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

    I quite agree with Mr. Mills assessment of the tragedy.  The priority here
should be reclaiming the girl's body for burial, and indeed that where the L.A.
Times article seems to indicate the emphasis has been, but it is indeed
difficult to envision a river hole of this nature and magnitude that would
thwart so many attempts of professionals to retrieve the body.   I cannot
imagine anyone daring to dive into waters that are of sufficient force to rip
off a diver's mask, and certainly such brave souls should not be put at risk,
potentially compounding this unbelievable misfortune with other deaths.
    My experience with river boating is nil, and now my desire to ever go  is
also at an all time ebb.  I thought about her all day today, recirculating in
that vortex, withheld from her loved ones, and they denied closure on so signal
a tragedy.  I've pulled a body out of the surf as well, and saved more than a
few in my kayaking and longboarding along shore, and none of that has worked on
me like this has.
        Of particular interest to me here is the battle shaping up between the
father of the girl and   what appears to be the self-anointed custodians of the
Chatooga, which is grand to be sure but is, after all, but rocks, water, and
gradient........and dare I say it.......not Deity.
    Still, we who venture out into wilderness situations  are  shocked to have
to continually learn the lesson that larger cranium capacity and opposable
thumbs may not be the last word after all.
    Perhaps this is what  *wilderness* means:   Disney didn't draw it.
Mills, Larry wrote:

> Steve
>
> I agree that it is terribly sad.
>
> And wading across upstream of a Class IV is just wrong.
>
> But the debate isn't the rightness or wrongness of signs
> in wild areas or wading in the wrong place.  It's about
> a dead girl.
>
> If it was your child, I suspect you would do anything
> and everything possible to retrieve their body.  I know I
> would.  I put people ahead of things every time.
>
> Larry Mills
> Purchase, NY
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Steve Cramer [SMTP:cramer_at_coe.uga.edu]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 15, 1999 10:12 A.M.
> > To:   paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
> > Subject:      Re: [Paddlewise] Teenager drowns on Chatooga, retrieval
> > efforts dangerous
> >
> > Elaine Harmon wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi- been reading about this in rec.boats.paddle. That kid was NOT A
> > BOATER but a hiker who was wading and fell in.
> > >
> > > We should all email Strom Thurmond and bitch (or something). Why not
> > just
> > > put signs up whereever hiking paths come up to rivers?
> >
> > Mainly because this is a National Wild and Scenic River. You don't put
> > structures in W&SR corridors. Also, wading across a river upstream of a
> > Class IV rapid is perhaps not the safest approach to crossing a river.
> >
> > A very sad situation.
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > Test Scoring and Reporting Services
> > University of Georgia
> > Athens, GA 30602-5593
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