White Water Season Is Coming!

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I'm a white water canoe person, not a rafting person. Why? I started in Girl Scouts with canoeing on a bay, and graduated o "big water" canoeing across Long Island Sound. We started in a river and worked our way into Long Island Sound slowly, so that the kids who were afraid would get used to it slowly. Later in my life my friends taught me a little white water, and I bought a tape that taught it more in-depth. We did the Delaware from it's tributaries to the Gap, and I loved it. Well, not exactly. I had a boyfriend who was overly manly. We started the trip in the canoe rental store, and I studied the map of the river and marked off the paths that must be taken through the white water. Thee were some freaky falls that had to be negotiated very precisely, and I sketched it all on my pad and kept it close during the trip. Sure enough, the first rapids came up that required navigation, and I whipped out my map. To the left was an advanced track, and to the right was a beginner's track. In the middle there was a pool of clear water that immediately made me think of a falls... and a high cliff. So I dutifully remarked to my steersman (my boyfriend) that we should go right, and he asked why. The falls were nearing quickly. I explained quicker, and he rationalized as only a macho-man could: left was advanced, right was beginner, so middle was medium! As we neared the falls I paddled to the right in broad "c" strokes, but my boyfriend countered with strong "j" strokes, guiding us right to the falls! I began hotting and warning him to no avail. Screeeeeeccccchhhhhhhhh went the bottom of the canoe on the rocks, and then the front of the canoe was hanging in dead air, above a six foot drop. Now in a kayak it might not have been so bad, but in an aluminum canoe weighted down by two people and a cooler full of beer - well, it just ain't gonna work. I fell, the canoe fell, and we swamped badly. I am a light person, and I floated out of the canoe. For a while I tried to ride with the canoe down the rapids, but I got bashed on a rock and was washed away. I rode the entire rapids without the canoe, being strangled by my rented floatation device. I ended up so bumped and bruised that I was in shock all night with only aspirin to help me. My next trip I brought my own floatation vest, my own paddles, and insisted upon being the steersman. I also swamped the canoe on purpose in a shallows, wetting down my idiot boyfriend and soaking everything in his pockets including his wallet. I truly loved it. He screamed at me for fifteen minutes straight. I just said "Payback is a biatch, eh?" and rode with another person for the rest of the trip. Ever since then I've loved white water canoeing and have increased my proficiency by leaps and bounds. I now prefer a single-man canoe, which is lighter and speedier. So, do you have a canoeing tale, how do you prefer to canoe, and where do you go for rapids?