash - 90 you were getting pulled over. This about the same as it was both before and after the experiment. The nice thing before R&P was that most tickets on highways and interstates were for wasting natural resources - $5.00 on the spot and it wasn't a moving violation so insurance never saw it. I wish it was still that way.


----------



## Soup76

elkhaven said:


> ... Next came the no open container law while driving. It just never stops!


^^^^ lol..


----------



## The Mogur

Marine salvage law, not the ownership of the rock, is the prevailing legal issue.

SALVAGE LAW: Do You Get to Keep an Abandoned Boat?


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 9*

Part 9

Upon receiving the text from Caretaker A, The First Mate and I piled into the truck and raced down Highway 145 toward the Nucla turn-off, in hopes of catching the rig somewhere below the intended take-out, in that no-man’s land of private property, man-made obstacles, and rancher’s riff-raff. We started the search at the power plant and worked up-river. Fences and gates and no-trespassing signs were everywhere. We abided by them. We climbed hills and walked fence lines trying to get a visual on as much of the river as possible. (I’m guessing we were able to observe about 40% of that reach.) We drove to the end of the road above Cottonwood Campground. We stood, and waited and watched a long time as the river raced by. Nothing.

It would be two more weeks before I received information simultaneously, from two separate sources (one a Mountain Buzzer), indicating we had probably been within several hundred yards of one particularly nasty head dam, which we could not see ---where a rancher owns both sides of the river. The rig was likely already in the weir there, pitching and sun-fishing, spy hopping, cartwheeling, careening and churning, arcing and crashing, may-tagging and being broken to pieces. I recall watching a raft stuck in the ledge at the bottom of Quartzite Falls on The Salt at 5000 cfs, before it was dynamited. The violence visited on that craft in that protracted event would be difficult to describe. It was gut wrenching.

We eventually headed back to Norwood. I bought the best bottle of single-malt scotch whiskey in town and we drove to the fishing resort to retrieve the river bag. 

Caretaker A met us. He was very warm and friendly. I gave him the Scotch as a token of our appreciation for what they had done for us the night before. The river bag, which we had left on the rock, turned out to be our sleep kit. I retrieved the throw bag that I had left in the back of the four-wheeler.

The First Mate said, “If it is alright with you, we would like to go down and look at that rock. I need to revisit the site for closure. I need to see it again ---and look at it for what it is ---and not the terrible thing I remember.”

“Sure. Let’s go.” said the Caretaker.

I was looking for evidence of the raft having been dragged ashore. None. I asked where they had retrieved the river bag. “Just a few yards downstream there, against the right bank.” 

The river level was a solid foot higher at the rock. Maybe the rise in level had been enough to free the boat. I doubted it. It certainly had not risen to anywhere near the top of the rock. I took the photographs posted earlier.

We headed for Telluride where I registered on Mountain Buzz (a site where I have been lurking since near its inception) and submitted the first post of this thread.

We slept that night in the grass at Beaver Creek.


----------



## duct tape

Does admiralty law apply to intracontinental rivers?


----------



## jgrebe

duct tape said:


> Does admiralty law apply to intracontinental rivers?


No. With the exception of rivers that have been declared by the USACOE as navigable waterways. 

In Jackson et al. v. Steamboat Magnolia, the Court established the requirement for jurisdiction and created a necessity for the water in which the accident occurred to support international and interstate commerce. What this did was allow for the large rivers and lakes of this country to now be under admiralty jurisdiction. For example, under the old English view, only a small portion of the Mississippi River (not to mention all the large rivers that feed into it) would have been under admiralty jurisdiction. Over the years, this too has changed into the new standard. The modern standard of maritime jurisdiction for accidents that occur on events on the high seas, territorial seas and the inland waters of the US so long as they satisfy the requirement of being “navigable waters.” Generally, inland water of the US is “navigable” if:

It is capable of supporting maritime commerce;
It runs through two states or empties into the sea; and
It is presently sustaining maritime commerce.


----------



## ColoradoDave

Isn't commercial rafting as a whole maritime commerce ?


----------



## steven

...


----------



## rivh2o

... the end


----------



## steven

not according to the OP's posts #34 and 38.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Nope. ---Not the end. I'll be back to wrap it up. 

Other aspects of living off the river demand my attention right now. 

This will be finished. The conclusion will be the most difficult ---it is in continuous draft form as I try to satisfactorily resolve it. But there is still a bit more to tell before that. 

Thank you all for your reserve and your patience.

Here's to hoping for, and sensing, a potent winter out West.

My very best,

Wayward Boatman


----------



## BilloutWest

This is deserving of a country western song.


----------



## CurrentLY

*Lost Oar Rig San Miguel Country Western Song Lyrics*

Nod to Steve Goodman and David Allen Coe for the inspiration ("You never even call me by my name") and note that I've taken full poetic license to accommodate the milieu:

Well I was drunk the day my raft pinned in the river
And I went to pick it up in the rain
But before I could get to the lowhead dam in my pickup truck
It disappeared in circumstances yet to be disclosed (possibly involving momma and/or a train)

And I'll hang around the fishing lodge as long as you'll let me
And I never missed being stranded on the rock
No you don't have to call me darlin', first mate
You never even called me
Well I wonder why you don't call me
Why don't you ever call me by my name, which happens to be "Wayward Boatman"


----------



## formerflatlander

CurrentLY said:


> Nod to Steve Goodman and David Allen Coe for the inspiration ("You never even call me by my name") and note that I've taken full poetic license to accommodate the milieu:
> 
> Well I was drunk the day my raft pinned in the river
> And I went to pick it up in the rain
> But before I could get to the lowhead dam in my pickup truck
> It disappeared in circumstances yet to be disclosed (possibly involving momma and/or a train)
> 
> And I'll hang around the fishing lodge as long as you'll let me
> And I never missed being stranded on the rock
> No you don't have to call me darlin', first mate
> You never even called me
> Well I wonder why you don't call me
> Why don't you ever call me by my name, which happens to be "Wayward Boatman"


You have written the perfect country and western boating song.


----------



## BilloutWest

Twangggg.

(respectfully and lasting)


----------



## AZJefe

formerflatlander said:


> You have written the perfect country and western boating song.


Nothin' about prison. Yet.


----------



## BilloutWest

AZJefe said:


> Nothin' about prison. Yet.


You Look Like I Need A Drink.
With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt
Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye
How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life
My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him
You Can't Have Your Kate And Edith Too
This Time I'm Gonna Beat You to the Truck
I Got In At 2 With A 10 And Woke Up At 10 With A 2

====

OK. So they don't all fit.........


----------



## LSB

That drunk that stole my boat ought be throwed in prison
He cost me lots of anguish and paaaaain
My first mate bout done up and left me
Cus she dont like floatin in the raaaaain

And you dont have to call me Wayward Boatmen
And you dont have to call me on my phone
And you dont have to doubt me on my river log
You never even said you found my boat


----------



## afraid

This finally got good!


----------



## BilloutWest

afraid said:


> This finally got good!


*Buy Me a Boat*
Chris Dubois / Chris Janson

*‘Cause it could buy me a boat, it could buy me a truck to pull it
It could buy me a Yeti 110 iced down with some silver bullets
Yeah, and I know what they say,
Money can’t buy everything
Well, maybe so,
But it could buy me a boat*

The chorus from a country western song.
Perhaps one with some merit on the San Miguel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQPjKSVe1tQ


----------



## BilloutWest

It may not be written yet, or even happened, but we all know the ending to this story.

I'm going to spoil it now.

================

_"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."_

— Mark Twain

================

Go buy a boat.


----------



## tallboy

Come on Wayward, we need you right now.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 10*

Part 10

The next morning we were back in the coffee shop in Telluride, making lists of all the parties we could contact in the effort to retrieve the boat.

I have one friend in Telluride. I worked several trips in Grand Canyon with him in the late eighties and early nineties. I was skeptical of him at first, but he proved to be exceptional in unexpected ways. He was incredibly sweet and caring with the clients. He was a great storyteller. He knew his history. He was hard working and handy with a boat. And he was the antipathy of the “macho boatman” ---which fit in well with what were trying to do within the company and The Canyon at the time –a long time ago now. And he was older --- he ran The Canyon first with Georgie in 1963 as a teenage passenger. 

Well, last time I saw him was running into him on a private trip on The Dolores in 1997 ---19 years prior. I’d spent time skiing in Telluride twice since ---Though I kept my eye open, I never ran into him. I really wanted to run into him now. 

We walked out into the street. There was a nice truck with a well-devised oar rig fully rigged on a trailer parked in the center lane. The First Mate noted a decal in the truck’s window. She said, “This rings a bell.” It was the company for which my Telluride Friend and I had worked. We sat on on a bench nearby and waited. My Telluride Friend came out to bleed the tubes in the morning sun. I called him over and related as concisely as I could our debacle. 

