I went to Camp St. Croix during the summer after 8th grade. It was my third year at the Wisconsin camp, and I was assigned to a group that was scheduled to take a canoe trip. The first half of the trip was uneventful as we made our way upstream. But the last two days involved an amazing experience: hurtling downstream on the Apple River, I was caught by the throat and yanked from the stern of my canoe! I learned from this incident that other people appreciated my sense of humor, that I was a valued member of my trail group, and above all, that I wanted to do more fast-water canoeing.
The Apple River has metal cables stretched across its width – “stays” that people in tubes can grab as they float downstream. But the wires are positioned at just the wrong height for people in canoes. They're also hard to see! When my canoe approached the first wire, the boy in the bow ducked; the boy sitting in the middle never noticed the wire; but the wire caught me under my chin. The current was moving so fast that I never had a chance. The wire yanked me from the canoe and left me behind, dangling from the cable. It took about a minute for the boys in my canoe to turn around and discover that I was gone. They were shocked. I waved and smiled from my perch along the wire. We had some good laughs when they picked me up, and as a result, the incident was an ice-breaker in our group. Everyone tried to imitate the way I had waved from the middle of the river.
The boys from my canoe told the story to the rest of our trail group, and it was immediately clear to me that people – especially the counselors – were very concerned about me. They asked me to repeat the story. They checked to be sure that I was safe and warmly dressed. It was the first time on the trip when I felt completely welcome within the group. I belonged!
The experience was only a minor emergency, but it cemented my life-long love of rivers, wilderness camping, and fast-water canoeing. I loved the current and the thrill of hurtling downstream, steering to avoid the rocks, marveling at trees that seemed to whiz past me on the shore. The incident on the Apple River has always stayed with me – perhaps because the sensation of the water, coarsing along my legs, has never left me.
In the years after that trip, I took trips all over the Boundary Waters as a camper, and I led canoe trips professionally – from northern Minnesota, to Canada, to the Arctic Ocean. In all those trips, I never forgot the incident on the Apple River. I loved telling the story because it helped me to relish an experience when other people appreciated my sense of humor, when I knew that I was a valued member of my trail group, and above all, that I saw as the beginning of my fast-water canoeing career. I will always be grateful to the park rangers who stretched those cables across the Apple River.
