...and why you should always row Cataracts!!

Getting my scanner to work is like the constant wildcard in my life. I was cleaning up this evening and I came across this picture so I decided to see if my scanner would work tonight and that it did (now I've got lots of pictures to scan).

Anyways, about 4 years back, I took a multi-day float trip down the Gulkana River in Alaska (a trib to the mighty Copper). I went with my mother's fiance at the time and some of his freinds.

A couple years prior, they had purchased a second raft and never bothered to purchase a spare set of oars as they had never broken an oar in 25+ years of rowing the river.

Anyways, we had two days left in our float and just finished rowing the rafts through a section known as the 'Canyon.' My mom's fiance was on the sticks in one raft and I was with a buddy of his in another raft.

We were rounding a pretty routine corner and going through some heavy water but nothing dangerous when I heard *SNAP*!! And looked up and heard everyone yelling at me to "GRAB THE OAR!!!" Which I managed to do, barely, thank God!

Without a spare oar and some pretty heavy water and large rocks and two days to go in the trip, we needed to come up with something.

It involved, sawing apart part of the frame on the raft and lots and lots and lots of duct tape.

See for yourself.

Always carry a spare oar and ALWAYS row Cataracts!!!

Good post Ryan.

I would add to have the spare oar put together and accessable for the toughest sections of whitewater. I snapped the right oar of our raft in half when making a hard manuver at the top of the challenging Powerhouse Rapids on the upper Clackamas, a few years ago during sping runoff, and we couldn't get to the 2 piece spare strapped under the frame. Luckily we bounced to the left when we unavoidably hit the logjam at the lower end!

Another good reason the have a spare handy is to splash doughballs, crackers, and low-holing corkers; without having to take out one of the 2 in use.

Hopefully one or two of you will be able to empathize with the humor/horror of the following....

I had just picked up my first DB and spent days sanding and refinishing two of the oars that came with it...Finally the day arrived to see if I had "the right stuff"...

I launched the boat as high on the river as I could choosing the longest float possible (I wanted to learn as much as I could about the river as fast as I could)....

Fifteen minutes later I was pinned against a log jam, a result of anchoring in quite possibly the stupidest place in the world. It really is a good thing my passengers had no idea of the imminent danger we were in...until, in an effort to unpin myself from the logjam, I snapped one of my newly refinished oars.

The good news is that my efforts at unpinning us were successful, the bad news is obvious.

You think you were tired after rowing your boat the first time?? Try rowing eight miles of river on one oar. I have, I know it can be done but will spend the rest of my life trying desperately to avoid putting myself in a situation like that....

Stroke, stroke one way...spin the boat, stroke, stroke the other way....it made pulling plugs very difficult

I learned alot of lessons during my first experience as Captain on my DB. Having a spare oar is one of them...

I just want to add that its not just fear of oars breaking, oarlocks can pop out or break as well, either situation can lead to the above Laurel and Hardy comedy routine.

Excellent post by the way

i had a similar situation on the clackamas river ten years ago. we were fishing for summers at the top of the minefield. i had a fish on and my buddy went for the net and got it caught in the oar lock. he pulled hard enough to get the net and the oar out(in the water).we netted the fish and discovered we had lost an oar. we managed to get to shore and break a maple branch long enough to use as a temp. we picked/bounced through the minefield and caught up with our oar just before the take out at the bottom of the park.

we should of had a spare!

Just ignore this thread...I updated it with a new pic for another thread....