He said, “Take my boat and go. Put in and don’t stop until you find your boat.” For a split second it was tempting. But then I realized the logistics. I would be alone on a 15 foot rig that didn’t belong to me. The First Mate would be running road-support with the truck and trailer. My Telluride Friend was not in a position to join us. I recalled the specific instructions of our friend from Dove Creek on The Dolores: “Do not run below The Piñon Bridge. You’ll regret it.” I trusted his judgment. It wouldn’t be prudent to descend at this water level alone on a raft into the lower reaches where I suspected the boat was hung up. We nixed the proposal. But I was hugely grateful for the generous offer. 

He was quick, my Telluride Friend. “Let’s go!” Around the corner we ran into Sheriff Bill Masters. He was kind and attentive. He took notes and provided numbers of parties he felt should be notified. We called the local radio station and requested an announcement be broadcast. ---Which The First Mate and I heard on our way out of town. My Telluride friend had recommended we hightail it down to the lower reaches below the confluence of The San Miguel and Dolores. “Go to Chicken Raper (Stateline Rapid), and find the remains of a diversion dam just above. It may well be caught there.” 

Off we went.


----------



## BilloutWest

You have a gift.

Could we get a prequel on the friend in Telluride?

At some point.
Sounds interesting.
Great guy to make that offer.


----------



## rivh2o

BilloutWest said:


> You have a gift.
> 
> Could we get a prequel on the friend in Telluride?
> 
> At some point.
> Sounds interesting.
> Great guy to make that offer.


Might his name be Bill?


----------



## steven

or Dave?


----------



## grin1

This is unbelievable! I just got back from 25 days in the Grand Canyon and this story is STILL being told! I'll back up and read all the pages from when I left off (page 11 of this thread), but for fucks sake, winter, christmas, and the end of time is on the way.....


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 11*

Part 11

We found the eroded head dam above Chicken Raper. No raft. We descended down the road to the rapid. What a spectacle! I plotted a course down the left channel. Rough, but doable ---a remarkable piece of river, as if we had a boat readied and tethered to the bank above, set to embark. ---Which, of course, we did not.

The late-day light in the canyon was stunningly beautiful. I’ll never forget it. Though I was once good friends with the boatman who named the rapid “Chicken Raper,” I had never seen any of the reaches below Bedrock. A wet May had brought the foliage to full radiance. 

We made our way to Gateway, where we recovered phone signal. ---No word from any of the parties so far notified. We decided then to make the late-night, long journey home. We took the La Sal Mountain Loop Road.

Soon in sight were peaks I had known and hiked 35 years before in desperation for cool, fragrant mountain air after back-to-back river trips in the hot canyons below. Their names speak for themselves: Tukuhnikivatz, Mount Peale, and Mellenthin.

This is God’s country (as Abbey had noted). Boat, or no boat, doesn’t change that. ---Sublime terrain and bright landscapes woven into the soul. ---Once known, never eschewed or forgotten. ---A full circle, drawn. Perhaps, a debt repaid. What great fortune to have ever known any of this at all!


----------



## grin1

What a small world....Chicken Raper namer (or at least one of a couple on that trip) is my neighbor! And based on your river vita, I'm sure we have other friends in common as well, especially if you happened to work for Sobek or OARS during the late 70s to early 90s! Great story Wayward....wish it would have turned out differently that it appears it is going to!


----------



## iSki

*Been 6 months, can we wrap this up?*

When can we have the final chapter?

This worse than the game of thrones books....


----------



## fdon

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...oh, a hit, nothing...back to sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


----------



## jamesthomas

I thought, alright another chapter but no such luck. Cm'on wayward lets hear it.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Oh God, the audience, the congregation, the choir, and the peanut gallery are all waking up! I better get to work.


----------



## Andy H.

Wayward Boatman said:


> Oh God, the audience, the congregation, the choir, and the peanut gallery are all waking up! I better get to work.


I'd only say the Peanut Gallery... And take your time. We can wait. Spring's still a long way off.


----------



## dgoods

....."and then finally it dawned on me, maybe putting on this small, woody river at 6 pm during spring run off with a fully rigged desert river set up wasn't such a great idea. Sadly, my insurance company concurred and I realized I was completely and utterly hosed."


----------



## stuntmansteve

It may have never made it past the power plant in Naturita. We own a ranch nearby and know people in the area. I'll ask around to see if anybody found it. Maybe it was found on the Silverhawk Ranch below Pinion Bridge....


----------



## rivh2o

Wayward Boatman said:


> Oh God, the audience, the congregation, the choir, and the peanut gallery are all waking up! I better get to work.


Maybe you had better wake up, or at least smell the coffee.


----------



## Baldy

I know what I want for Xmas- closure. Love the story but please...


----------



## caverdan

I'm still betting it's not far from the rock it was stuck on.......


----------



## BilloutWest

stuntmansteve said:


> It may have never made it past the power plant in Naturita. We own a ranch nearby and know people in the area. I'll ask around to see if anybody found it. Maybe it was found on the Silverhawk Ranch below Pinion Bridge....


An unauthorized biography?

If someone does a TV movie on this get it right!


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Stuntmansteve:

You got it. It never made it to the Nucla power plant. It met its demise in a low head dam above. 

Folks, please be patient. What's the hurry at this point? Best the tale be told accurately and with respect to all the parties involved. Right?

Kind regards,

Wayward Boatman


----------



## Wayward Boatman

And I might add:

rivh20, and dgoods,

Take your attitude, your expertise, your largess and such, and stuff it right up your own ass!

Good luck in life. You'll need it. And on top of that ---you'll need to be good at what you do ---which is not much good at all.

Get a clue.

My best,


----------



## villagelightsmith

Yes, it takes a while to spin out a good yarn. Motivation helps. As soon as he finishes, let's buy this man another boat, so we can get another story out of him!


----------



## mattman

villagelightsmith said:


> Yes, it takes a while to spin out a good yarn. Motivation helps. As soon as he finishes, let's buy this man another boat, so we can get another story out of him!


Oh god, LMAO!!!!


----------



## mattman

I have finally found closure to this story, I have realized that we will never hear the ending.
MR. Wayward is too busy pouring coffee down his Dry suite in some undisclosed mountain Lair, probly throwing leftover turkey legs at some whiny chick that can't swim good, even.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Mattman:

I've PM'd you twice, now. I want a call back on the phone ---Directly.

Wayward Boatman


----------



## climbdenali

I don't even know where to start with your last three posts, so I guess I'll just start a list:

1. If you know what happened to the boat ("It never made it to the Nucla power plant. It met its demise in a low head dam above.") why not just tell the story already? If you don't have time to write the rest of the story, then how do you have time to post to tell people to hold their horses?

2. At this point, you've involved the Buzz sufficiently for me to call the readers interested parties at this point. This isn't your forum, and just because you started a thread doesn't give you any control over it. So telling everyone to just hold our horses frankly comes across as you disregarding and disrespecting your audience, your forum, and your river community in general.

3. You had to imagine that someone on the Buzz might give you at least a little bit of grief over losing your boat. Singling out a couple of posts and telling members to shove it up their ass demonstrates a thin skin, that just isn't ready for the likes of the Buzz. Toughen up.

4. You came on the Buzz back in June, yes JUNE, six months ago asking for help finding your boat. Have a little respect for the community, and employ a little bit of transparency. We all have an interest in recreation user/landowner interactions, so you've hit a bit of a button, and insinuated, and suggested, and backed off of things saying you wanted to let the facts come in, and then you expect us all to just sit back and not ask about the rest of the story??

5. Get over yourself. Back on July 10th you posted that you'd tell the story once everything was "sewn up." Why didn't you just do as you said you'd do, and wait to post the whole story at once? Maybe the facts are indeed all in, and you think there's some dramatic effect to be had, despite the protests of your audience, but honestly, at this point it looks like you're just doing it for your own amusement.

6. I get it that it's your story and you'll tell it how you damn well please. Fine, it's your story, but for god sake- 6 months to tell it? Move on. And when you start shitting on people for saying so, or for giving some criticism over your choices, that really raises my ire. 

That is all.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

OK. Fair enough. I'll rap it up as best I can. All the elements are already there. What remains is but a kind of index.


----------



## Gremlin

Are we still keeping an eye out for your missing raft??? If so, please give a brief description.

If not, do you need advice picking out your next boat???

I'm confused.


