Cheyenne River Float Horror...I mean Fun Trip! Pics Added 9-14-21
Sept 12, 2021 22:09:36 GMT -5
manofglass, rockpickerforever, and 14 more like this
Post by jasoninsd on Sept 12, 2021 22:09:36 GMT -5
Warning...this may be long post that will require a couple cups of coffee...or a couple beers to make it all the way through it! And there's no pictures (which I will get to later in the story), so there's no cheating and just skipping to the visuals! The names and places in this story have not been changed to protect the innocent, as I feel the main character in this story is as guilty as sin - so there's no point! LOL
So, do you ever have one of those experiences in which someone has the nerve to say, "Someday you're going to laugh about all this!"? Well, it turns out I've had such an experience last Friday. And while I'm trying to find the humor in all of what occurred, I'm not the point of chuckling about SEVERAL things that happened! ( LOL - kinda)
I had decided I should take another rafting trip down the Cheyenne River...since the last time was SO successful (NOT!) I keep hearing about people being able to find monster Fairburns along the Cheyenne River, so I thought "Why not me?". It turns out the bigger question I was going to end up asking that day was "What the heck, why me??"! I studied the map of the river, and one of the biggest issues with the Cheyenne River is there are very few entry and exit points...unless they're on private property. Well, unfortunately along the section of river I wanted to float, I don't have any ties to the landowners. So, I saw on the map a road that would work for an entry point and the exit point was going to be where a local highway crosses the river. Easy enough, right? Wrong!
I organized the drop off with my father, who is fully retired and loves waking up early in the morning for no special reason...okay that last part isn't entirely accurate! Anyway, he was going to drop me off, and my wife was going to pick me up at the exit point when I got there and called her to let her know I was out and ready to be picked up. Early Friday morning she did ask me to make sure I texted her at some point during the day to let her know I was doing ok. I told her I would "try" to remember to do that. I'm not sure why, but she wasn't entirely pleased with that response.
So, my dad showed up a few minutes before 6am and we loaded up the raft and supplies and headed out. Just two happy go-lucky guys...one headed for a happy little adventure that morning...and the other headed for a float trip down the river! So, I bring up Google Map so we can get to the drop off location and we start heading out. They weren't difficult directions. Head down the Highway, turn on the road right before the river, then take one dirt road over to the river. Well, Google Map sucks! As we get about a mile from the drop off location on that "dirt road", the road quickly goes from a dirt track to a field with NO tracks! Crap! I've got no access to my entry point! Well, we had just passed a gate going onto private property that led down to a field adjacent to the river. Of course there were "Private Property" and "Keep Out" signs posted all over the gate. Well, my dad thought that maybe those were "suggestions" and not hard and fast rules. So he suggested we go down their road and see if there was a farmhouse down at the bottom and maybe we could ask for permission to access the river from there. I am in no way proud about what I'm about to tell you...it just happened...and I'm not a fan of what "we" did! Well, there was no farmhouse down at the bottom of the hill, but there was a turn-around to get back out...it just happened to be right by the river. So, as my dad was "turning around" I jumped out, threw my raft onto the river edge...along with my other supplies. And thought it best my dad should hightail it out of there before there were some unexpected - although potentially warranted gunshots in our direction. Hmmm...this isn't the last time gunshots will be talked about in this story...
It was right around 7:00am when I finally got into the river as I was ducking from the dust and gravel flying as my dad spun out of there leaving me to my own demise! Now, the last time I floated the river, the water level was low...and since we've had ZERO rain since then I was pretty sure there was a chance the river hadn't changed for the positive with regards to making it easier to float. Turns out I was right...more than right!
The river was actually pretty floatable in that first part...and by that first part, I mean the first 500 yards. I spent the next several hours paddling through the deeper sections of the river - which were about 3 foot deep and about 3 foot wide. The remaining 37 feet of the river's width ranged from 3"-6" of water above sandbars. I was able to find numerous rock bars where I would stop, picking through the rocks and having every expectation of finding a monster Fairburn...or seven. Well, as the hours passed and the amount of time spent on rock bars increased, my Fairburn count remained the same...ZERO!
I did however run across numerous pieces of petrified wood, one piece of something that really looks like obsidian which I will post some pictures of at some point to try and get and ID on it...it's very intriguing! I also ran across numerous "normal" looking Prairie Agates, but I only kept the really special looking ones. The main reason I was super selective was because I had found this one particular piece of petrified wood that couldn't be passed up. The problem with the piece of pet wood is it was HUGE! I haven't weighed it yet, but it has to be close to 50 pounds. It wouldn't fit into one of the four 5-gallon buckets I had with me. So, it got wedged into the top of the bucket because there was no other place to put it! So, with the monster piece of pet wood, and the other various pieces of pet wood, and other rocks, I figure I had somewhere near 120-150 pounds of rocks. Now, since last year, I've put on about 20 pounds, so I'm now upwards of 170...I don't know exactly my weight because our bathroom scale's battery died a few weeks ago and I keep forgetting to get one...and my wife refuses to pick one up because she says that damn thing is a freaking liar! Anyway, all that weight plays a major factor when someone is trying to get through a river that gets about 3" deep in some (read that as MOST) spots!
