Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Buffalo River... 1974

In this picture, left to right: Brett Owens, Roger Williams, David Evans and me. This picture was taken 4 or 5 days into our week-long float trip with Boy Scout Troop 61 on the Buffalo River, in north-central Arkansas, summer of 1974.
Long story short... the two boys in back lost control of their canoe and drifted broadside into a tree trunk in the middle of the river. It tipped upstream and was soon bent into a nice, jagged V against the stump. After several hours of work, we managed to pry the canoe free (the force of the current was amazing) drag it to the bank of the river and push the bottom down, back into a more-or-less floatable shape. There is much more to the story, but that's enough to at least explain what you see in the picture. It was quite an adventure. I still have the broken upper half of the paddle that I am holding in the picture, 35 years later.

1 comment:

Tricia said...

I wonder if that other guy still has the other half, he's holding? Fun story and memory for you.