----------



## villagelightsmith

climbdenali, so far, the whole thing has been fun. Even the long serialization of the tale adds to the laughter. IMHO, it is you, Sir, who needs to check your blood sugar and re-evaluate. Yes, attitude begets attitude; I'm just being honest with the way your response comes across to me. Settle down, have a cup of your favorite calming attitude adjuster, and let's not start swinging paddles at each other. This is too good a forum for that. That, Sir, IS all.


----------



## climbdenali

Fair enough Village, my apologies, to Wayward also for coming on so strong. I'll go grab a Snickers.

Agreed, it has been a fun thread. Just something about the last couple posts by the OP irked me.


----------



## villagelightsmith

Yeah, I've gotta watch myself, too. "For the good of the trip..."
Good post, Denali!


----------



## stuntmansteve

Wayward Boatman said:


> Stuntmansteve:
> 
> You got it. It never made it to the Nucla power plant. It met its demise in a low head dam above.
> 
> Folks, please be patient. What's the hurry at this point? Best the tale be told accurately and with respect to all the parties involved. Right?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Wayward Boatman


Probably the same diversion dam we had to portage with IK's below Pinion Bridge before the next bridge by Silverhawk Ranch. Sounds like you already found it....


----------



## mattman

Hey Wayward,
I was just kidding around.
The coffee to the dry suite was a reference to what ya said on the dry suite thread ( which cracked me up!) and the turkey legs a reference to Griff's story( which is fuckin hilarious and worth searching, for any who have not read it!!) I meant no harm, please forgive me if I inadvertently pissed you off, was just trying to make a funny.

I have very much enjoyed your story, has been very well told. I have honestly stopped really caring though, it has just been to long. 

Very sorry about the loss of your rig! Wish ya all the best man, and again, apologise if I struck a nerve, was not my intention, just some good humored rib poking!


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Thank you, Mattman:

I greatly appreciate the gesture, and your good spirit. 

I owe you an apology as well for getting pissed off. 

Humor indeed is the antidote to despair. If one can't laugh, what's the point?

The outcome of events here is no longer so important, and has already been revealed.

In an effort to resolve this, and heal an exposed nerve, I'm reaching for something deeper. Fat chance I'll achieve it. ---Especially having put in without a clear takeout in mind.

I'll make a better effort to keep my cool.


----------



## Andy H.

Wayward,

Take your time and update your tale as it comes to you. You're not a reporter with a deadline to meet. For anyone that's lost patience, remember he's hammering out a story about a significant loss, has a life to live and keep up with, and no one's making him tell the story we've all found so entertaining. 

And even in 2016 patience is still a virtue - likely more now than ever...

Thanks for keeping it going - it's a great break in times of single-digit temps...

-AH


----------



## rivh2o

LOL... Wayward, instead of smelling the coffee maybe try roses or at least add some sugar to your coffee. You sir are bitter, and know nothing about me, but infer that I either need lots of luck and suck at what I do in life based on my post for you to get on with the story. That is all I meant. I have not judged you or your life. I commented on the fact that you yourself said that you had better get on with the story. Please then do so at your own discretion. Peace


----------



## elkhaven

rivh2o said:


> LOL... Wayward, instead of smelling the coffee maybe try roses or at least add some sugar to your coffee. You sir are bitter, and know nothing about me, but infer that I either need lots of luck and suck at what I do in life based on my post for you to get on with the story. That is all I meant. I have not judged you or your life. I commented on the fact that you yourself said that you had better get on with the story. Please then do so at your own discretion. Peace


Have you read the last few posts? He doesn't sound bitter to me. Perhaps listening to your own advice may be in order. This has been an entertaining read in an extremely boring time on the buzz. I take the "facts" of this story with a grain of salt but it's entertaining none the less, even this latest banter...


----------



## rivh2o

Elkhaven, post #230 he sounds quit bitter to me


----------



## elkhaven

rivh2o said:


> Elkhaven, post #230 he sounds quit bitter to me


243 sounds apologetic to me... though not to you. I do swear there were several apologetic posts in that area? Has something been deleted? If so I really wish there would be at least place holders for deleted posts - it gets really confusing. At any rate at best it's like the pot calling the kettle black


----------



## SBlue

Andy H. said:


> Wayward,
> 
> Take your time and update your tale as it comes to you. You're not a reporter with a deadline to meet. For anyone that's lost patience, remember he's hammering out a story about a significant loss, has a life to live and keep up with, and no one's making him tell the story we've all found so entertaining.
> 
> And even in 2016 patience is still a virtue - likely more now than ever...
> 
> Thanks for keeping it going - it's a great break in times of single-digit temps...
> 
> -AH


Wayward, I'm sharing Andy's camp. While I feel your pain I'm enjoying the story immensely. We're just along for the ride, work at your own pace.

Nice recovery. Take the high road out of town.


----------



## rivh2o

elkhaven I have been reading the last few post in fact the whole narrative. Have you? you too had better smell the coffee cause you also are turning black like the pot. In reference to the post from wayward #221, my post #225 I should have added that I suggest he get on with the tale, nothing more or less. You ask if I had been reading the last few post and if I had not seen some kind of attrition, nothing towards me. Posts #243 if I'm not mistaken was intended for mattman. However also in that same post Wayward would go on to infer that we should all (lighten up) Hippity Ho, ho ho. Rivh2o


----------



## BilloutWest

Roy Rogers (1940)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cFji4CmHE

(double meaning, get it? TeeHee)


----------



## rivh2o

All this banter has been quit interesting to say the least. I am going to take a break and get in a few laps on the mountain, and try to wash away some of the soot on my kettle. Adios


----------



## villagelightsmith

Well said, Riverwater, if I get your drift. Whether we are the pot or the kettle, we all need to give ourselves a bath once in a while! God help me, I've had to take a couple of them myself!


----------



## villagelightsmith

Off topic, if y'all will forgive me (or even, really, if you won't; I'm just asking') the coldest scrubbing my own attitude ever got was in that hissing blue silt-laden stuff that comes out from under the Columbia Icefield. It's so cold it's not even fit to be called water until it warms a mite and drops some of the gravel it's carrying. But it sure is invigorating. At least, that's the word they used. To me, it was just danmed COLD. They tell me I was better company for it (they were, too, btw) and everyone said the food tasted better without that awful stink around.

"For the good of the trip ..."


----------



## duct tape

Am I the only person that's getting more and more lost in this thread? Maybe I need more coffee...


----------



## villagelightsmith

Well, build a fire and hot up the coffeepot then, Duct Tape! Two cream, three sugar, and a little Irish ... "for the good of the trip!" The most important thing about any tale, is that it be well told. And that everyone can be laughing at the end!


----------



## cracksmeup

*If your having trouble following along*

Oh well here let me fill you in…..See this guy goes on a quest to a glacier to get some “dense ice” (it last longer then regular ice). Which is what he likes in his Scotch on the Rocks. As he finally arrives at the end of his quest ( notice how I skipped all the journey part to spare you frustrated anger towards me) anyway back at the glacier, he is chipping of his highly sought after prize, When he looks down and see’s some yellow rubber material in a crevice with water trickling out. He starts to pull on stubbornly stuck material. Suddenly after much heaving, it pop’s out and uncorks massive amounts of cold, cold water which spills him out onto the now flooded snow and ice field. Getting to his feet he starts to shiver profusely but at the same time feels oh so refreshed. As the man finally get’s his senses he realizes what the big object in front of him is… A big yellow rubber raft. “Now how did that get here”? he asked himself. To be frozen at the bottom of that glacier that raft would have to be very old. Well see a long long long time ago there was another man far away in a different climate all together. This man was on a different kind of journey. He was with a women, a women he loved at least by all the evidence of the carvings of heart shapes with their initials carved into the cottonwood trees along the San Miguel river. Anyway it’s a love story really, at least it starts out that way until disaster happens. They realize they didn’t buy enough beer! So they start to pull over, but suddenly and sadly realize when they get to the bank, that it’s Sunday and banks are closed on Sunday. So they drift on down till the next day and finally make it to the bank and get out of the boat and kiddos remember this “never get out of the boat”! but anyway they did and were met by two hillbillies, which was perfect, so they asked them if they had a still near by? The hillbillies didn’t like question and the strangers and proceeded to get a little rough with them (if you know what I mean?) wink wink. Oh wait a minute I think I’m getting my story mixed up with another? Now I’ll have to back track. Shit! just what I didn’t want to do, and that’s run out of time. It’s just that the story of how that raft got from the desert to the bottom of that glacier is well….mind blowing! I guess I’ll have to tell the rest in part 2?


----------



## rivh2o

I hear them Banjos playing... but wait its not the tune you thing it's it's Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers a playing Get along little Doggies. I'm felling much better now just waiting for ColoradoDave to correct my grammar and spelling. Hippity Ho.


