When I canoed with our local Scout group leaders in the summer of 2000 it was my first time on the river since the disaster mentioned above. I had no fear of the river but did experience some anxiety. Dumping a canoe is a pain in the neck and I didn’t relish trading my nice dry comfortable seat for a swim in the cold water. Later that summer when I took some kayak lessons, the first thing the instructor told us was that if we didn’t want to get wet, stay on dry land and leave canoes and kayaks alone. He was right, but like anyone who has ever dumped a fully loaded canoe will tell you, it’s nothing but grief. The advantage on a trip like this was that there was safety in numbers. If anything happened there were lots there to help you out. My main goal on this trip was to stay dry and enjoy the company and the scenery.

There was also anxiety from not knowing the skill level of my partner for this trip. She was a novice and typically this part of the river is perfect for getting the feel of a canoe. Experienced paddlers I know find it boring and avoid it except to float in an inner tube, drink beer and nap in the sun. Even so, I knew that it doesn’t take much to get into trouble and the river was a little higher than normal, although not near at the flooding conditions that can occur. If we get into trouble, I asked myself, could I control the situation well enough to keep her from panicking and getting hurt? Even on a warm summers day mild hypothermia can occur when a dunk in the river is mixed with the high winds that blow down the river valley. It can sure take the fun out of the trip quickly for people who are not mentally prepared. Worrying about something can have greater anguish than if and when it actually happens. I’m not sure if she was worried about the river, but I was worried about her being worried.

We put into the river at the dam on Friday evening and with a fair weather forecast looked forward to a fun and relaxing weekend. The first leg of this trip lasts for a few hours and we usually get off the river and set up camp while there is still day light. I’m not sure why, but when ever I go out with a group of people, canoeing, skiing, hiking or what have you I always end up in the last spot. Maybe I’m just slow, but I like to attribute it to wanting to take my time and enjoy the world passing by, rather than rushing through it and missing all it has to offer. This trip was no exception. At least from that vantage point we could see how the others dealt with the river and this would give us plenty of time to make adjustments.

The most exciting and challenging part of this section of river wasn’t far from the put-in. Probably less than a quarter of a mile. I’m not sure what the technical name for this hydraulic is but I likened it to ‘rollers’ or breakers that form on an open lake when the wind blows hard. They took me by surprise at first view, since I had forgotten about them. We had three options based on what we saw the other boats do – go to the right, but there didn't appear to be enough water to get through that way; go to the left, where a twenty-foot rock and dirt cliff face was; or go through the middle, and paddle hard all the way. The crew ahead of us went straight down the middle and when I saw the bow of the canoe come out of the water and slap back down sending spray everywhere I made the decision to steer us to the left. Judging from the tense acknowledgement from my partner in the bow seat it was the right decision. Rough water can be fun and challenging but if you are not ready to face it head on it isn’t. Although my wife, who had been my paddling partner for years, and I didn’t always agree on which line to take, we had worked out a communications system that was quick and clear when things did start happening. At this early challenge it occurred to me that my new partner and I didn’t have the same system or that we hadn’t taken the time to discuss one. After it was over I made a mental note to take a lesson from this and ensure that commands and actions be well discussed and agreed on with my partners before we hit the water.

When we made it to the edge of the rollers we kept on going, straight for the cliff! Typically there can be eddies at these bows in the river, but here there was just dirt and rocks with a fairly calm and straight line past the rollers. I planned to get into that line but we weren’t coming around to it. I hollered to my partner to ‘paddle left!’ which for me means put your paddle on the left side of the boat. She paddled from the right and on my command paddled harder, thinking I wanted to keep heading left. I tried to pry my end of the boat to my left but there didn’t look to be enough time. Don’t forget, even though I’ve spent lots of time on class 1 rivers with the occasional foray into class 2 rivers with mild class 3 rapids, I’m an average paddler. Add this to the fact that we were in Coleman canoes, which are incredibly stable and durable, but slow and sluggish in fast water. When it dawned on me what was happening, I instructed her to paddle on the left side, and hard. We swung around and passed the cliff within a few feet and headed for the line that would take us past the rollers. When we reached calm water, she told me that she couldn’t understand why I wanted her to ‘paddle left’ when it was obvious even to her that we were headed straight into the cliff! We had a chuckle over this and let the adrenaline rush subside. It seemed to give her confidence in her basic skills. As for me, it felt good to be back on the river! Later on in the trip I had the revelation that solo canoeing or even kayaking was what I wanted to pursue. I figured that if I got into trouble an unscheduled swim would inconvenience only me. There were to be other revelations on this trip, but that’s for later in the story. We gathered in the middle of the river and exchanged stories on our trip through the rollers. The crew ahead of us that went straight through took on a fair bit of water via the spray. The skipper was an experienced paddler so he was able to get them through with no real threat to life or limb. We continued down the river without incident and our leader kept a lookout for a likely camping spot.

We pulled ashore just as the sun was dipping beyond the trees. The decision to camp on a gravel bar in the river made me nervous especially since there was obvious sign that the river had recently flooded this spot for a fair distance back to higher ground. Since this portion of the river is controlled, it pays to check with the dam master to get a schedule of flow adjustments for the time you are on the river. According to our leader we could relax since there were no openings scheduled for the weekend. I normally don’t like to camp on gravel bars for other reasons as well. It can get cold in the morning. Mosquitoes like to gather by water and there is normally little wind to blow them away as there would be on a high ridge. There could be surprise visitors in the middle of the night when the local wildlife comes down to the rivers edge to water themselves or cross to the other side. In the failing light I could see deer tracks in the mud by the river and most likely there were also other critters such as porcupines, skunks and coyotes. The next morning my paddling partner talked of hearing rustling in the bushes across the river during the night. The general consensus was that it was most likely deer or maybe even cattle, since the majority of land along this stretch of the river is grazing pasture. I talked to some folks about this later and they acknowledged that even though bears and cougars were moving into the river valley as a result of pressure on their habitat, they were still west of Sundre or sixty to seventy miles up river from the dam.

