I always put safety at the top of my list when making decisions when I am in the B.W.C.A. This past summer we woke up to a beautiful morning on the day we were to exit the woods. We had camp broken down and everything packed away in the canoes when we heard a distant rumble in the clouds. We had about a half mile paddle to reach our first portage. My canoe took the lead and took off toward the portage. The canoe with us decided to take a few pictures and would catch up to us.

When we were half way to the portage the wind and the rain appeared instantly. The water that was glass like turned into 3 foot rollers in a matter of 30 seconds. Rain came down in sheets. My canoe made it to shore somehow. As I looked out across the lake I could see my friends struggling to keep the heavy canoe from capsizing. Somehow by the grace of God they were able to make it to us on shore.

Looking back I know I should of not attempted to leave the campsite when I heard the thunder. Very poor judgement on my part.

Have any of you made decisions that you wished you could take back? Decisions that could of turned ugly?

One of the things I learned on my first solo there was that it's not as easy to make the right decision in the moment as it is when you're sitting on the couch critiquing someone else's. Hindsight is 20/20, but the world is full of possibilities and uncertainty in the moment.
I'm glad you all got through it, lived to tell the tale, and never do it again.

i took a few chances paddling last septembers solo...knowing the water was still warm. in may i would have never paddled in those conditions.

Hmmm taken chances like that many times. And paddled water many times that I know anyone with sense would not have. Taken waves in the face and watched my bow go under every other wave. Why? Impatiance, the thrill of it? Prolly both.... I'm alot older now. Not in great shape like I was in the past. And I've never tripped in the spring when the water is still ice cold....

I'm thinking from reading and setting here thinking a bit more than I sometimes do. That given this scenario this year. (and with a green horn joining our little group. I'll weigh my decisions more and stay in camp like Kanoes says.... We're only bullet proof until we get hit.

I've made hundreds of decisions that I would like to take back. Many of them occurred on the water, but two big ones involve ex-wives.

Somehow, if we are lucky enough to live through our mistakes, the passage of time turns them into adventures.

i've run many rapids that scared the crap out of me. and that was just scouting from the shore.

I have been fortunate that when Storms have rolled in I was firmly in a campsite for the time of the storm.

Not sure what I would do. Would have to look at each situation individually.

Ive gotten too close to a Bull Moose, and had to run for my life, but the one thing I never mess with is lightning, if I can hear thunder its time to get to shore always every time. P. S. You really cant take a picture of a moose when hes after you, who would have thought :-)

Almost drove off a cliff coming down the Echo Trail one trip. It was a close shave at Ed Shave :)

Sometimes we make bad choices for whatever reason. As long as no one got hurt it was a good learning experience. Some storms can be kind of sneaky. No matter how far away you think that thunder is, you need to be alert to it's potential. When I did the Frost River in August a storm was approaching as I neared Afton Lake. I put aside all picture taking moments to keep pushing forward to the campsite. I got my tent and rainfly up quickly and just in time for a big storm. Had that storm hit me while on the river I would have had to take shelter wherever. I was off the water well before any lightning was anywhere near me. Sometimes we make controversal decisions when we're tired.

I've been lucky I guess. Or cautious, or both. At least in the BW.

Plenty of other bad decisions - like hiking out on Lake Huron ice with no other human around for miles... (and no safety equipment, etc.). Somehow lived through.

Live and learn. I never would have believed I was a typical "invincible" teen/20-year old... but I recognize it now from the wisdom of 40+ years. Someone please help me with my own children!

Storms are tricky. Paddled in the rain once (not BW) and it was only rain. No thunder, not even a distant rumble. Suddenly there was a loud crack and lightning hit the island 100 yards ahead of us. We could smell ozone. Group of 8 canoes....we all paddled so fast for shore we joked later that our canoes made wakes. Shore was flooded. Stood in knee deep water in the trees while the storm raged. Not fun at the time, but fun now. LOL.

quote snakecharmer: "Almost drove off a cliff coming down the Echo Trail one trip. It was a close shave at Ed Shave :)"

With close shave Dave behind the wheel.