----------



## elkhaven

yipity yo, hippity ho


----------



## BmfnL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gGfmiZ52f4


----------



## ob1coby

Wayward Boatman said:


> Stuntmansteve:
> 
> You got it. It never made it to the Nucla power plant. It met its demise in a low head dam above.
> 
> Folks, please be patient. What's the hurry at this point? Best the tale be told accurately and with respect to all the parties involved. Right?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Wayward Boatman


Please tell me this isn't true and that it was just a joke! You led a well written and gripping six moth story of a boating adventure, and taking the longest pause after a three chapter narrative of insinuation (and letting many other insinuate without correction) that some bible thumpin Christians had stolen your rig. We all know that is the kind of thing that is indicative of what Christianity is all about and I for one was looking foreword to yet another example of that very fact. 

Respect to all parties involved my aching arss. Christians don't deserve respect and you didn't respect them when you put them in a bad light before so I hope you don't start now. The new rule is "Show respect to everyone except Christians".


----------



## villagelightsmith

Naaah, they was just J.W.'s, ob1.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 11*

Part 11:

Once back home, I set to finishing the task of identifying and alerting every potentially effected, and effective, party. We had already called the sheriff’s offices in every county along the San Miguel, The Dolores and The Colorado down to Moab. I had called and left a message with the BLM office in Montrose. Someone we had met on the street in Norwood was friends with a river ranger and informed us that the river patrol was running Norwood Canyon that very weekend. He put in a call to see if he could reach them before they launched. 

I studied Google Earth satellite imagery. I identified two diversion dams at and below the Nucla power plant. I also identified a couple pallet fences that spanned the river. I called the Town Clerk in Naturita. She indicated one of the diversion dams provides water to the town, and she directed the public works inspector to go take a look. The Nucla power plant administered the other dam. They sent someone down to take a look at that. The Clerk gave me the names and phone numbers of every riverfront landowner below Norwood Canyon to The Ball Park. I called them all. When I left messages, calls were generally returned promptly A landowner and owner of a prominent business in Naturita went down and checked his pallet fence. I learned from one rancher that there were a couple placer miners working the river on her land below the bridge. She said she’d go talk to them and get back to me if they had seen anything. Nothing.

I called Canyonlands National park and they issued a bulletin to all the commercial companies that run the Moab daily stretch and down the Colorado side of Cataract Canyon. 

The Mountain Buzz community was immediately responsive with trip reports and suggestions. I received a call almost immediately after posting from someone running a whitewater rescue course in Norwood Canyon. He was willing to include rescuing the raft as part of the program, if I knew where it was. Of course, I did not. ---A generous offer. I heard from parties that had run the canyon over the weekend. No boat.

I heard back from the head river ranger out of Montrose. They had received word of the incident on the river, but saw nothing. He said, “Listen, you need to speak to Mr…” We’ll call him The Rancher. “He’s your key contact. He’s a salty old cowboy. He can be difficult. If he is uncooperative, let me know. I have managed over the years to establish a reasonable rapport with him.” The Rancher was on my list already, and I had left messages on two separate phone lines for him.

I was contacted by two of the friends we had made at the Dove Creek ramp, including the gentleman who had provided the beta on our intended trip. He was remorseful that he might have contributed in some way to the mishap. Of course, I assured him, he had not. He didn’t know it was running 1600 cfs. It was entirely my call to rig and launch under the given circumstances The incident itself had been a bit of a fluke. His beta had been extremely thorough, accurate and reliable. He sent photographs of various pallet fences and head dams along the suspect reach. The other fellow from the ramp was helpful with contacts and suggestions. He has contributed with caution to this thread. True to his character, as I had sensed it immediately upon meeting him, he sent me a poignant and troubling missive raising some difficult questions at to how and why this had ever happened to begin with, warning me not to point my finger elsewhere indiscriminately, and to own up to the events myself, directly. His words will serve as the beginning of my conclusion, when I get there.

It was day eight when we received the first news of anything having been retrieved down stream of the wrap. A Mountain Buzzer posted that he had retrieved my daypack. I asked him to hold it, but he took the initiative and shipped it to us in Salt Lake. He has been a contributor to this thread. He later posted a pretty humorous account of finding the pack full of waterlogged books. I still owe him a couple of pints for his diligence.

Then I received a call back from the business owner in Naturita. He’d returned to inspect his pallet fence and found the second blue river bag we’d left on the rock. He said it was completely water logged. I requested he spread the contents out in the sun to dry and then re-stuff the bag and that I would retrieve it when I returned to the area. 

On day 10 after the wrap, a Mountain Buzzer reviewing the thread noticed I had been focusing my search below the power plant. He pointed out that there was a significant head dam above that he had portaged on an earlier trip, and that it was a real keeper. I returned to the satellite imagery. At the resolution I had been using this dam had escaped my notice. It was hidden under the lettering that labeled the river “The San Miguel.” From the imagery, it looked worse than the others downstream. I called the town clerk. She said it belongs to The Rancher. The one who had not returned my calls. I called again and left more imploring messages for him to contact me.

His wife returned the call. She told me that they were travelling and not at the ranch. I started to tell her the stream of events that had occurred, giving a description of the boat… The Rancher took the phone away from her. “Look, if your boat somehow made it that far on its own, I’m sure it would certainly have washed over the dam and on downstream.”

“Would you be so considerate as to send one of your hands down there to take a look? 

“Sure. No Problem. I’ll do just that.” He did not sound convincing at all. And he was clearly annoyed with the overall situation.

By now I had notified multiple parties in the aviation sector: the manager of the airport in Nucla agreed to post a notice with a description of the raft. I called Red Tail near Moab. Montrose airport. Telluride airport. Charter companies at each. They all posted notices. I even talked to the Civil Air Patrol in Montrose, and in Washington DC.

By day 16, after the wrap, I was going out of my mind. How does a 14’ fully rigged boat simply vanish without a trace? That morning I received a call from an off duty deputy sheriff out of Montrose who flies a light, tail-dragger aircraft out of Nucla. He had seen the notice and altered his flight plan to cruise upriver from the power plant. He spotted the rig wrapped on a rock a few hundred yards downstream of The Rancher’s head dam. He returned to the airport. And then decided he should take pictures and get coordinates on the exact location. He made a second flight to achieve those objectives. He called me from the hanger, transmitted the images and GPS specs ---and we talked. (Interestingly, when I scrutinized the imagery at high resolution, I could make out a human figure with a dog on the road right above the raft.)

The same day, via Mountain Buzz, I was alerted to a thread posted the night before presenting a river report of a kayak run through the troubled section under scrutiny. The poster described his trip portaging a head dam where there was evidence of a raft having been wrecked. I PM’d him and we talked. He described the scene. The inflatable was wrapped and thoroughly secured with ropes and carabineers to a rock below the dam. (So, another party had already visited the site.) He was not sure if it was upright or upside down. He indicated the floor appeared to be forced up through the tubing. Two shredded Paco Pads were seen in the willows. Miscellaneous, small bits and pieces were observed along the bank. No Frame. No cooler, kitchen box, dry boxes or table were observed. It was a mess, he said. 

I put in a couple calls to The Rancher, leaving messages, letting him know the likely demise of the rig at and below the head dam adjacent to his property, as well as the location of the secured inflatable portion.

In early July, another Mountain Buzzer contacted me, letting me know he had retrieved two of the oars, in good condition, in the Norwood Canyon stretch. To my delight, he deployed them on his own rig. As a result, he indicated he was going back to ash wood, where he had started.

The Rancher called me back, “ We found your boat!”


----------



## BilloutWest

Yeah.

Finally.
After so many weeks starring at this screen.
Finally.


