Post by dbkstone on Aug 17, 2006 16:53:20 GMT -5
It has been several weeks since my Obed trip and I am now able to talk about it. For the first two weeks, everytime someone said the words "Wild", "Scenic", and/or "Obed" I gravitated to a corner and huddled up in a ball and broke out into a cold sweat. 
My brother and I planned the trip using the park service map and selected the Jet to Lilly bridge "float" trip. According to the map it is two miles. I am convinced the park service uses a different measuring instrument than me. My brother and I put the float tubes in at 9:15 and figured it would take 6 hours at most and would be off the river by 3:00PM.
We were figuring about 50% float /50% walk. It was more like 95% walk. That should have actually decreased the time and I shudder to think if it had been more like what we had planned. At 3:00PM we decided to pick up the pace and barely fished from 3:00 till 6:00. At 6:00, I told my bro that the fishing was done and to pack up his rod and strap the belly boat to his back and hall some ass.
At 9:30 the dark set in. We had NO FLASHLIGHT. I said to bro, "Hey bro pull that flashlight out that you were supposed to bring, Oh wait you said we didn't need it and I was being a worry wart" The silence from him was deafening. Would anyone like to guess how dark it gets on that d**n river!!
Now mind you it was HARD walking all day and we fell more times than I care to count. The falling was magnified by a factor I dare not calculate when darkness set in. We gave up trying to walk on that rocky river and crawled on all fours. We made it out of that river at 11:15PM.
Both myself and my brother were dehydrated to a dangerous level. We both had the dry heaves and could not hold any water down for a while. For those who are not familiar with the dangers of dehydration while your body is in water, let me tell you its very nasty. You wouldn't think you could dehydrate faster in water than out of it. When I did get home I weighed the next morning and had lost 10 pounds in 14 hours. That was pure water weight from the dehydration. Go figure. Oh yah we had no food either. All I had since 7AM was a low carb breakfast shake (180 cal)The trip took 14 hours and it should have taken 6.
I learned a thing or two on my adventure:
1. For the love of God keep a flashlight handy. I don't even walk the dog without a flashlight now. ;D
2. Your friend Depth Perception leaves at dark. "Is that next rock 6 inches or 3 feet down?" I can bet its 3 feet.
3. If it gets dark on a river and you have no supplies or light source, just set down on a big rock and wait until daylight. If you think its tough to walk that rocky mess in the dark try doing it with a broke leg or arm. I tried to get my brother to stop and wait it out but the Devil himself couldn't keep that boy on the river after dark. The only thing worse than crawling out of that river at dark is allowing each other to be separated.
4. The next piece of electronics that I am buying is a GPS unit. I could have plotted both bridges and would have known just how far apart they truly are. I firmly believe that even as the crow flies those bridges are 5 miles apart. We would have known exactly just how far we were from the end.
5. The most beautiful site it the world is finally seeing a pair of tail lights crossing over Lilly Bridge. I think a tear formed in the corner of my eye ;D
6. The sickest feeling I've ever had: standing on top of a high rock and looking at a 500 yard expanse of a very dry and treacherous river bed and not seeing a way out. It really sets in when you look down at your watch and strain to the see the time through the cracked crystal from a previous hard fall and see its 9:30PM. You follow it up with a sigh and whisper, "Yah,.....were boned."
I know this was long and I did leave a lot out but I hope it helps one person on this board.
Oh, on the bright side, we caught a truck bed full of fish. Sick I know.
My brother and I planned the trip using the park service map and selected the Jet to Lilly bridge "float" trip. According to the map it is two miles. I am convinced the park service uses a different measuring instrument than me. My brother and I put the float tubes in at 9:15 and figured it would take 6 hours at most and would be off the river by 3:00PM.We were figuring about 50% float /50% walk. It was more like 95% walk. That should have actually decreased the time and I shudder to think if it had been more like what we had planned. At 3:00PM we decided to pick up the pace and barely fished from 3:00 till 6:00. At 6:00, I told my bro that the fishing was done and to pack up his rod and strap the belly boat to his back and hall some ass.
At 9:30 the dark set in. We had NO FLASHLIGHT. I said to bro, "Hey bro pull that flashlight out that you were supposed to bring, Oh wait you said we didn't need it and I was being a worry wart" The silence from him was deafening. Would anyone like to guess how dark it gets on that d**n river!!
Now mind you it was HARD walking all day and we fell more times than I care to count. The falling was magnified by a factor I dare not calculate when darkness set in. We gave up trying to walk on that rocky river and crawled on all fours. We made it out of that river at 11:15PM.
Both myself and my brother were dehydrated to a dangerous level. We both had the dry heaves and could not hold any water down for a while. For those who are not familiar with the dangers of dehydration while your body is in water, let me tell you its very nasty. You wouldn't think you could dehydrate faster in water than out of it. When I did get home I weighed the next morning and had lost 10 pounds in 14 hours. That was pure water weight from the dehydration. Go figure. Oh yah we had no food either. All I had since 7AM was a low carb breakfast shake (180 cal)The trip took 14 hours and it should have taken 6.
I learned a thing or two on my adventure:
1. For the love of God keep a flashlight handy. I don't even walk the dog without a flashlight now. ;D
2. Your friend Depth Perception leaves at dark. "Is that next rock 6 inches or 3 feet down?" I can bet its 3 feet.
3. If it gets dark on a river and you have no supplies or light source, just set down on a big rock and wait until daylight. If you think its tough to walk that rocky mess in the dark try doing it with a broke leg or arm. I tried to get my brother to stop and wait it out but the Devil himself couldn't keep that boy on the river after dark. The only thing worse than crawling out of that river at dark is allowing each other to be separated.
4. The next piece of electronics that I am buying is a GPS unit. I could have plotted both bridges and would have known just how far apart they truly are. I firmly believe that even as the crow flies those bridges are 5 miles apart. We would have known exactly just how far we were from the end.
5. The most beautiful site it the world is finally seeing a pair of tail lights crossing over Lilly Bridge. I think a tear formed in the corner of my eye ;D
6. The sickest feeling I've ever had: standing on top of a high rock and looking at a 500 yard expanse of a very dry and treacherous river bed and not seeing a way out. It really sets in when you look down at your watch and strain to the see the time through the cracked crystal from a previous hard fall and see its 9:30PM. You follow it up with a sigh and whisper, "Yah,.....were boned."
I know this was long and I did leave a lot out but I hope it helps one person on this board.
Oh, on the bright side, we caught a truck bed full of fish. Sick I know.