Closest I came was last year. After being windbound on an island campsite for over a day, decided to try it the next day. My son who is 10 is not a strong paddler in the bow, he's good but not alot of power. In terms of the white knuckle scale, that set a new bar. It's the hardest I've ever worked to keep the canoe pointed into the wind. I'm sure in 10 years I'll look back and realize that situation may only be an 7 or 8 out of 10 and that I'll push myself to higher limits. The key is never to push yourself past that limit.

The only mistake I see in your adventure Walllee is maybe assuming the second canoe had the same healthy fear of the approaching storm. Perhaps they shouldn't have been taking pictures and paddling instead, perhaps they thought they had more time. As someone else suggested, hindsight is 20/20. They made it and I'm sure they have a new found respect for approaching storms and won't make that mistake again.

When I bought my first canoe some years ago, my first trip was to take it down a local river right after ice out on a nice but very, very windy early April day with a seventy pound dog along...alone. The first mile or so was through a big marsh. I could not control the canoe and the dog didn't help matters any as she wanted to chase the nesting ducks and geese. If I would have tipped in the marsh there would have been no area to stand on to bail or dump the water out let alone walk out of if needed. Although I finished the trip unscathed it scared the livin' heck out of me. I've since been through a lot of storms and rapids but nothing since has even come close to how I felt that day. As mentioned by others I learned much from that trip....mostly what not to do. For all the stupid outdoor things I've done in my life and survived I've come to believe that we each have a guardian angel or most of us wouldn't be here writing these words.

Wallee,
I probably would have done the same thing.

I wasn't in a canoe but my bed decisions were on still on the water.

Really the bad decisions where on part of both my dad and I. We were fishing in a 14 foot aluminum boat with a old 10 hp motor that was a little sketchy.

We knew there was a chance of storms that day but we wanted to get out fishing so we went without giving the weather enough of a thought. The day was really windy so with our small boat and small motor we tried to stay mostly on the protected side of islands and any place where we could get out of the wind. The problem with that is that it didn't allow us to keep an eye on the western sky. About 4pm we decdied to move to a new spot and once we cleared the island we were hiding behind we could see the west sky, it was the darkest black you could imagine with a little of that sickly green color you see when know the storm is going to be bad.

Instead of finding a safe spot on shore to hideout on we tried to make a dash for the landing. But it was probably 30 minutes away in good conditions and by now the waves were kicking up. As soon as we got into the main body of the lake the full storm hit with what we later found out was 70 mph winds. In 70 mph winds and 4-5 foot waves (they would have been taller but the wind was blowing the tops of the waves off) we weren't able to make any head way toward the dock. The wind would catch the bow and pick it up out of the water and swing it 90 degrees before dropping it back down. Also when we were on the crest of the wave the bow and the stern would both be out of the water with the motor and prop just spinning in air completely out of the water.

Some how my dad was able to get the boat turned to go with the waves and we more or less just surfed our way to shore, we were completely at the mercy of where the waves wanted to send us. Thankfully we washed up on a small beach at someones house. The homeowners were rushing out to help us at the guy jumped in the lake to help pull us in the rest of the way.

We hid out with them in their house until the storm passes and we made our way to the dock. I think my hand prints are still imprinted in the gunnels of that boat as i was holding on so tight. That is one ride I never want to make ever again. Since then my dad and I have been out in numerous other storms but now we always head to shore the second it looks bad. We've rode out a few nasty storms on remote islands, gotten pretty wet but we weren't going to dare make another dash for the dock at the last second.

I think that we have all pushed to get out of camp or to camp in bad weather! Not the smartest thing to do, but I think we have all done it more than we probably should have. When I took my wilderness first responder course, I remember the instructor showing us some statistics of when accidents happen. I was surprised to see that a majority (75%+) occured within an hour of meal time! I know that I was always trying to push to get one more portage done, or just a little more fishing, or lets paddle to the end of the lake, before eating! Now, I am much more cautious about making sure that I keep my energy levels up so that we don't put people in a position to get hurt.