----------



## villagelightsmith

Hey, any kid will tell you, finding half a boat is better than finding no boat at all!
(If I've said that before, perhaps you know, it goes this way ...)
"Hey, any kid will tell you, ..."
(Old men sometimes repeat themselves ... humor them, okay?)

~~~~__/)_~~~~


----------



## The Mogur

. . . and now, the rest of the story. I hope.


----------



## Phil U.

Wayward Boatman, please write on your own schedule. Your writing is a gift to this community.


----------



## zercon

*Lost Boat*

Time to pass the hat around and get this guy a new rig. Sounds like that would be the only happy ending.


----------



## stuntmansteve

Sounds like we need to keep an eye for a partially submerged rowing frame next time I run in at lower levels in an IK.


----------



## rivh2o

zercon said:


> Time to pass the hat around and get this guy a new rig. Sounds like that would be the only happy ending.


 I've already given my two cents worth.


----------



## Leozinho

zercon said:


> Time to pass the hat around and get this guy a new rig. Sounds like that would be the only happy ending.


I don't know. Seems like he's already gotten a lot of pro bono help from boaters and non-boaters alike. 

What did he want?- The Civil Air Patrol to make special flights to find his toy that he lost due to his own mistake? Asking a rancher to send his worker down to look for his boat, etc. 

I'm sympathetic, but only up to a point.


----------



## villagelightsmith

'nother "nattering nabob of negativism."


----------



## Andy H.

Leozinho said:


> What did he want?- The Civil Air Patrol to make special flights to find his toy that he lost due to his own mistake? Asking a rancher to send his worker down to look for his boat, etc.
> 
> I'm sympathetic, but only up to a point.


Maybe he's a long-time boater who started off the thread wanting any information about his lost rig, and then just wanted to tell the full story. 

-AH


----------



## Leozinho

Andy H. said:


> Maybe he's a long-time boater who started off the thread wanting any information about his lost rig, and then just wanted to tell the full story.
> 
> -AH


Certainly that (and he's taking his sweet time telling the story and relishing the attention, but that's neither here nor there.)

My complaint is he also seems to want half of Colorado to go look for his damn boat for him. 

To be fair, he hasn't asked for any donations, and perhaps the person suggesting we kick in to buy him a new one was only joking. It's a good yarn, but deal me out on the charity.


----------



## villagelightsmith

Leozinho said:


> Certainly that (and he's taking his sweet time telling the story and relishing the attention, but that's neither here nor there.)
> 
> My complaint is he also seems to want half of Colorado to go look for his damn boat for him.
> 
> To be fair, he hasn't asked for any donations, and perhaps the person suggesting we kick in to buy him a new one was only joking. It's a good yarn, but deal me out on the charity.


The suggestion to donate a boat was mine, delivered tongue-in-cheek, but still as a "thanks" for a tale well told. As for my remarks about the negative responses, I'll stand by them. "For the good of the trip," let's keep it upbeat. Fisticuffs can happen on your own time, but we come here to be "on the river." 

As for old boats: I've busted 'em, I've found 'em, I've returned 'em when I could. I've yarded 'em out just for practice, and hung 'em up where the owner could find 'em. And when they were too far gone for even a po-boy like me to patch, I've hauled the scrap out of the river or left it for a while as a warning for others. As my old friend Art Israelson used to say, "As long as nobody gets hurt and you don't break a whole lot of equipment, it's a good trip." Yes, words can hurt. Just remember, you'll be an maudlin old fool and repeat your own jokes too someday.

So, if you say (in effect) "Pistols for two, coffee for one!" remember to put some laughter in it. 

(I'm sure SOMEbody has an little old Udisco they'd be happy to unload in a fellow rafter's driveway some dark night! Just put a bow and a "Happy Birthday" on it, and let 'em wonder ... for a while.)


----------



## ob1coby

So, is this done? How do we know? Is he going to let us know that this is his last chapter or put "The End" or something. I'm unsatisfied and I still have questions. Why was the boat secured to another rock downstream? Who did that? Was it the thieving Christians that you insinuated to earlier? Was it the rancher? Was he Christian? How could he not know about that boat right on his property and not let you know for so many days? It's not like it was sunk and hidden in the brush along the side of the river. Who was the person with the dog in the picture? Common man!


----------



## ob1coby

dgoods said:


> ....."and then finally it dawned on me, maybe putting on this small, woody river at 6 pm during spring run off with a fully rigged desert river set up wasn't such a great idea.


I'm going with this one. BTW why did you do that? With all of your experience you must have known this was the wrong combination.


----------



## cracksmeup

*Part 2*

After rolling out the raft and blowing it up with his mouth, he inspected it and found the relic to be preserved well for it’s age. He wiped off some ice that covered what appeared to be a name? He said it out loud, as he ran his hand over the name...SOTAR. He figured this was the name of the owner of the raft? Who was this person Sotar? and how did Sotar’s raft end up here? He was now determined to find Sotar or his relatives and return the raft to him! He jump in the boat and headed down the meandering streams that came from the glacier on a new journey, a new quest.
He floated for day’s then weeks stopping for provisions he told others of his findings and his quest. One person asked to join him and he did, then another came on board then another. Soon there were many on board. They began to call themselves the Sotar clan and word spread of their doings even before they would arrive at their next stop down stream. Months passed and many miles were made hundreds if not thousands? How long is this river? the clan would ask. How long can we go on? Where is this leading to?
Soon the clan started to bicker and fight among themselves. Harsh words were expressed. Some began to leave and go do other things, like follow another cult? The leader after losing many of his followers cried out “for the love of God when will this end”? The water became calm and still. There was no current but they kept on going across the great body of boring water till they came to a great Dam. “Is this the end”? the ones that were left that still had any interest shouted. Finally the end they thought, but no someone pointed out there is a fish ladder over on the side we can go on! “ oh for the love of [email protected]#k it just doesn’t end” one said as he tied a rock to himself and jumped over into the lake.


----------



## steven

beautiful


----------



## ob1coby

cracksmeup said:


> He wiped off some ice that covered what appeared to be a name? He said it out loud, as he ran his hand over the name...SOTAR. He figured this was the name of the owner of the raft? Who was this person Sotar?


Starts with an "S".Slippy..Slappy..Simmons..Swimy..Swamy..Swanson.. SOTAR! I was way off. Knew it started with an "S" though.


----------



## tmacc

Jaysus, at this rate, this thread is going to be as long as the "raft porn" thread!

cracksmeup, nice! I'll follow that story line.


----------



## elkhaven

but cracksmeup, how did the boat get from the desert to the glacier? You totally skipped that part! Shouldn't this be part 3? Crap, now I'm not going to sleep again!


----------



## mattman

Well, Duh... The desert BECAME a glacier do to climate change, you know, kinda like the wooly mammoth in Centenial. ( But Michener would have taken like ten chapters to get to that part)


----------



## elkhaven

you mean to tell me the client is getting colder, not warmer? NO WAY! Not possible.

Client should be climate! That must be my subconscious telling me to get back to work!


----------



## mattman

That's what the wooly mammoth said to, but look at him.


----------



## Wayward Boatman

Dear River Kin:

I can’t believe this thread has garnered the attention it has ---it’s baffling, and a bit daunting.

I am pleased by folk’s ability to spin off of it in such hilarious ways. ---Full belly laughter.

Certain posts are poignant and precisely on mark. I will return to those. Important questions and comments have been fielded.

Some posts are mean ---that’s OK. We can all find reasons to be pissed off at any given time. For the record, I did not call on the Civil Air Patrol and request them to rally their fleet for the sake of finding my craft. I heard from a pilot at one point that they were running a routine exercise patrol in the area. By the time I made contact with key folks on the ground, they were already in the air ---and it was a moot event. 

As most understand, this is not a charity case. And as most understand, I initiated this thread in search of information regarding a boat that seemed to have simply vanished on a relatively short stretch of river. 

I just looked at the snow pack data across The West: remarkable! There are some holes, but the set looks pretty promising across a wide swath. God bless those who seize the day. ---Now on the mountain, tomorrow on the creek. 

Much gratitude,

Wayward Boatman


----------



## Wayward Boatman

*Part 12*

Part 12

“We found your boat!” declared The Rancher over the phone. No, he had not. River folk and a pilot had found the boat.

We talked. We talked several time over the subsequent days. He softened up. He said he’d open the gates to his ranch to me to retrieve gear. I kept fishing for some visual account from him of what was there at the head dam. Not much.

From the start, I instinctively liked him. I have respect for these old timers who have made every effort for over a century to pull off a working living from land we call “Wilderness”. 

This hit me first, hard over the head, in Chile in the mid-eighties. Chileans constitute a highly educated, westernized society. Locals were involved in multiple aspects of our operations. Not one of them was empathetic. They were simply baffled. “You are here to do what? People pay huge amounts of money to come here to have you do what to them?” --- Life is hard enough. Why would you endeavor, and pay a fortune, to make it harder ---even deadly? They had not reached that point of alienation that they would seek out Nature’s hard smack just to bring them back to the facts of life’s natural boundaries. Even Acuña, our dedicated and infallible truck driver, would smile shyly to himself with his watery eyes in the shade at the absurdity of the whole prospect.

On the other hand, I remember rounding a bend toward the Volcano Callaqui ---there was a small ranch with a cabin, probably Mapuche. Two kids, a boy and a girl around ten years of age were playing outside. They saw us round the bend and bolted for the river. They dove into the current above the rapid without hesitating, without flotation, and swam through it along side us ---waving and laughing. They were like a couple of greasy little torrent ducks. It wasn’t even a named rapid ---but it had structure: rocks, holes, tail waves. I wouldn’t do that. ---Too dangerous!

