Never a dull moment

[DTro]

It never ceases to amaze me how that whenever I think I've seen everything... the MN river always throws another one at me.

I literally have a memory bank chock full of things I've seen over the past decade on the river. Things that most people would never believe it unless they seen it. Things that after they happened or you witnessed it, you think to yourself, did that just happen?

Today we made another entry into the Star Log.

Now granted this might not be all that uncommon to see, but take into consideration, the water temp is a balmy 35 degrees. They were living the moment though with not only a grill on board, but also a banjo. We caught up with them later at the launch as they were dragging it out, and seemed a bit surprised when they found one of the barrels was half full of water.

I tell you what, had they been hidden around a bend and we came buzzing by, on half plane they probably would have got a little wet...or worse.

[Rick G]

It's Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and crew You will see some stuff if you hang around a river long enough

[Scott K]

I have seen a group in about the same set up last spring.

[MnCatGuy]

I saw something similar being launched in Carver 2 years ago. It was mid-summer and the guy was going to try to make it all the way to the Gulf.

They are lucky they didn't go for a swim.

[mrklean]

haha awesome, i remember watching a group of drunks floating down the sippi up by Monticello during high water, something i wouldn't want to ever do

[reddog]

Darwin award of the year for me so far..

[B-man715]

Dtro that picture brings back memories.

When I was about 10 years old the neighbor kid and I built a raft. We wanted to be just like Tom and Huckleberry.

Ours was extremely primitive. We literally nailed and tied a bunch of driftwood together at the creek's edge. Our raft ended up being about eight foot by six. It held us both up with about half of the wood submerged.

The plan was to just go down to the next bridge which was a 1/2 mile away as the crow flys and a mile away by road. Then we would just walk back home.

Well the trip went so well that once we got there we decided to keep going........ there was after all, plenty of daylight left....

Neither of us were sure how far away the next bridge was....... but agreed it couldn't be too far....

We knew there was a farmhouse there so we could use their phone to call home and get a ride.

The deer flies were now beginning to ignore what little bug spray that remained on our skin. So we caked on a good layer of mud......head to toe.

When we were about 3/4 of the way to "somewhere", the sun was dipping down beneath the trees. It was a god send really, because the deer flys settled down. Some more mud helped to keep the now buzzing mosquitoes at bay.

Soon after, the moon and stars were beginning to shine, and we realize we are no longer moving. It became apparent that this part of the creek opened up into a huge wild rice field.

Our short push poles were no longer able to find a solid bottom.........

Our raft was getting so water logged that barely any wood was above water......... or should I say mud...

We struggled on....... little did we know the bridge was now only 400 yards away. It probably took us two or three hours to cover the distance.

To be honest I don't know what time we got to the farmhouse. All I know is that the family was rather suprised to wake up and open the door to two muddy, dehydrated, and chewed up little kids in the middle of the night. Just the whites of our eyes and teeth were visable.

They let us use their phone to call home........then took a garden hose and sprayed us off.

As it turns out, we should have just walked the 5 miles back home and snuck in the house. Our parents were [PoorWordUsage]!!!!! LOL

After a few days we were allowed to hang out with eachother again......and came to the mutual agreement that if we ever did it again, the first bridge was a long enough trip

Thanks for pulling that great memory back up for me

It was only twenty years ago, but man, things sure have changed since. If that happened today there would be helicopters, divers, and Amber alerts sent out.......... just to find a couple kids living out a story they read in a book.......

[Gordie]

Time of year for their float was not the greatest idea ever.I thought my brothers and I were crazy running the ice jams on the Sand Creek back in the day. We did get wet once or twice and did spend a bit of time under the ice at one moment during those times, and I think that lead us to the wisdom that running those ice jams was not in our best interest.

I also have seen many different comptractions used to float the Sand Creek and the Minnesota like inner tubes with plywood attached to the top and shooting the rapids above the Old Sawmill in Jordan to various canoes used at times when a canoe shouldn't be on the river.

[DTro]

Yep, I don't question the mode of travel, the adventure, or even the banjo...the water temp was the kicker. I've seen full size boats get in trouble by drifting into the wrong snag.

They were talking about doing it again from Jordan or Belle Plaine. They will have had a couple nice surprises between Jordan and Carver.

[CANOPY SAM]

Oofda! Where did they hide the bong?

[Eric Wettschreck]

That actually looks pretty darn fun.

[chasineyes]

Looks like the crew from "Anchor Management". Were they dregging for gold???

[SkunkedAgain]

They actually put some thought and work into that rudder. At first all that I noticed were the paddles

[leech~~]

At least they have Coast Guard approved life jackets on board. Can't say their craft is C/G approved though?

It does look like a load of fun!

[VIZSLA_NUT]

Is that bubbles in the black jacket?

[OnAFly]

Don't worry, the one guy's skinny jeans will save them. They're so trendy!

[fowldreams]

Where does the watercraft registration go?

[cylinder]

Thanks for the story b-man. Reminded me of my kids' antics

[sevenmmm]

I like it. Quite a risky with much excitement. Being swamped and getting soaked, maybe drown, or roped alongside a Coast Guard Patrol Boat, quite an adventure!