Two things I was a little worried about on the trip got taken care of today. Not spending any time in Kentucky (it only makes up about 50 miles of the river) and not having a whole lot of hardship to push through.
We capsized. When we set up camp last night we pulled into the channel side of the island. Without even thinking about it, we set back out this morning on the channel side. It usually isn't a big deal to paddle in a channel briefly. The only downside is the wing dams that try to direct water into the main channel. This particular wing dam in this channel created a weird rapid. It came together in a "V" shape and usually the tip of the "V," or the tongue, is the best place to hit the rapid safely. Is this instance, however, the right side was pushing really hard to the left and the left side was curling and crashing. As we approached the tongue we were being pushed hard to the left which amplified the effect of the wave hitting us on our left side. We tilted slightly to the right and the quick current coming from that direction swept the bottom of the boat out from under us. As soon as I came up I grabbed the canoe and could see my rain jacket floating in a swirl. I wanted to swim for it, but I didn't want to let go of the canoe. Also, my lifejacket was up near my nose. I forgot to clip it when I got in the boat. Adding to this confusion was the fact that Anders wasn't above water yet. I yelled for him and an image of me taking off my lifejacket and having to dive for him flashed through my mind. After what seemed like 30 seconds but was probably more like 3, he popped up, gasping for air. He had hit his head on the canoe on his first attempt to surface and it took him a second to come back up again. I finally managed to clip my lifejacket while Anders regained his composure.
We flipped the boat right side up and tried to swim it to shore. This wasn't going to work. I squirmed in to the back of the canoe and began slowly paddling to shore. The entire back half was under water. It's amazing that it still was floating. I had been told it would, but it was still crazy to experience. We got to shore and began unloading our gear to dry it off and flip the canoe. We then surveyed the situation. We lost some sunscreen, two water jugs, both our hats, both of our rain jackets, and Anders' sunglasses (Although mine were on my face they somehow managed to stay on). I was pretty bummed about the hat and rain jacket, but overall it wasn't too bad. The camera was soaked as well so we put it in some rice. It would be a huge bummer if that doesn't work. My pride was hurt a little bit. I really wanted to make the entire trip without capsizing. But the fact that we lost so little and so quickly remedied the situation felt really good.
We set back out and quickly met the confluence of the Ohio River. We quickly paddled over to the Kentucky shore to refill and buy more water as well as sunglasses for Anders. We talked to some shipping yard workers and Anders asked if there was a Wal-Mart nearby. They replied, "You must not know where you are. This is Wickliffe." Apparently Wickliffe is small. They told us of a Dollar General store in town and we started walking towards it. We again had to ask where it was after the original time estimation had elapsed and we still couldn't see it. The gentlemen we asked looked at us funny for a second, judging our Northern accents we believed, and then directed us up the street. We finally found the store, bought our needed supplies as well as headbands to substitute for hats and made our way back to the boat. On our way back, we saw a nice diner. Having gone through such a traumatic experience we decided we deserved a good, hardy meal. It was called the Hillbilly Café and if you ever find yourself in Wickliffe, KY I strongly suggest you go there and order the Hillbilly Omelet. While deciding what to order, I asked our server what was on it. She said so many words that I stopped listening. When she was finally done I gladly ordered it. It was delicious. Very possibly the best omelet of my life.
By the time we got back to paddling it was about 11:30. We took off the water at 6:00 because we thought our stuff would need time to dry. Turns out we packed even better than we thought! Anders' clothes were a tiny bit wet, but the tent and everything else was pretty dry.
Only 48 miles today. Hopefully we'll make up some mileage tomorrow.
The camera still works!
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