The Rancher suggested we wait until late Fall when the water would be at its lowest, to make an effort to salvage whatever may be hidden in the pool at the bottom of the weir. ---Seemed logical to me.

At the beginning of October, I called my Telluride Friend to see if he was in a position to make a reconnaissance trip down river to the site to see what was there. “Don’t attempt to extract anything. I just need to know what’s left?” He said “Sure.” I arranged with The Rancher to have the gates left open. 


He called me back in the afternoon. He said, “Pour yourself a drink, and sit down.” They had arrived and ended up on the wrong roads. They drove all the way up the valley, even observing the placer miners at the upriver edge dredging for gold. They came back down and found the right road. The arrived at the rock below the head dam and the raft was gone. They never made it to the head dam ---the brush and such was pretty thick.

I called The Rancher. “The boat was still there just a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

I asked, “Could someone break fence and drive onto your property to abscond with gear?” 

“I suppose they could, but I would know of it after the fact. Tracks, footprints, etc. Nobody’s been on the property. It probably washed away in a surge of higher water.” I’d been watching the flow from the gauge near Placerville. It had never gone above a couple hundred cfs. And it had dropped and held as low as 100 cfs. 

“I’ll go down and take a look. But the situation has changed since your friend was here the other day. The CC ditch has been turned off. The river’s running up to 100 cfs higher as a result.”

I knew the CC Ditch, ---seen it. I had failed to realize its impact on the flow at the head dam. I should have been watching the gauge downstream near Nucla. The river had dropped so low in August and September that you could literally have walked the riverbed to the dam from above or below. 

The Rancher called back. “I went down there. I saw one box with the lid off buried in the gravel. There was a green soup pot a short distance away. I waded in to try to pull the box. It wouldn’t budge and I left it. There was nothing else.” 

An old cowboy in his leather boots wading out there in the drink ---what a debacle.

I’ve a good friend, and neighbor, who is from the area, half Jicarilla Apache, half Basque ---he owns land near Montrose. He served two tours with the Navy Seal Teams in the Mekong Delta during the worst years of the Vietnam War. He also swamped a dozen Grand Canyon trips in the decade afterward. I arranged with the business owner in Nucla, who had retrieved our water logged clothes bag, for my friend to drop in and pick it up. My friend arrived at the business, and the staff knew nothing of the matter. The owner had gone hunting.

Loose ends.


----------



## stuntmansteve

Wayward Boatman said:


> Part 12
> 
> “We found your boat!” declared The Rancher over the phone. No, he had not. River folk and a pilot had found the boat.
> 
> We talked. We talked several time over the subsequent days. He softened up. He said he’d open the gates to his ranch to me to retrieve gear. I kept fishing for some visual account from him of what was there at the head dam. Not much.
> 
> From the start, I instinctively liked him. I have respect for these old timers who have made every effort for over a century to pull off a working living from land we call “Wilderness”.
> 
> This hit me first, hard over the head, in Chile in the mid-eighties. Chileans constitute a highly educated, westernized society. Locals were involved in multiple aspects of our operations. Not one of them was empathetic. They were simply baffled. “You are here to do what? People pay huge amounts of money to come here to have you do what to them?” --- Life is hard enough. Why would you endeavor, and pay a fortune, to make it harder ---even deadly? They had not reached that point of alienation that they would seek out Nature’s hard smack just to bring them back to the facts of life’s natural boundaries. Even Acuña, our dedicated and infallible truck driver, would smile shyly to himself with his watery eyes in the shade at the absurdity of the whole prospect.
> 
> On the other hand, I remember rounding a bend toward the Volcano Callaqui ---there was a small ranch with a cabin, probably Mapuche. Two kids, a boy and a girl around ten years of age were playing outside. They saw us round the bend and bolted for the river. They dove into the current above the rapid without hesitating, without flotation, and swam through it along side us ---waving and laughing. They were like a couple of greasy little torrent ducks. It wasn’t even a named rapid ---but it had structure: rocks, holes, tail waves. I wouldn’t do that. ---Too dangerous!
> 
> The Rancher suggested we wait until late Fall when the water would be at its lowest, to make an effort to salvage whatever may be hidden in the pool at the bottom of the weir. ---Seemed logical to me.
> 
> At the beginning of October, I called my Telluride Friend to see if he was in a position to make a reconnaissance trip down river to the site to see what was there. “Don’t attempt to extract anything. I just need to know what’s left?” He said “Sure.” I arranged with The Rancher to have the gates left open.
> 
> 
> He called me back in the afternoon. He said, “Pour yourself a drink, and sit down.” They had arrived and ended up on the wrong roads. They drove all the way up the valley, even observing the placer miners at the upriver edge dredging for gold. They came back down and found the right road. The arrived at the rock below the head dam and the raft was gone. They never made it to the head dam ---the brush and such was pretty thick.
> 
> I called The Rancher. “The boat was still there just a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
> 
> I asked, “Could someone break fence and drive onto your property to abscond with gear?”
> 
> “I suppose they could, but I would know of it after the fact. Tracks, footprints, etc. Nobody’s been on the property. It probably washed away in a surge of higher water.” I’d been watching the flow from the gauge near Placerville. It had never gone above a couple hundred cfs. And it had dropped and held as low as 100 cfs.
> 
> “I’ll go down and take a look. But the situation has changed since your friend was here the other day. The CC ditch has been turned off. The river’s running up to 100 cfs higher as a result.”
> 
> I knew the CC Ditch, ---seen it. I had failed to realize its impact on the flow at the head dam. I should have been watching the gauge downstream near Nucla. The river had dropped so low in August and September that you could literally have walked the riverbed to the dam from above or below.
> 
> The Rancher called back. “I went down there. I saw one box with the lid off buried in the gravel. There was a green soup pot a short distance away. I waded in to try to pull the box. It wouldn’t budge and I left it. There was nothing else.”
> 
> An old cowboy in his leather boots wading out there in the drink ---what a debacle.
> 
> I’ve a good friend, and neighbor, who is from the area, half Jicarilla Apache, half Basque ---he owns land near Montrose.  He served two tours with the Navy Seal Teams in the Mekong Delta during the worst years of the Vietnam War. He also swamped a dozen Grand Canyon trips in the decade afterward. I arranged with the business owner in Nucla, who had retrieved our water logged clothes bag, for my friend to drop in and pick it up. My friend arrived at the business, and the staff knew nothing of the matter. The owner had gone hunting.
> 
> Loose ends.


Not much gets done in Nucla during hunting season....


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## Wayward Boatman

*Correction*

The business owner is in Naturita, not Nucla.


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## ob1coby

So.. The person in the picture with the dog were the last to see your boat alive??


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## stuntsheriff

yawn


Sent from my iPhone using Mountain Buzz


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## Wayward Boatman

Go back to bed. We'll wake you up when you're dead.


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## mania

stuntsheriff said:


> yawn


well stuntsheriff your favorite class is class III you must have a lot of exiting stories to tell right?


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## stuntsheriff

one time i almost missed my exit.


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## stuntmansteve

Wayward Boatman said:


> The business owner is in Naturita, not Nucla.


Not much gets done in Naturita during hunting season either.


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## Wayward Boatman

Stuntsheriff: "one time I almost missed my exit." 

That was pretty funny!


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## Wayward Boatman

*Part 13*

Part 13

My hunch as to what happened between the time we left the wrapped rig and the gear on the rock the night of Friday, June 10th, and when we received the text from Caretaker A mid-morning next:

I believe The Caretakers made contact with the owner of the fishing resort while The First Mate and I were in the hot tub. The owner is the heir of one of the primary oil magnates of the early twentieth century. He bares the family name ---a name quite familiar to all of us as a common filling station. Ironically, the company was bought out by a second cousin of mine (somewhat removed) in the mid seventies. How anyone remotely related to me had any money, let alone billions of dollars, for such an acquisition is beyond me ---my pioneer predecessors, and his, were all dirt poor. The heir purchased the land adjacent to The San Miguel near the time of the buyout. (I understand the resort’s been for sale for at least a decade, now.) I suspect the owner said to The Caretakers, something like, “Listen, get those interlopers off the property tonight, as soon as possible. Then at first light, go down with the backhoe and peel that rig off the rock and let it go on downriver. ---End of problem. ---No liability incurred ---They are on my property illegally to begin with. Their misadventure is not my problem.”

The evidence that suggests this scenario to me is the following. There was a distinct shift in the air of The Caretakers between the time we were left in the tub and when they returned. I assumed, based on our discussions, that we would be back at the wreck at first light in a concerted attempt to salvage the rig. I find it hard to believe the rig broke free as a result of the rise in water level ---but it is possible. It was the fate of the gear left on the rock that makes me question their account the most: One oar, two river bags, a daypack, and a mesh bag containing cam-buckle straps, biners, and other hardware. There was no wind leading up to, and at the hour of our departure. There was no wind when we returned to the sight late the next morning. Had a wind picked up during the night, it could have dislodged the oar, and perhaps the two river bags ---not likely the heavy daypack full of books. ---And especially not likely the wet, heavy mesh rigging bag. And how was it that one river bag was retrieved off the rock to be returned to us at the resort? Anything coming off that rock by natural processes would surely have been swept on down river. 

