Today was the most horrific adventure of my life and the time that I would come closest to death. Fortunately, it was on the French broad river, one of my favorite places. And unfortunately it was doing my favorite activity, kayaking. It was a rare Winter day where it was 80ﾟ, so after bringing Annie home from school, I decided to go kayaking. I would do my usual route from the Penrose put-in to the Blantyre put-in. I got everything ready like I usually do, put the seat down in the back of my car, put the kayak into the car, and put the entire back down so that it doesn't pop up when I drive. I included the cushion and the paddle, of course. As well as my scooter that I would use to scoot from the bottom of my route to the top after I put my car down there. There was nothing unusual so far as I drove my scooter with my helmet on all the way down to all the way up to the Penrose put in period as I got there, I noticed a young man in a park uniform walking up to me. He asked if I had a life jacket. He said, “Could you wait here for a minute?” and he went to his truck and got a life jacket and brought it to me and said:
“I can't let you get on the river without a life jacket.”
This gracious gesture saved my life.
He simply gave the life jacket to me asked for my number so we could meet up and I could return the jacket. Then he sent me on my way. I truly believe that man was an angel. As without that life jacket, I would not have survived. I dragged my kayak down the real ribbed ramp, not knowing that this was causing damage. And shoved off. It was only about 5 minutes on the river when I noticed I was having trouble balancing. Then I noticed that where I was sitting seemed to be very low in the water. I checked the plugs in the front and my gray plug in the back to make sure they were secure. They were. I wondered if there was a leak. And as I was wondering, I listed to one side and flipped over. Then I grabbed onto the kayak, which I noticed had a 2" square hole in the back end quickly and awkwardly fastened the life jacket on as best I could. I secured my small bag up near my face so that my phone would stay generally dry. I tried to put my windbreaker jacket (the one I got in Hawaii on my honeymoon) and the paddle on top of the kayak, but it wasn't long before I let those 2 things go, as I noticed my cushion floating down the river. I decided at this point to simply float to the Blantyre takeout. I knew that paddling it would take me about one hour, so floating it should take me about an hour and a 1/2. The problem was, that without control, the river has power and it would push me toward the most dangerous areas. Every single branch and fallen tree seemed to be a danger where I could get dragged under. Still, I kicked my feet and tried to control the kayak as best I could. I got about half way before I saw a large blockage. A dead tree that had been dead for a long time had finally fallen and blocked the entire river. There was no getting over it with the waterlogged kayak. I got close to the log and panicked. Log caught me and I felt my feet being dragged under. This is when I panicked. I started hyperventilating, grabbing onto the log and praying not to die. My life jacket was doing fine keeping me up and I realized that I was simply stuck Right there. My survival training kicked in and I knew that I needed to stay calm. So I just waited and caught my breath. Then I tried to decide what would be the safest for me to take the life jacket off and go under the log or try to get on top of the log with the life jacket go, so I decided to get on top of the log. The log was about 3' above the water and I do not know how I got on top of that, but somehow I did. And I Sat there a long time looking to one side of the river to the other to figure out if 1 of the banks would be possible for me to climb up. Both banks had a very steep 10 to 15' drop. There was no real bank to speak of with water right up into the edge and then straight-up-and-down mud wall. One side had lighter branches than the other, so I decided to go to the left which held the biggest part of the trunk. I scooted over there and found a small place near the roots that had a kind of bowl to sit in and something to put my foot on out of the water, so I sat there. Trying to decide what to do. Survival training kicked in and I realized that I should stay where I was. If you get lost, you are always supposed tons Taylor put. It was about 7:30 at this time. And I frantically took out my phone to try to get it to work. It definitely was on, and I could see my home screen, but the touchscreen capability was completely gone. There was no way for me to answer calls or text anyone anything. I also got calls and texts from Shana and Annie. This was the only time I started crying, because I realized that no one who I loved would know that I was OK. And I truly was ok, and I lamented that the people who I loved would be so worried and scared. And I started calculating when things would be done. I assumed that Brian would try to call, and he did many times. It was so frustrating not to be able to answer the phone! I knew he would assume I was asleep. So he would probably wait till he got home around 9 notice I wasn't there and ask Annie where I was. She would know that I was kayaking, and would tell him. Turns out that Leia and Harvest noticed the kayak was gone before that and noticed that I hadn't gotten home. When Brian got home and found this out, I knew he would immediately try to go and find the car and the scooter. It was Harvestbthat with his good wilderness training said this is when we call the authorities. They did. And the fire department was