I shared this story with some friends who went horse camping in the Big South Fork recently and they really liked it so I thought some of you might too:
"Spring of 70 or 71. It had been unseasonably warm. I was in college at UTK and an army buddy of mine was visiting from Albermarle, North Carlolina. I was going to college on the GI Bill and Ralph had started a pulpwood business. We decided to make the 30 mile canoe run from Leatherwood Ford to the Yamacraw Bridge; a hard day's run with two portages. We had made many trips together and had no shortage of confidence. We had both served two tours in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne and we both had Purple Hearts, we thought we were equal to anything.
We expected it to be in the 60's and only wore jean and wind beakers. This was 40 years ago, before modern weather prediction. What we would now call an "Alberta Clipper" hit us about midday; rain, then sleet, then snow and the temperature dropped into the teens. We were so frozen we couldn't paddle, just balanced the canoe.
Eventually we were running in the dark totally blind but we decided to stay on the water because there was no where to go in the gorge and we knew we would freeze to death if we stopped. Finally we saw moving lights on the left side up on the mountain and knew we were under the highway leading to the bridge. We ditched the canoe and climbed the mountain up to the highway.
We knew we were only a half mile from the bridge but we wanted off the water. We were so cold we couldn't feel our feet. It felt like were walking on stumps of legs and we had to use the guard rail for balance.
When we got to the car we thought we were home free but our hands were near frozen; they didn't work. We couldn't feel anything. It took forever to get the keys out of Ralph's pocket and then it took all we could do to just turn the key in the ignition. We sat in the car with heater running for over an hour before we got enough feeling back to drive.
We abandoned my El Camino at Leatherwood for a couple of days and went home.
Ralph had some permanent frostbite damage but for some reason I didn't ."
emoUSA
"Spring of 70 or 71. It had been unseasonably warm. I was in college at UTK and an army buddy of mine was visiting from Albermarle, North Carlolina. I was going to college on the GI Bill and Ralph had started a pulpwood business. We decided to make the 30 mile canoe run from Leatherwood Ford to the Yamacraw Bridge; a hard day's run with two portages. We had made many trips together and had no shortage of confidence. We had both served two tours in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne and we both had Purple Hearts, we thought we were equal to anything.
We expected it to be in the 60's and only wore jean and wind beakers. This was 40 years ago, before modern weather prediction. What we would now call an "Alberta Clipper" hit us about midday; rain, then sleet, then snow and the temperature dropped into the teens. We were so frozen we couldn't paddle, just balanced the canoe.
Eventually we were running in the dark totally blind but we decided to stay on the water because there was no where to go in the gorge and we knew we would freeze to death if we stopped. Finally we saw moving lights on the left side up on the mountain and knew we were under the highway leading to the bridge. We ditched the canoe and climbed the mountain up to the highway.
We knew we were only a half mile from the bridge but we wanted off the water. We were so cold we couldn't feel our feet. It felt like were walking on stumps of legs and we had to use the guard rail for balance.
When we got to the car we thought we were home free but our hands were near frozen; they didn't work. We couldn't feel anything. It took forever to get the keys out of Ralph's pocket and then it took all we could do to just turn the key in the ignition. We sat in the car with heater running for over an hour before we got enough feeling back to drive.
We abandoned my El Camino at Leatherwood for a couple of days and went home.
Ralph had some permanent frostbite damage but for some reason I didn't ."
emoUSA
