Date: 2004-06-02
From: Waynesboro, VA (YMCA)

To: Shenandoah South Fork
Miles today: 20.0

Intro by Donna: Backdraft's story starts at the end, but goes back to the beginning of the trip. So, the first few lines actually occurred around June 9th, but as the trip actually started on the 2nd, that is why I started on this date. I will add a page a day on the date that the events happened. Hope this explanation is helpful.Backdraft's Journal Entry: UP THE RIVER   As I sit here in the back seat of Wonderboy's aging Toyota Cressida, it occurs to me that I'm at the tail-end of a great adventure. You see, I've rolled down the back window, removed my shirt, and am working to build a good beer-buzz while the reggae music plays. This lovely mix of comforts allows me to relax and the last seven day's experiences hit me like a flashflood. Where to begin? In my head everything is happening at the same time. As I remember we're all ten together and alone; the three of us left, we paddle in the rain under our shells and are baked bronze on a cloudless day. I take hold of the side of a canoe during a portage and I cling to the side of a bridge as our canoe passes underneath us. But this is no way to tell a story.   I guess it all started almost two weeks ago in Damascus, VA in the Side Track Cafe. The Four Flavors were sitting, eating breakfast preparing to hike out of town after six zeros. Trey (MountainMan) was cooking for us and telling us how he planned to close the Cafe and go canoeing. We told him how we had already planned on aqua-blazing the Shenandoah and the two trips quickly became one.    We decided to hike to Atkins where we would be met by Trey and Wonderboy and driven North to Waynesboro. From there the plan was to canoe North to Harper's Ferry, drive back to Atkins, hike to Waynesboro, and get a ride back to Harper's Ferry. This way we would skip the 150 miles of canoeing as the Shenandoah flows North alonside the A.T.    Fast forward the better part of a week and the Four Flavors have been reunited with Trey and Wonderboy in Atkins, VA. A day is spent closing the cafe and another is lost to the chores of planting people, cars, and canoes in their proper places. This puts all the hiker/canoers at the appropriate places with generous amounts of beer and food for the seven day voyage.    NIGHT OPS: In the beginning there were ten of us...The four Flavors, Uncle Ben and Grass, Cotton and Nuffy, Wonderboy and Trey. Both Uncle Ben and Grass and Cotton and Nuffy are thru-hikers who had spent some time working for Trey in his cafe. By the end of the 2nd day, and after a great deal of effort on Mountain Man's part, we had gathered five canoes. There was the S.S. Side Track Cafe that Cotton and Nuffy had gone in with Trey to purchase. It was paddled by Captain Death By Cotton and Nuffy. DigDug and I went in on the Red Rocket and rode in it with Wad. Trey owned a small fiberglass canoe that he shared with Wilson that they named Overloaded and Doomed to Sink. Trey and WonderBoy borrowed two more canoes, one large aluminum one and another small fiberglass one. The aluminum canoe was piloted by Uncle Ben and Grass who named it The Tank That Sank and WonderBoy captained the small fiberglass canoe that he called The HindenTanic.    Eight of us had spent all day by the river drinking beer and waiting for Trey and Wonderboy to shuttle cars to Harper's Ferry. When they finally showed up well after dark, Nuffy pointed out that we and all our gear were in an area where we could not camp and rashly made was the decision to paddle out that night. So as the full moon rose, the Man on it looked down on ten idiots trying to navigate the South Fork of the Shenandoah River by moonlight. While the moon was not bright enough to illuminate the 1st rapid of the trip, it would have been more than enough for any bystander on the shore to watch the tragic comedy that ensued.    The fleet of five canoes became aware of their proximity to the rapid by its sound more than from its effects on any of the other senses. DigDug, Wad and I went through first and bounced hard off of what seemed to us like a big rock sticking up out of the water though we could not see. Uncle Ben and Grass came through next and we heard a thunderous bang as The Tank hit and bounced too. Next came WonderBoy in his HindenTanic. Wonderboy and his ship being far from river-worthy didn't so much bounce off the large object as splather on it broadside like a bug on a headlight and before his canoe sank, Wonderboy had time to realize, "Hmmmmm, I don't think this is a rock at all. Rather this seems to be the remains of someone else's canoe that has sunk and been abandoned." After WonderBoy, came Trey and Wilson who wrapped Overloaded and Doomed around the other canoe aready in the river that was itself wrapped around a tree trunk. Cotton and Nuffy passed by in their already sinking canoe to see the aftermath of the whole fiasco.    It took some time for all involved to recover and sift through the wreckage. Uncle Ben was busily rescuing half-drowned hikers while Grass and I swam down stream to retrieve their floating gear and DigDug and Wad paddled around in the Red Rocket in support. After it was all said and done, we saved everyone and everything, (except an ice chest that we found the next day),sans one canoe, in plenty of time to still get extremely drunk in order to counter the effects of shellshock and adrenaline rush before we went to bed.