Re: [Paddlewise] more group trips

In a similar vein as some of the other stories....

In the early 90's I joined the Carolina Canoe Club to go on overnight
canoeing/camping trips.  No longer a member since the club seemed to be
more into white water stuff, aka itty bitty kayaks,  than the Second C of
the Club name.  Great group of people though just not want I wanted to
do....  On my first trip the leader's name was Cledus.  Well, that is how I
remember his name!  8-)

The trip was an overnighter on the Black River near Kinston, NC USA.  The
river is the typical southern black river, with lots of twists and turns,
downed trees in the river, and absolutely gorgeous.  The river was up a bit
due to some heavy rains over the previous weeks which was going to make for
an easy paddle with none of the usual get out and pull spots.  The group
was about  seven or eight canoes, with four single paddlers and the rest
with two people per boat.  There was a couple of father/son canoes as well
as a couple.  Then TheFamily showed up.  TheFamily was the parents and the
son and daughter.  They had two canoes, one for the guys and one for the
gals.  Just watching them at the put in was enough to make me start to
worry.  Cledus picked up right away and talked to them about their
experience.  Dad said they knew how to paddle and there would not be a
problem.  Right.

So off we go.  The river is moving at a couple of miles per hour maybe even
three miles per hour in places.  It zigs and it zags.  The river was fairly
narrow at this point, about 20-30 feet across.  The zigs and the zags was
gett'n the best of the gal canoe.  They were doing a damned good job of
bouncing off of one side of the river before bounding off another.  Course,
many times a downed tree would catch them from hitting the bank.  Being
from Florida, I have seen many tourists do the same thing so this was
nothing new.  I just kinda stayed in front of them with a one of the other
single canoes waiting for the seemingly inevitable swim that was going to
happen.  Meanwhile Cledus stayed in back and tried to teach mom how to
paddle.  The current was making things far more interesting and at the time
I did not realise how dangerous those downed trees could have been.  Dad
was yelling, errr, giving commands to mom.  Mom was getting ticked.  Mom
should have been.  If she could even understand was Dear Dad wanted, it
would not have helped.  No one knew what the heck Dear Dad was talking
about.  Maybe that was part of the problem?

Mom was not the kinda person to be on an overnight camping trip.  Mom
wanted to be at home where running water meant a toilet and bath not
something that kept pushing her into those dang moss covered trees.  This
was not want mom called fun.  Mom did not like being out of control on the
river.  Then one of the other father/son canoes started playing the game of
Count The Number of Snakes In the Trees In the River.  You know, the trees
that mom keeps running into.  Apparently mom does not like snakes.  She
kinda freaked out as the other father/son teams joined in the
GreatSnakeCensous.  Surprisingly, this did not spur on mom to greater canoe
control because from then on it seemed that she would unerringly paddle
into tree after tree.  Of course dad was still ordering, err, giving her
paddling instructions, which greatly helped the situation.

By, this point, oh about 15 minutes into our 36 hours together, Cledus told
dad to head down stream and he would help out mom.  This did help things
out a bit.  Me and a couple of other canoes stayed near mom.  But we would
have to wait around each bend in the river for them.  We really figured we
would be fishing them and their equipment from the river.  This kept us
going for a couple of hours.  Mom was making progress but we were a couple
hours behind schedule.  Mom was getting tired.  Mom was very, very, very
out of shape.  Then it started to rain.  Not just a little sprinkle.  A
downpour.  Almost like you get in Florida but not quite.  Who would have
figured but mom did not like the rain.  Did not like it at all.  Eventually
we reached a bridge.  The Last Bridge to Civilisation.  We stopped for a
break.  After a bit, Cledus tells everyone to head on downstream, me and
the other River Sweep in waiting decide to hang around.  Cledus walks over
and tells us to scat that he is got everything under control.  As we get
our gear together, we hear Cledus talking to TheFamily, pointing out there
difficulties, troubles and tribulations.  Now, he does not do this buy
getting up a  soap box and telling them that they are horrible paddlers and
a danger to themselves and others.  Nor does he come out and tell them that
they are making the trip a PaddleFromHell for the rest of us.   No, he
tells them that they sure seem miserable.  Wet, tired and cold.  We have
another 20 miles to do between this afternoon and tomorrow.  It looks like
its going to rain for the rest of the afternoon.  Might rain tonight.  Hard
to tell.  We are going to have  to pick up the pace to make camp for
tonight and get up early to make it to the pickup on time.  Could be mighty
buggy down at the camp site.  You know, if dad was to walk down the road a
couple of miles there is a little store where you might be able to talk
someone into talking you back to the put in to get your car.  Could be back
home by nightfall.  Dad seemed to think this was a mighty fine idea after
looking at his wife.  He was going to say something to her about keeping on
the river but the dagger eyes she threw at him looked like they drew blood.
Dad started to walk up the embankment.  Cledus asked if he had his wallet
and keys.  Dad sheepishly said no.  Cledus suggested that it sure might
come in handy to have some cash to get a ride back to your car.  The keys
might help as well.

We left shortly there after.  Just down the river, Cledus, told us what he
had been trying to do all morning.  He wanted the rest of the group to push
on so he could let it be known in his subtle ways that TheFamily was
slowing the group down.  The RiverSweepers kinda prevented him from making
his case.  'Course we were doing the right thing safety wise.  Tomorrow we
would drive over the bridge on the way back to our cars.  We started making
bets on whether dad had been left under the bridge.  And would he be alive.
For the rest of the trip and on several others, it was common to ask Cledus
if'n he was going to "Leave us at the bridge."

Cledus was a Leader.  Period.  He kept the situation safe, made the most of
a bad situation, and persuaded TheFamily to leave in a very subtle manner.
The man should be in sales but instead works for DOT, Department of
Transportation.  I think of him whenever a discussion on groups is going
on.

Hope this informs and enlightens....
Dan.

PS.
The rest of the trip was a blast.  A full moon rose over the 10 foot high
sand bluffs our camp over looked.  We had a midnight stroll to an old
family graveyard one of the couples had found.  And finally saw a gorgeous
cypress swamp.






***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/
***************************************************************************