The Mad Hatter
Usually I could sit and relax, but not today. I was afraid to even turn my head while I was speaking to Ray. So I shouted my words forward hoping he could hear me. What he didn't hear was the pounding in my heart, and in my mind telling myself and arguing with him that I would never do this again. He'll have to go with someone else next time. Five minutes was enough for me, but I didn't want to disappoint him. So we continued on.
The water was up over the banks at some places. When I wasn't shouting to Ray, I was praying silently that the Lord would watch over us. I knew He always watched over us in the past, today I needed His presence even more.
As we moved on, my courage strengthened as did the muscles in my arms. It wasn't so much that we had to paddle, the current raced fast enough, we must have kept the canoe on course. We had no intentions of racing the river this day or the following Saturday so much as just the challenge of the river itself, and what we thought would be peaceful surroundings.
The wind kept up, especially at the turns in the river. It seemed every time a curve was upon us, the wind seemed to be fighting us in the opposite direction. At one point, there were 2 foot waves and white caps in the river. I kept asking the Lord to be with us and guide us through each bad section and each time He did.
After about ten minutes down the river we came to a fork. The water was rushing, we didn't have much time to decide in advance which side would be the better route. The river pushed us toward the right, yet the wind was trying to push us into the middle shore. As we were fighting to keep the canoe on course, we saw two men waist deep in the rushing icy water. I yelled out to Ray, "Can we do anything for them?" He shouted back that we couldn't even stop if we wanted to because of the force of the current. In less than 10 seconds they were out of our sight. I felt terrible leaving them there. "Lord what kind of a Good Samaritan am I for you! Please help them to shore and let someone find them."
My eyes were tearing, but I knew I had to be stronger than this river. So we kept on steering the canoe until the next challenging corner or rapids would come upon us. Again I called to the Lord for strength and guidance through this. It's odd to be that frightened and yet excited at the same time. Knowing I could battle this river and yet enjoy it. I guess I knew the Lord was helping me or I couldn't have kept a cool mind.
There were breaks in the rough periods. We could see ice chunks Pass us. Sometimes there were mounds of them in the middle of the river, twice we got caught and kept pushing with our paddles to get off of them. It seemed like we were in the river a long time. I was getting restless knowing we hadn't passed the halfway bridge yet. I looked at my watch, it had been 40 minutes. I wondered if those men were all right. This water is so evil today, it's so strong, I thought.
I let my guard down. We were struggling to keep the canoe going straight. Oh no! We're dumping! The shock of the icy water was devastating. It took my breath away. I looked for Ray, and he was reaching for me. We had the canoe, but the icy water was too much for us. We had to decide split second what to do. The canoe would float with us in it, but the water was rushing so, and the ice chunks! We were so cold, so numb already. I looked down at my hands and they were almost stiff. My mind was racing and my body seemed like it wasn't responding. I thought to myself, "This can't be me, stuck here in the middle of this icy water. I don't think my life should end this way. Who will find us? How will we get help?"
At this point my spirit was halfway leaving my body. But I thought, no, and I made it come back and continue on. Ray was ready in 5 seconds to try to swim to the shore. I stopped him. "Wait, think first, I can't collect my thoughts", I told him. Don't leave me alone. "Let's throw a piece of ice in the water and see how long it takes to reach the shore." Ray got back in the water and took a chunk of ice off the mound. In less than 5 seconds it was passing the curve of the river shore we needed to reach. We had no choice. To save ourselves, we had to get back in the water and make a swim for it.
Ray helped me back in. It didn't seem as cold this time. Hand in hand, with the current and our determination, we made an attempt for the shore. "Try to hold your breath and conserve your body heat," Ray shouted. He was right, I Could feel my body heat escaping through the top of my head. My breathe seemed like a furnace leaving me. I couldn't feel my hands much any more.
Ray and I barley had our finger tips touching by the time we reached the icy shore. I tried grabbing on to the shore, but the water kept pushing me slowly back down into the mainstream. My hands kept grabbing for something to hang onto but all there was, was slippery cold ice.
I looked for Ray. Where was he? "Oh God", the current pushed him further down. He kept slipping away, farther and farther. All I could see was the top of his head and his hands desperately trying to grab on to the log that was jutting back out to the middle of the river. "God help me, help Him! Help me help him!" were my thoughts and cries.
Suddenly I felt my foot get hold of slippery ground beneath me. The mud held me steady enough so my frozen hands could claw the ice until I could crawl up the mound of frozen debris. I kept looking back for Ray. I could see he had cleared the bottom of the icy log and the current was a little less demanding on that side. He was beginning to swim over to the shore. I was stumbling on the snow covered branches and partially frozen water. Sometimes my leg would go back through into the water. I needed to pull myself out time after time, while I kept watching for Ray. "He's coming. He's coming. Thank You Lord!" We both finally made it to the shore.
I couldn't feel much of anything any more. Ray struggling for air, thought we'd better keep on our soaked clothes. It was so windy. We were so cold. Now what? We were in the middle of nowhere. Our choice was the river or a 200 foot cliff to scale. We didn't stop to rest. I kept feeling for my legs. My toes were still wiggling in my soaked tennis shoes. My hands were red and stiff. I had to force them to move.
We started our long climb toward the sky. "Oh Lord, lead us." Would there be a road up there? We hoped there would be. "YOU are our guide, my trust is in You." We heard a sound. It sounded like a moo of a cow. "Praise the Lord, we're not alone". We kept climbing. I was first, Ray was trailing behind. I felt Secure knowing he was there in case I slipped. The cliff was muddy and we had to inch our way up.
We finally reached the crest of the cliff. As we stood up on the surface, all we could see was brush and meadow before us. The wind was more fierce at the top. I asked the Lord again to help us choose the right direction. We started walking to the left. Ray was starting to shiver. We were completely breathless. It was useless to try to talk to each other. We walked and walked. It seemed so long.
Finally we saw a house. We raced to it pounding on the back door with our muddy hands. No one seemed to answer. We stumbled around to the front. A man sawing wood (our sound we thought was a cow) and a woman beekeeper were busy at their chores. Finally, their dog caught sight of us and began barking to get their attention. We stood there stiff and trembling as the woman approached us. She motioned us into her attached garage and warned us that the dog might bite us. I told her, "God didn't get me this far, to be bitten by a dog!"
When we got into her basement, we stripped our muddy clothes off our frozen bodies could move. The woman and her elderly mother brought us blankets and clothes and slippers to wear. As we changed they made us tea with honey. We trembled uncontrollably for 20 minutes as we tried to drink the tea from straws, as our shaking hands couldn't hold a cup.
I realized the time was nearing that I had told my brother and cousin to meet us at the pick up point. The woman agreed to drive us to that point. We thanked her many more times and told her we would return her clothes the next day. As we pulled out of her driveway and started up her street, Gil and Ken were approaching us. Tearfully we greeted each other telling them we were okay. God gave us another chance!
Gil and Ken found out from other canoers that we couldn't have made it through the blockage in the river as we thought. Many people were in trouble in the river and they wanted them to stop at the halfway bridge. But when they reached the bridge they were told a canoe without passengers passed by, and yes it had a red seat attached. They were frantically looking for us and had the State Park Patrol alerted for the search. Later we found the patrol and told them we were okay. We saw that they had the two men who were in the river in the back seat of their cruiser. "Thank you Lord, for helping them".
Donna Sherman
"And whatever you ask in my name I will do it, that the father may be glorified in the son." John 14:13.