Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

My husband and I were floating the Spring on Saturday. His kayak got wedged in rocks on the last fall before Hardy Beach takeout. It is a yellow Wilderness 100. Any suggestions? I guess we should give it up for lost. Mine went over fine. We have done class 2-3 whitewater but found these shallow drops difficult. Not sure if it is because we are in rec boats without skirt or should have scouted or portaged. Any advice would be helpful.

Depends on how it's pinned in the drop and if it's accessible from shore. Seen boats pulled out of some really bad spots with/without serious damage to the boat. Plus gotta factor any danger to the rescuers in the recovery process.

Got any more details or photos?

Should have taken a pic just thinking about how to get to takeout with one boat and two people.
I called three rivers this morning to see if any of their folks might get it off rocks (without getting hurt). Haven't heard back so I thinks it's a loss. Thanks for your reply.

Practice is to not leave a boat pinned in a river anywhere if possible. I'm not real sure about the rapid but I have an idea of it. It comes after the Falls on the South Fork and is constricted on the right side where the route is or am I wrong?

And knowing where you live might help since it's your boat and would you be available to help out in the recovery if possible.

Might want to call the county sheriff's office to let them know the the paddler that belongs to the kayak is ok. That way a search is not issued when a passerby sees it.

Being able to see it is really important to figuring out the best and safest way to get it out. The comment about rescuer safety is spot-on. If that was the Falls between "High Falls" and the Bridge at Hardy, called Rio Vista Falls by locals, then it is where a woman from Lonoke drowned about two years ago; she was standing on the ledge trying to help free her family's raft, which became stuck at the top because it was too shallow to float over. But she slipped, and her foot got caught in the rocks, water poured over her and her husband was unable to hold her head above the water or get her lower leg out of the crevice. It's a spot that looks innocent but is truly scary if you know what to look for. There is even place in that ledge where I could probably stuff your entire boat in an underwater cave and it would not be visible from the surface. (I spent some time swimming and wading around there about two weeks after the drowning trying to figure out exactly how it all happened.)

I would NOT just write it off. The boat will almost certainly be recovered; the problem is being sure that it is recovered by someone who will return it to you. Some folks have an ethics system based on ideas of Maritime salvage laws that are not necessarily fact based and definitely not based on any "river karma / golden rule" type principals. [Insert lengthy discussion on "Kohlberg's stages of moral development" here.]

Your best bet is to do what you're already trying to do - see if you can enlist the aid of the local outfitter. They probably use techniques that you won't see taught in a formal river rescue course, but through experience they have learned what works for them on their local river. That could get the boat before some passer-by throws down the "river salvage" card. There will be a number of swiftwater-trained club members descending on the Spring in two more weeks for Rec School, so if the boat is still there we could probably get a crew together to go after it on Friday, but I think the chances of it still being there two weeks from now are not so good; that's a second reason why I encourage you to go the outfitter route if you can.

Don't feel bad that you couldn't get the boat right away; one reason we recommend paddling in groups is because 3, 4, or more people working together can often accomplish a rescue or boat recovery that might not be possible for a smaller group. Just be very happy that your husband got safely to shore!

Coop,

Did you take any pix of this spot?

Bear in mind that Debpaddler1 has not yet confirmed that Rio Vista is where the boat was pinned. But it is where the lady from Lonoke drowned, and was the site of at least one additional near miss that same month according to locals who told me that a teenage girl experienced a foot entrapment, but several rushed to her aide and were able to free her before it turned ugly. Photos don't really show the problem, which is the shape and size of the underwater crevices in this ledge . Anybody still in their boat will simply bounce on down as you do at dozens of other ledges on the spring. But if your boat hangs up and you get out to wade and free it, then you are in danger if you lose your footing.

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I will be there probably Thursday night before rec school, and if anyone is wanting to try to look for it early Friday, I'm game.
See everyone on the river.
Jon Ellwood
Little Rock