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Pastimes : Daily Story Corner -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JeffA who wrote (1470)	7/11/2005 12:29:12 PM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2590

I enjoyed that story. Here's mine: SURVIVAL ON THE CLACKAMAS RIVER I was a cautious canoe man. When I wanted to float the Clackamas River, I always put in just below the rapids called “The Toilet Bowl.” The Toilet Bowl was famous for flushing unwary rafters into eternity, and more than a few had finished their last day of rafting in that very place. To shoot the Toilet Bowl in a canoe was simply out of the question, but just below the Bowl was a nice stretch of flat water for launching. That’s where I always put in. A short reach below my launch point another famous rapids called “Bob’s Hole” attracted Kayakers from all over the west. It had several nice standing waves, and skilled kayakers could play all day, surfing the waves like so many otters. Every year Bob’s Hole was the site of a Kayak Rodeo, where the best of the best tested their skills. Bob’s Hole was not good canoe water, but I had found that I could skirt the waves along the north bank and go through unscathed. Experience had taught me to scout such water, and I did that every time. Fortune smiled on me every time too, and I never had a spill there. I took my young son Adam canoeing with me one day. We put in just below the Toilet Bowl, as I always did alone. We stopped to scout Bob’s Hole, as I always did. A kayaker preparing to launch at Bob’s Hole saw me scouting the water and shook his head. “You’re crazy if you take that canoe through Bob’s. If you lose your young boy there, you’ll never forgive yourself,” he said. I looked at him. I looked at Bob’s Hole. I looked at Adam. “You’re absolutely right,” I said. “We’re not going through there today.” Adam was none too pleased with me and put up quite an argument. I wondered if I would lose his respect for being a chicken. Nevertheless, I carried my canoe up the steep rocky slope to the highway and left it there long enough to go get the car. We finished our day canoeing on the nice flat lake. Did I make the wrong choice? Did I sacrifice my son’s respect for an overdose of caution? Would we have made it through Bob’s Hole together, as I had done alone so many times before? Well, maybe. And maybe not. I’ll never know the outcome of the opposite choice. I’ll never know whether a more daring Dad would be a more admirable Dad, one unafraid to shoot Bob’s Hole with his son. I’ll never know. I’ll tell you one thing though. Adam grew to be a fine young man, confident and able to make good choices with his own life. I’ll take that any day.