The weather during this period was what the forecasters call ‘unsettled’. Through this part of Alberta, as in the rest of the province, weather changes fast. It can go from hot and dry to cold and wet with little warning. This spring was even more ‘unsettled’. Hot dry windy days were followed by raging storms at night and included an inordinate amount of electrical activity. The only thing that seemed consistent was that it came directly from the west. In the evenings the wind would pick up, the sky would darken with rolls of black clouds and thunder and lightning would precede a brief but torrential downpour. This may be a normal pattern elsewhere, but it wasn’t normal for this part of the country, at least in recent memory. It would turn out to be the warning of one of nature’s most destructive forces! A few weeks later a tornado blew through this area and killed nine people at Pine Lake out east of us. Although it was a week or two away from this weekend, I believe we all considered ourselves lucky when looking back!

That night I slept under a tarp spread out from our overturned canoe. As time passes it is important to me that I get closer to the natural world around me when out on an adventure. I usually sleep under a tarp rigged up as an open-ended lean-to and enjoy the feeling of fresh air on my face as I fall asleep watching the stars above me or listening to the forest’s night sounds around me. One of the paddlers thought I was the weirdest thing they ever saw. They thought I was crazy for not sleeping in a tent. I thought I was crazy for bothering with a tarp. I would have preferred to just sleep under the canoe, but it looked like rain and as I get older I find I don't like getting wet. So much for getting ‘closer’ to nature!

The next day, our trip down the river was fairly uneventful. Which was a good thing. It gave us a chance to relax and enjoy the view. At a wide spot we pulled abreast of each other and let the river drift us along. A few strokes now and then from the outside paddlers kept us straight and in the middle. We discussed setting up a sail but were too relaxed to do that much work. Even with drifting on the current we made good time and pulled into our next camp spot early in the afternoon.

In Alberta we have a thing called ‘public’ or ‘crown land’. This is land owned by the provincial government and is available for all to enjoy. Water courses and natural water bodies are classified as public land. This includes the islands in the river and the banks up to the last year’s high water mark. There is also frontage along the rivers which are still public land which makes the rivers in this part of the country great for overnight trips, since you can pull over almost anywhere and camp. It pays to check the status of land along the river before your trip to avoid any trespassing though. On this trip we stopped at an island just above the Penhold bridge named Scout Island many years ago when the local scout groups made use of this island for their camping adventures. We setup camp further inland where the fire ring was and some folks went to play in the river.

After dinner we all relaxed around the campfire and talked about the things folks talk about on trips like this. Usually other trips! When I went to relieve myself at the river edge I saw the dark and ugly clouds rolling in from the west. I passed by the campfire and mentioned this to the others and headed to where my sleeping spot was. I hadn’t set a tarp up earlier, but now rigged one up since those clouds didn’t look very friendly or too far away. A ferocious storm blew in about an hour later. It rained hard, the wind blew straight from the west and the earth shook with the lightning and thunder that the wind brought. I crawled into my bag under my tarp after refusing the kind offer of refuge from one of the tenters. I eventually fell asleep with the light show going crazy above my head. The last thought I had as I drifted off was thinking that sleeping between two trees in the middle of a forest during an electrical storm wasn't the brightest thing I had ever done. At least not for awhile!

When I awoke in the morning the rain had stopped and all that remained was the drip from the spruce trees. The other folks were up and huddled around the campfire attempting to dry out their belongings. Lots of rain on nylon tents equaled minor flooding inside. As for me, the foot of my bag had poked out of my tarp at some point and was slightly damp. My feet were fine though and the rest of my gear and me was bone dry. I had a glorious sleep and felt refreshed but was reluctant to hit the river. The sooner we left the island, the sooner our trip would be over! I wasn’t looking forward to that and wanted it to last forever. Another revelation I had on this trip was that I liked to be on solid ground and that hiking was what I really enjoyed. Paddling is fun but I just preferred terra firma to aqua. When I was watching the movie "The Perfect Storm’ later I affirmed my love of good old dirt! I told my grandson, who watched the movie with me, that I would take my chances with a prairie snow storm when the wind blew straight from the north pole with nothing to slow it down but a barbed wire fence before I’d go out on the ocean. At least on the prairie there was solid dirt somewhere beneath your feet! He really enjoys the ocean and just laughed. To each his own, I guess!

We packed up our gear after a hot breakfast and hit the river. It was a glorious day but we ran into a bit of head wind towards Red Deer. The storm from the night before had kept my partner awake and the lack of sleep showed. She had will power to spare though and we made it down the rest of the river by avoiding any rough stuff and staying out of the headwind when possible. We came up on the big rock upriver from the pull out point and feeling full of myself, I executed a near perfect eddy turn. We crossed the eddy line and slowly drifted into shore. Life was good! It was a sad moment pulling the canoe out of the river. I was warmed up and ready for more now, but most of the others were ready to get back into their lives away from the river. My partner wanted to go home, have a hot shower and sleep for a couple of days! I thanked her for the great trip and wished her a good sleep with pleasant dreams!

On the drive home I reflected on the events of the trip and even as simple as it was, it did encompass what I thought was a perfect example of a trip to the outdoors. Nature is ever changing and when you are out in the bush or out on the river, there is little you can do to stop it. Your only choice is to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. If you deal with and accept what nature has to offer you, rain or shine, wind or calm and adapt to the changing ways of nature you can have fun and enjoy it all!