The mother of my first child came to mind right away! Of course, I have a beautiful daughter and now a beautiful grand-daughter from that. Generally speaking I don't look backwards at mistakes. But rather, look back at learning experiences!

Actually I haven't done anything I ended up having regrets about up there. In life, whole nother story. I kind of relish those extra days doing nothing but chilling out if the wind or storms come up and I luv to explore, even if it ends up kinda sucking sometimes.

In reference to the violations thread, we did get stopped by a ranger 4 years back and got a good talking to because we did not exit on our exit date. He knew there were big storms in the area and that is what we told him for our late exit which is why we only got a lecture, not a ticket. "Common sense is not against the law" he said.

I don't believe that you are legally bound by the exit date on your permit. You do have to enter only on the date that is specified but your exit is up to you.

My bad decision occurred on a backpacking trip in the Smoky Mountains. It was august, hot out, and hiking up the appropriately named Sweat Heifer trail. Could feel the front coming in and blowing. Then the rain started. At this time, I made the poor decision that I was already soaked in sweat, so the rain could not hurt any more.

I decided to keep the rain gear off, so that I could cool down. The front that came through with the storm dropped the air temp fast. It was very windy and I was soaked. Took maybe 15 minutes for me to get extremely cold, lips turned blue, teeth chattering.

The smoky mountains all have bear shelters to sleep in, so we had no tent or shelter to put up.

Hypothermia was not far off.

Our trail happened to come out at a trail head with a parking lot for day hikers. The only vehicle in the lot was a large tour bus that was waiting the storm out. It was filled with senior citizens. They graciously let us into the bus and got me changed and pumped up the heat. My friends got beers.

I feel very lucky.

Always put your rain gear on.

We've had 2. One involving waves and one involving a rapids. Lessons learned

quote jamotrade: "I don't believe that you are legally bound by the exit date on your permit. You do have to enter only on the date that is specified but your exit is up to you."

He told us that we had to be out by sunset the day stated on the permit and that they could charge us for an additonal night if he wanted to as well as a fine. Will have to check on this. Does anyone else know the rules relating to this? Would rather pay the extra night than paddle in 4 foot swells and or lightning.

quote MrBreeze: "

quote jamotrade: "I don't believe that you are legally bound by the exit date on your permit. You do have to enter only on the date that is specified but your exit is up to you."

He told us that we had to be out by sunset the day stated on the permit and that they could charge us for an additonal night if he wanted to as well as a fine. Will have to check on this. Does anyone else know the rules relating to this? Would rather pay the extra night than paddle in 4 foot swells and or lightning.


"

thats bull$h!t. exit date is just an approximate. besides, you dont pay nightly in the bw anyway. now, if youre talking about a provincial park, like quetico...thats a different situation.

Kanoes is correct that is bull.

Glad to hear that, Jan. We were wondering about that, too. Me thinks he was in Canada.

quote Hawbakers: "Glad to hear that, Jan. We were wondering about that, too. Me thinks he was in Canada."

Yup. eh.

Bad decision to push into rollers when we had an appointment to meet a tow. We know better now. Any tows from here on out will include a disclaimer for high winds.

Glad to hear that, He must have been a temp with authority complex. My friend wanted to tell him off but i wouldn't let him. Next time will just stand back and watch.

quote Hawbakers: "Glad to hear that, Jan. We were wondering about that, too. Me thinks he was in Canada."

Maybe not. The Q rangers are pretty good about not pushing to the letter of the law when safety is an issue.

When this thread was started I was off the Everglades paying stupid tax.
Up to a point where I could see the campsite beach the wind was just annoying..then I "had" to make a one mile open water crossing with waves broadside. The first four footer broke filling my boat with four inches of water. I should have gone ashore then. Thinking only some keys were "legal" I foolishly pushed on..praying. I got to the campsite with six inches of water but upright.

That was stupid.