Re: [Paddlewise] Teenager drowns on Chatooga, retrieval efforts d angerous

>From: Steve Cramer <cramer_at_coe.uga.edu>
snip
>I've already instructed my wife to have me cremated (after I'm
>dead, that is) and sprinkled into Bull Sluice, a Class V rapid about 2
>miles upriver from where the girl is.
>
>[warning: the next paragraph may seem tasteless]
>The effort has, at this point, an element of futility. It's highly
>unlikely that they will recover the girl whole, or even the whole girl.
>It's not as if her parents will be able to hug her one last time. She's
>been under water for weeks.
>
>BTW, my comment about wading above rapids was not meant to diss the girl
>and her companion, but to illustrate that people in the wilds will do
>inapproriate things, and that signs cannot anticipate them all.
>
>I have to disagree with Larry about the point of the debate, though.
>Around here, at least, it is about making permanent changes to a
>national treasure. Those of us who have spent appreciable amounts of
>time on the Chatooga don't consider it a thing. The river has a life of
>its own, and for centuries has lived that life independent of man. If
>the parents want the body recovered and it can be, fine, but let's leave
>the river alone.

Hi Steve,
I share your desire to have a "watery grave" (again -after I'm dead). In 
fact, if the authorites would permit it, I'd have a Viking fireship 
cremationr, with Coleman fuel on my sea kayak.
However, I can also sympathize with the family's desire to recover the body 
as a needed part of "closure" (to use that trendy word). I've been through 
several deaths in my family, and missed the funeral of one because I had 
been in the backcountry and unreachable at the time of the death. The air of 
unreality and disbelief that any survivor feels with any death was extended 
in this case because there had been no ceromony, no viewing of a body, etc. 
I'm not suggesting the river should be diverted, or other lives put at risk 
to recover the body; I'm just saying I understand the family's yearning to 
do so.

Philip T.
N49°16' W123°08'


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