I have no proof. I have no solid evidence to level any claim. It was my own doing to get ourselves and my gear into such a predicament to begin with. But after a great deal of consideration, this is my best guess as to what transpired.


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## ColoradoDave

And that's that !

Anybody want to come down next June and try their luck ?

We've grown accustomed and will need some more fodder for conversation next winter.

Hunters are boring now. Most would prefer to shoot a deer between the motel and Starbucks.


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## ColoradoDave

Or between the shitter and the campfire for those ' rough'in it '


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## DoStep

Wayward Boatman said:


> ... I suspect the owner said to The Caretakers, something like, “Listen, get those interlopers off the property tonight, as soon as possible. Then at first light, go down with the backhoe and peel that rig off the rock and let it go on downriver. ---End of problem. ---No liability incurred ---They are on my property illegally to begin with. Their misadventure is not my problem.”
> 
> ...


And finally, the end of this story.


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## Wayward Boatman

Not yet the end of the story ---but close. There is still some accounting to be reconciled: The reckoning of the "how" and the "why" of it. There was a post earlier that referenced why a big heavy desert rig was cruising a woody mountain creek at flood stage at such a late hour in the day. It begged the question, "Why did you do that?"

Its a good question. One worth addressing.

That post seems to have disappeared. 

A crack at an answer is still pending.


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## Wayward Boatman

I found the post I referenced above: dgoods: #223


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## fdon

WB: you could have let it go as told. Thanks for an entertaining adventure tale. Could be the makings of an epic adventure flic with a little more fleshing out. I will continue to follow your story but am satisfied the end has been told. Happy Trails!


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## SKeen

I believe that you already reconciled dgoods' inquiry:



Wayward Boatman said:


> And I might add:
> 
> rivh20, and dgoods,
> 
> Take your attitude, your expertise, your largess and such, and stuff it right up your own ass!
> 
> Good luck in life. You'll need it. And on top of that ---you'll need to be good at what you do ---which is not much good at all.
> 
> Get a clue.
> 
> My best,


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## Wayward Boatman

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. 
---Walt Whitman

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. 
---F. Scott Fitzgerald


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## psu96

an epic movie, really? right up there with Shackleton


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## ben94122

Thanks for a well-told story, WB! Here's my question from the peanut gallery: Did you see any tracks from the excavator down by your wrap rock? You posted that you were there <12h after they would have used the machinery to peel your raft off the rock/log. From the photos you posted, the banks there look quite steep and fairly soft, and the metal tracks on an excavator leave a pretty big disturbance.


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## jbolson

Great story and an interesting way to tell it. But as an armchair quarterback using only the info you provided, I don't buy your explanation. It is human nature to try to point the finger of blame at others, but it doesn't add up.

I do agree that the owner probably told the caretakers to escort you into town. However, as for them dislodging the raft and your gear. And then managing to save a bag? First, you would have seen evidence on the shore. Second, the river does strange things and increasing by a foot is the best reason your raft came off. The raft probably scraped the gear off and somehow escorted one bag to the bank. Third, you are accusing more than one person of lying and going to a lot of trouble to ditch your gear for no real reason. An why would they salvage one bag while they were sending your raft downriver. Doesn't add up to me.


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## Wayward Boatman

jbolson:

I didn't offer an explanation. I offered a hunch. From my subjective perspective, this is what I sensed may have happened ---I don't know. I don't blame anyone: the landowner has his priorities ---for good reason. ---The caretaker's theirs, the rafter his ---and the old cowboy after ---he's got his own take too. 

It is just one of those things that happens on the river ---for whatever reason.
But its an incident worth thinking about.

Kind regards, always,

Wayward Boatman


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## Wayward Boatman

ben94122:

I didn't see anything suspicious at the site the next AM. I was looking for tracks that indicated they may have pulled the rig out. No such tracks. No evidence whatsoever. --What I posted is just a hunch based on the situation we left, and the little left behind.

I had hoped to retrieve the frame and find something, perhaps the teeth marks of the shovel there upon. 

I have not seen the frame since.

So let it lie. 

No real closure to this tale. But that's OK.

My best,

.N


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## jaybee

*Hi Buzz*

Long time lurker, long time oar rig captain. I am sure I will get banned for this. Don't care. I do thank all of you for learning what I have learned from the buzz. 

In no way can my stats hold up to way wards long list of shit he has done. I respect the list of accomplishments. I have been around the block a little though…GC…Cat 40k+…Main Salmon……who cares? I don't.

You lost a boat. A risk we all take ever launch. Who fucking cares? I do not care. I calculated the time I spent reading this piece of shit thread. I could have worked enough overtime to buy a new boat by now. 

You are making a fool of yourself. You already looked like a fucking idiot pinning on class -4 water. It happens. The last thing I would do is broadcast it to the world. 

Why don't you get a part time job to buy a new boat instead of acting like you're Bill Shakespeare? I would. Who gives a fuck about me? Nobody. Who gives a fuck about your rant? Like 3 people who don't have fuck to do.

Life happens. Throw in a tampon and get back at it.


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## Gremlin

I can probably learn something from Wayward. It might take a little redirection but that is nothing new to me.


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## Soup76

jaybee said:


> Long time lurker, long time oar rig captain. I am sure I will get banned for this. Don't care. I do thank all of you for learning what I have learned from the buzz.
> 
> In no way can my stats hold up to way wards long list of shit he has done. I respect the list of accomplishments. I have been around the block a little though…GC…Cat 40k+…Main Salmon……who cares? I don't.
> 
> You lost a boat. A risk we all take ever launch. Who fucking cares? I do not care. I calculated the time I spent reading this piece of shit thread. I could have worked enough overtime to buy a new boat by now.
> 
> You are making a fool of yourself. You already looked like a fucking idiot pinning on class -4 water. It happens. The last thing I would do is broadcast it to the world.
> 
> Why don't you get a part time job to buy a new boat instead of acting like you're Bill Shakespeare? I would. Who gives a fuck about me? Nobody. Who gives a fuck about your rant? Like 3 people who don't have fuck to do.
> 
> Life happens. Throw in a tampon and get back at it.



You do realize that you could have stopped reading this thread at any time? The fact that you read it, in its entirety, and are pissed off, is a you problem. Stop blaming others for what makes you mad. Like you said, throw in a tampon and get back at......life.


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## jaybee

Not pissed. I also agree with everything you said dude(other than being pissed.(i don't get pissed)… I just think it is weird for somebody to think the whole world cares about the problems they have. Everybody has issues. Nobody cares. Wayward even said earlier " let it die" I'm checking out. Will probably never post again….Until I need advice on how to operate a cooler.


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## Soup76

jaybee said:


> I'm checking out. Will probably never post again….Until I need advice on how to operate a cooler.


Cooler operation can be tricky. That was a really good rant tho.


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## Wayward Boatman

Its called "cooler management" ---And its an essential skill to long distance boating.


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## jaybee

Said I would not post again…couldn't resist. I thought not wrapping a raft around a rock was essential for a trip. I stand corrected. I bet your chicken was damn cold and the cooler was drained when you fucked up.


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## Soup76

jaybee said:


> Said I would not post again…couldn't resist. I thought not wrapping a raft around a rock was essential for a trip. I stand corrected. I bet your chicken was damn cold and the cooler was drained when you fucked up.


I won't speak for anyone, but you are a 1st class Douche bag. Like you've never had the river hand you your ass.... it happens to us all. This guy just shared his story.


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## Andy H.

How much does it take to realize you don't want to read a thread because you think it's lame, then to just scroll past it when you see it again?


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## Wayward Boatman

Jaybee:

Your misogynist comments offend me, and those dear to me. I have a mother, a sister, a daughter and a lover ---all of whom, combined, have spent much time on rivers, ---lots of time, many trips. You can take your tampon and stuff it right up your left nostril. If you have another tampon, from some other source, somehow (I don’t know), stuff that one thoroughly up your right nostril. Now, breathe. 

You say you don’t care. I don’t believe you. I think you are lying. I think you do care.


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## Wayward Boatman

Part 14

It is long past time to wrap this thread up, sew it up and bury it.

“Shit…what’s the Universe thinking, flippin’ this shit at you? Didn’t you already have enough character?” wrote one of the several great people we met while at the Dove Creek ramp, waiting for water to arrive on The Dolores. ---This, from a really great guy who picked up on this thread immediately and figured out quickly who posted it and what had happened. He was generous and insightful, and quickly came to the conclusion I drew as to what had probably happened. 

