When he eventually flushed out he was pelted with throw bags. He had
his river knife in one hand and with the other he grabbed a rope and was swung into the flooded cedars. Adrian, we learned later, had cut himself out of the bowline that had wrapped around his foot. When we finally made camp it was in the parking lot below Poplar
where the Petawawa dumps into Lake Travers. It was almost dark. We’d hoped to be half way down the lake by now but when Adrian said he thought he bumped his head, we knew this river day was over. “That was too much,” Jeff told the group after dinner around the camp-
fire. “We’d taken the most conservative choice presented to us and it was still too much. I wouldn’t choose that level of exposure to consequences again with this group.” We all were nodding our agreement. We discussed our decision to take the mystery channel and avoid the
main line at Poplar. We reviewed the rescue and the clean up afterward. We listed the environmental factors of high water, short days and cold temperatures. Students shared stories from other trips they’d been on. Everyone felt good about our decision to stay here for the night. “I feel like we did everything
next time Adrian should try harder to keep his boat off
right,” one student said. “I’m not sure what I would have done differently.” Somebody suggested that its roof. He
seemed fine now, and it was okay to laugh. It felt good to blow off some of the stress of the day.
wTHE PETAWAWA RIVER WOULD BE better the other way around. It ould have been nice if the swifty class II and III rapids were in the first
few days. At least now the students had time to get comfortable in their kayaks. Those in the rafts would have three more days to finesse their oars. They’d practice moving slower than the current and they’d learn to take advantage of river features to assist their back ferries. They knew that now that we’d gotten to Lake Travers they could settle in for a few days of wilderness river travel and camping. The evaluation rubric for the course included leadership and be-
havior, boat management, group management, camp contributions and at the bottom of the chart was a lesson the students were to prepare and present. Between paddling, portaging, meal preparation, building fires and
tarps, and shuffling about to keep warm in the snow, there wasn’t time to present their mini lessons. Jeff and the students were okay with that. I’d all but forgotten this was part of a college course. At first Jeff was running the show. Rob and I watched him take charge
to organize the meals and call shots on the river. Over the five days the students picked up the rhythm of big group multi-day river travel. This was part of Jeff’s plan. Meals took half the time to prepare. Camp was set up and torn down, rafts were loaded and good decisions about the menu and river travel were all just happening as they should on a guided expedition. To satisfy the college, Jeff must award a grade to each student. Howev-
er, what these students truly learned will not appear on their transcripts. In fact they may not know what they’ve learned until much further down the road. If they stick with guiding long enough, if they screw up enough and if they face enough adversity, hard work and bad weather like we did on the Petawawa, a river manager I knew once would say they’d eventu- ally make good river guides. On our final morning the sun broke through the snow clouds. We laid
our stiff wet gear in places the sun’s heat would thaw and soften the frozen fabric. The group decided on a simple breakfast to get us on the water and moving an hour earlier. When Jeff, Rob and I wandered over for coffee, the students asked if that would be okay, but really they were telling us what they’d already decided and what they had in store for us that day.
Scott MacGregor is the founder and publisher of Rapid magazine.
www.rapidmag.com | 39
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