dispatched between the Penrose and the Blantyre put-ins. I assumed that all of this would be done around 10 PM and I figured I would definitely be rescued by 12 AM and no later. So I sat there and I waited. I lay back and watch the moon and stars. I prayed.I sang. I sang here I am Lord and they will know we are christians and eagles wings and day-by-day and any other Christian song I could think of. I did call out for help, but there is no one close enough, and it was then that I realized my life jacket had a whistle on it! Now I started blowing the whistle periodically 3 times up the river and 3 times down the river. (Which I had no idea at the time was the official sign for help.) I started praying the act of contrition and the our father and I started playing the rosary..I would say the rosary out loud and in between every few prayers I would blow the whistle 3 times up the river and down the river I would do that again and again. I watched the Half Moon overhead go from directly overhead to behind my head. I hope that I'd be rescued before the moon set because I could still see pretty well through the moonlight. And I decided if no one rescued me, then the next morning I would simply float to the bottom. It was around this point that I had a few interesting supernatural experiences. It was either when I was singing here I am Lord or they will know we are christians that I heard a female accompaniment to my own voice. Which was not mine. I would stop and look around and then start again and there was the accompaniment again. This went on for about 1 minute. As I sang I would look out to the other side of the bank and through the moonlight I saw a female apparition wearing a veil that I could see no real features peeked out from behind different trees. At no point during this time did I ever lose hope or get discouraged. I simply remembered my survival training and kept my arms and legs moving and made sure to keep my core warm by huddling inside the life jacket. Luckily or unluckily my phone would keep trying to turn on which made it heat up and kept my hands warm. I could hear a car or truck drive by very far away and wondered when I would be rescued. I started blowing the whistle more often, and then I saw some flickering lights on the left and the right of the other side of the river. This was followed by a very faint woman's voice. I started calling out I'm here I need help please call 911 I kept repeating that until the lady came and said I was driving my truck and I heard the whistle she did call 911 and they were on their way. Everyone had large spotlights and shown them on me the whole time to make sure I was OK as well as finding my kayak. They determined pretty quickly that they could not rescue me from that side of the river. The drop was 15' through briars. But they knew my location and told the others who were coming to the other side of the Creek. After I said to call 911, the very 1st thing that I said was please tell my family that I am OK. The question I got was was I injured. I said no. Just cold and wet. I suggested a boat to get me out, but they said that it would take longer to get the boat from the put in to where I was than it would for me to get me out up the bank. It took a while for them to get to the bank near where I was, which was also a 10' drop. But I finally saw them and the ropes they brought. Then 2 of them walked a little farther down river and found a very silty bank that had a little bit less of a steep embankment. I saw 2 figures dressed all in Orange wet suits coming to me from down river..So they said I had 2 choices, either be hoisted up through the brambles 15' or swim to the silty embankment. I chose swimming. I told them I've been swimming enough already so I'd be fine. My feet sank a foot or more into the silt as I struggled to climb up the silty embankment. I was eventually thrown a rope which helped me get up the rest of the way. As soon as I got up I started shaking violently from cold. Because it had gotten down to almost 40ﾟ outside and the water itself was 58ﾟ. They took some emergency blankets and wrapped them around me, putting them and me on a kind of doom buggy that was able to easily traverse the terrain around the river. They took me to their meeting point which was the Church Of God on 64. And I noticed there were 15 vehicles and about a 100 people that were part of this effort. After They got me to the Church Of God, there was a fire truck there blasting hot air for them to put me in and they gave me real blankets to cuddle with. Then I saw Brian coming toward the car. There was nothing else to do except give the rescue workers my information who happened to be from the Little River fire department and Etowah fire department and then go home. They kept asking me if I was injured or needed ambulance and I said no I just need a hot bath. And that is exactly what I did. But not without being incredibly grateful to God for my life and the angel who gave me the life jacket whose name was Wildlife officer Gray. While I was on the river, at exactly 530 Which is when I was having the most heroine part of the experience on the log, he texted me that I would see later that just in case he missed me at the take out. He would miss me of course. I texted him the next day but never heard back. I vowed to never ever go kayaking without that exact life vest with me. It saved my life. … But unfortunately, Brian would throw it away. … And my feelings about that need to remain hidden. For that orange life jacket was my prize possession. And still, if I had to use 1 word to describe how I feel at the end of this experience, it would be the following: GRATEFUL!