At the put in, I had a strong intuition of being on the wrong river, at the wrong time, in the wrong craft. I launched in spite of this. Even after getting underway, I had a bad feeling. I ignored it, and pushed on. Mistake.

A false sense of infallibility: It had been many, many years since I had had a bad run. I did not anticipate being shut down on a class III run. I was riding on my laurels.

Running alone: For decades I had been running single boat trips. I love living on the river as much as rowing it. I love spending days laying over, cooking, reading, playing music, hiking, photographing and just watching the river roll by. But running without back-up has its risks. I was lucky to lay down so many miles and so much leisure time in such luxury. 

Physical condition: I used to train for weeks and even months before making a serious run, or starting a commercial season. ---A few hours a day, running, working out, doing yoga, meditating, etc. The last time I did that was prior to a 30-day Grand Canyon trip in 2005. One can only get so far on “muscle memory”. I was in poor physical condition at the time of the wrap. I’d have been fine on The Dolores, but the continuous demand of The San Miguel in that heavy rig was exhausting. Again: I was taking my ticket for granted.

I am sorry to those whom I have bored, ignored, dragged out, and perhaps insulted.

I thank those whom have contributed in real terms, shown solidarity, sympathized, and perhaps taken some benefit from the story and even learned something. I cannot say enough in gratitude to those: Respect.

I think this story is done. 

The next season looks really promising. Engage. Enjoy. Take nothing for granted.

Warm regards,

Wayward Boatman


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## Kilroy

I have followed and for the most part enjoyed. I sit here pondering life after reading all the comments posted up. It takes all kinds of people to make this word go-round, that's for sure... 

I've learned that you just can't judge a man by what you see he's written on some online forum. Get to know him in person to really understand who he is. Even the ones you feel are probably douche-bags. 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Mountain Buzz mobile app


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## grumper13

WB,

Yup, all that. I wouldn't wish your experience on anyone, but I'm glad you chose to tell the story. Rivers will be rivers and humans will be humans.....interesting dance, that. I wouldn't have it any other way. Most of our rivers, and most likely the lower Dolores, will be running again this spring. I'll be watching for you, WB. I can't wait.


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## ben94122

WB,
From one anonymous internet stranger to another, I have some free advice for you. You mentioned several times that you weren't sure whether you'd ever get on another river. I think you need to borrow or rent a raft, find an easy 5d float you know well, bring the First Mate, and get back out there. You don't want this to be her only experience with the rivers you love so much, and you don't want your boating career to end on this note. Besides, 2017 is going to be an awesome water year! Park on a beach, read your book of Job to each other by the campfire, and make some good memories. Help her put her fears behind her and regain some perspective. 

Free advice, worth what you pay for it.


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## mattman

That was a good story Wayward, thanks for having the courage to share it.
Hope to see you out on the river again, snowpack for SW Colorado is looking promising for the Dolores right now, maybe we could even get on a run together?? Cv rents boats, I got some spare river gear to, these days?
Lets all try to be members of a river community, that use a river forum, instead of internet posters, that boat sometimes, myself included.

Peace to all,
Matt Man


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## Soup76

Kilroy said:


> I have followed and for the most part enjoyed. I sit here pondering life after reading all the comments posted up. It takes all kinds of people to make this word go-round, that's for sure...
> 
> I've learned that you just can't judge a man by what you see he's written on some online forum. Get to know him in person to really understand who he is. Even the ones you feel are probably douche-bags.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900P using Mountain Buzz mobile app


I agree with you. I dropped the DB word in response to a guys 1st post calling out the OP for his candor. I personally respect WB for his openness about his ordeal. While some may disagree with his way of going about it, I can't fault the guy for making a mistake or three. We all act like we're perfect online...... but we know we are not.


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## Kilroy

There have been several douche-bag comments from folks on here, and in not calling you (or them) out in any way at all. I'm just using that as a perfect word to describe some of the reactions. Many forums are full of the same type of folks who hide behind their keyboards and can behave quite different when they go and visit grandma - yes? 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Mountain Buzz mobile app


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## cracksmeup

**

Now what do we do?


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## mattman

cracksmeup said:


> Now what do we do?


Crap, I don't know, read? wait for spring? I might even have to actually get a life. Guess I need to do taxes for my business( UGh!)
If inspiration strikes, I hear cracksmeup can tell a good story.


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## jborof

Wayward,
I've only just read this post today. I've read it out loud to my family. Mine is "Team Awesome" referred to by rtsideup many months ago. My preteen kid is the one who went ape shit over the bags of books found. He is now a teenager and still gets grounded from books once in awhile. He is also on his way to becoming a proper good boater. We all have huge respect for the San Miguel. They don't call it the Mighty Miguel for nothing. It kicks my ass every year. I am also the person who found one of your oars, the cracked one you used to try to pry the boat off the rock. I live in the SM river canyon just downstream of the Hwy 145/62 intesection. Your oar is next to mine under neath my boat deck. Stop by sometime and grab it and a beer. And I agree with Ben94122, get back out there, the Dolores is running this season for sure.
cheers


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## Mattchu

Wow! Read the whole thread tonight. It would have been annoying as heck to wait 8 months for the finale! But damn, you are a great story teller. 

Please do an alternate ending where the ranch and jehovas witnesses try to....not sure. Just do it!

Thanks. See ya on the river. Get back on the river!


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## Wayward Boatman

Dear jborof

Thank you so much for your very kind post yesterday. It brought a huge smile to my face and warmed my heart in a big way.

Now, as for that precocious boy of yours: anybody at that age that needs to be occasionally grounded from reading books, is OK in my book. He strikes me as a candle in the rain, a beam of fresh light in a darkening world. The First Mate and I send all our blessings and encouragement his way. Perhaps we will be so fortunate as to meet you, your family, your son, rtsideup and other members of “Team Awesome” some day. ---Pieces still to be picked up.

Keep the broken oar as a memento. I’m happy to know it is with folks there in the canyon of the mighty San Miguel. Bury it in the bank if you get sick of it. I look forward to the beer.

Look out for The First Mate and me on The Dolores. It might happen. We’ll be in a yellow 14’ SB Sotar, Grand Canyon Pro frame, Gull Oars, etc. It’s the cobbling together of all the small items that poses the greatest challenge. But it’s possible. Its barely Valentines Day now.

All eyes on Oroville. Time to freshen up on “Cadillac Desert.” That dam was a pork barrel project deployed in the short-term interests of Land Developers and Agribusiness in the Central Valley with no concern for long-term ramifications down the road ----well we are well down the road now. Or perhaps we are down the river.

Bedrock? It doesn’t look like it. Mush is more like it.

This could be Trump’s Katrina.

Chins up. Take care of each other. ---Especially the kids.

Wayward Boatman


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## MaxPower

Please end this.


Sent from my iPad using Mountain Buzz


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## jpbay

Wayward, great read! Glad you plan to get back on the river. I flipped in Lava and thought it was my last trip. That idea lasted tell I got to the take out. Enjoy the new season. Maybe a new story to entertain us through the dark days next year. Look forward to it but won't hold my breath. Cheers, Jp


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## Phil U.

MaxPower said:


> Please end this.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Mountain Buzz


Give it a rest. You do realize if you don't click on it, it won't show on your effing screen, right?


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## mattman

Under settings on the user control panel, select "keywords" for a thread( the threads name would work), then select the "hide ignored list" setting, and one doesn't even have to see a particular thread.

Good luck pulling together your new rig wayward! I am starting to have a decent collection of random boating stuff laying around, feel free to shoot a pm of "smaller items you are still trying to cobble together", I may have something you need at a cheap price, never know.

Best to all,
looking like a great season!


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## climbdenali

Even easier than blocking keywords (which might block other threads that have those words). At the top of any individual thread, go to *"thread tools"* and click on *"ignore this thread."*


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## Andy H.

climbdenali said:


> Even easier than blocking keywords (which might block other threads that have those words). At the top of any individual thread, go to *"thread tools"* and click on *"ignore this thread."*


So much easier than self-control. Anybody got a marshmallow?


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## MaxPower

I think my comment was taken wrong. I have thoroughly enjoyed the story, just can't wait for more! 


Sent from my iPad using Mountain Buzz


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## steven

Think the north face tent sans poles was found last week around the dolores confluence...


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## markdl

Read this epic thread all the way through tonight. Thank you WB for the tale, and sincere condolences for your loss last year. Hope we meet up one day on a river!


----------

