Bow River Valley - Swamped by a Sweeper - Part 2 of 3

Read Part 1 first.
I got off to an early start the next morning. After a hearty breakfast, I soon had the tent down and all the gear packed and ready to go. Once on the water, the miles of mountain scenery began to slide by endlessly.

As the hours passed, the river got narrower and deeper, and began to wander back and forth from side to side in the valley. The bends and curves got sharper, so it was impossible to see what was around the next curve.

The water runs swiftest on the outside curves and much slower on the inside. The current is constantly cutting away the bank on the outside curves, and caused trees to topple into the water. The slow inside curve builds up the gravel. When I could, I stayed on the inside of the river bend, where I had more control of the canoe.

Eventually, I approached a curve where the river made an abrupt u- turn to the left. I endeavored to maneuver to the inside of the turn but the current swung the back end of the canoe around so that I ended up going sideways, down the middle of the river. It was at this time I caught sight of an undermined tree lying across my path, but still anchored to the right hand bank.

These are known as sweeper trees.

There was no way I was going to be able to paddle to my left and get around the end of the tree. Only the tip of the tree was in the water. The trunk of the tree was suspended about eight inches off the surface of the water. I could see that I was going to hit the tree with my right side, and I could expect to be swept out of the canoe and into the river.

At the last minute I leaned to my left so that the entire right side of the canoe would hit the tree, rather than go under it. There was not much else I could do, as I braced for the impact. The canoe hit the tree and stopped instantly. The river water simply rose up on the left side and poured into the canoe, filling it in an instant. The swamped canoe sank and rolled under the tree upside down. I went along for the ride.

I followed the canoe to the surface just in time to see a second similar tree blocking the river. The canoe easily rolled again, under the tree. I ducked underwater and followed. As we came to the surface the canoe was pointed down the river but floating upside down. As I started swimming after the canoe, I noticed my cap was floating down river with me. I reached over and grabbed the hat and put it back on. It seemed the sensible thing to do at the time.

When I caught up to the canoe, I grabbed onto the back end, and rolled it right side up. It was filled with water and just the gunnels, or sides of the canoe, showed above the surface. Up ahead I could see a gravel bar in the middle of the river and managed to steer the canoe to it. I climbed up on the gravel bar and dragged the canoe up high enough so it would not be swept away.

It was at this moment that the shock of the ice cold water hit me. I stood on the gravel bar in the middle of the river, shivering with the cold. My hands were stiff as I awkwardly removed my shirt and pants. Once I’d rung out most of the water, I put them back on.

Still shivering, I checked the contents of the canoe and found that I had lost both paddles, but everything else was still securely packed. I dug out my camera from the packsack and saw that it was still there but rather damp. I rewound the film into the cassette then opened the camera to drain out the water.

Note - I was able to get the film developed and printed at a later date, but most of the photos were watermarked, as can be seen in some of the earlier photos. The rest of the photos were taken with a dry camera the following day, as I recorded the site of my dunking.

This photo was taken the next day, looking back up river, and shows the two trees I went under with the canoe. The curve I came around is to the right middle of the photo, behind the two small pine trees.

This photo shows a third tree, with the gravel bar to the left of it. This tree was lying in the water, but still anchored to the river bank. The river was rushing past on each side of me so fast, any attempt to swim to the shore would simply have swept me downstream.

Since I had lost both paddles, I could not use the canoe. I was stuck on a gravel bar in the middle of a fast flowing river. I had a problem.

Continued in part 3.