Well, it shouldn't have been TOO much of a surprise that somewhere around noon, I noticed my feet were covered in water. Now, being that I was IN the raft at the time, I realized this wasn't a "good thing"! Turns out when you bottom out your raft as it's going over rocks (and it's loaded to the gills with "necessary" finds), there's a really good chance it might develop what some people might call a hole in the bottom! Thankfully it was in the bottom of the raft, and not in the inflatable sections of the raft. So, while it would float (if the water was deep enough!)...it became increasingly difficult to move when it became moored on the sand bars because the added water in the raft added another 50 pounds (easily)...and you would be amazed at how many sand bars could be in a river...and how freaking heavy a raft can be when you're trying to drag it through the sandbars and just praying for a good 10" of water (at the least) so maybe there could be some buoyancy again!
Well, I was a little surprised the entire morning I had not been within any kind of cell range. I knew that wasn't going to make my wife happy by not getting a text from me...but what made it a little more "interesting" was no cell service meant no Google Maps...so I had no clue where I was at in relation to my exit point. So around 1:30pm I decided I better refrain from stopping at rock bars looking for rocks and better get going, as again I had no idea how far I'd gone and how far I had left to go. Mind you I had to make this painstaking decision JUST as I had reached a point in the river where it had been diverted, leaving TONS of river rock exposed! I just knew there were six Fairburns hiding in there somewhere!
So, my afternoon was filled with paddling...followed by bailing water out of the raft...paddling...pulling the raft along 30 feet of sand bar to get back to a high water point...more bailing...more paddling...even MORE pulling a fully loaded down raft across sand bars! You get the point! Well, one of the issues with the Cheyenne River is there are sections of the river where it is a "gumbo mud" on the bottom of the river...the type of mud that if you step in it, your foot sinks in and will NOT come out! So, every time I had to get out of the raft and pull it across the sand bars, the only way to do it was to walk backwards pulling the raft towards me...which meant I couldn't watch 100% where I was stepping! I was concerned (read that as terrified) I was going to encounter that gumbo, and in one motion pull the raft over the top of me, and being stuck in the mud, there wouldn't have been anything I could do. Well, obviously since you're reading this (if you are still!) that didn't happen...but at the time, I didn't know for sure it wasn't going to happen!
So, as the hours ticked by and my physical strength was exhausting, I kept a keen eye on the sun dropping lower and lower in the sky. Still no cell service. As I rounded every bend in the river, I was just sure there would be service. Nope. Nothing! And don't think it didn't escape my thoughts at how worried (read that as pissed) my wife was going to be that she hadn't received a text! So, still not knowing where I was at, I had no choice but to press on. During those afternoon hours of "exercise", I did see a nice White-tail buck cross the river. The grunting, the head throwing, and the gnashing teeth were something very strange to see. I imagine that deer probably never saw someone on the river doing all those things! He did learn a few new words too! I also encountered three very gorgeous bald eagles along the river...or maybe it was the same bald eagle that I saw three times. It (they) would fly downriver, then I'd see another one (the same one) about an hour later. I figure he was getting disgusted that someone was chasing him...although it was NOT a very "high-speed" chase!
Well, it kept getting later and later. It was somewhere right around 6:30pm that I started hearing cars. So, I just knew I had to be getting close to the bridge...and the final destination! Being that the sun was going to set around 7:30, and even though I was exhausted, I did get a surge of energy just knowing if I pushed it, I'd be able to get there quicker! Well, just as the sun was going down, I saw headlights...so it just had to be the bridge!
The sun officially set. Friday night, there was a sliver of moon...and it was only up for a very short period and it gave NO light. So, the river became pitch-black dark! As I rounded a couple more bends, I realized the headlights of the cars I was seeing were veering AWAY from the river and not towards it! It was then that my heart sunk! I had to come to the realization the bridge must be a couple more miles down the river and all I had been seeing was a span of the highway!
When I went through Basic Training in the Army, we had a Drill Sergeant who was a long-distance runner. We all hated him. He would take us on these morning runs in the dark. We'd be exhausted when we reached the road leading back to the barracks. We could see the lights of the barracks in the distance. The end was in sight! Except, he would veer onto that road, then veer back onto the main road to continue the marathon! We hated him for that! Looking back, I know he was trying to teach all of us that even when you see the finish line and expect it to be over, there are times when you need to dig deep and push further, because the finish line can and often times does change. That was a really great lesson to learn...as there have been several times in my life where that applied...at this point of the journey, it was definitely one of those times! (Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful he taught me that lesson, but I still hate that Drill Sergeant to this day! LOL)
Now knowing that I was still several miles away from my destination, I had to make a choice. I figured I had three options. I could stop and try to scramble to the top of a hill...in the pitch black dark to see if I could get cell service. If there was, I'd be able to figure out my exact location from Google Maps...oops...and "most importantly" finally send a text to my wife! But, if I couldn't get cell service, I figure I'd waste an hour (at least) going up a hill and coming back down to the river - yes, the hills were that tall! Another option was to find a place to beach the raft and spend the night where I could (and when I say beach the raft, I mean OFF the river as I'd been beaching it ON the river all day!). My final, and to be honest, the scariest option was to push on. Remember this river was a son-of-a-gun to maneuver in the daylight. It was going to be near impossible to do it at night in the pitch dark!
Ever since I was a kid, my mother has always said, "I don't understand how someone who is as smart as you are could do so many stupid things!" Well, not wanting my mother to be wrong, I chose the scariest of the options and rolled the dice going forward on the river! One of the things I carry in my backpack is an amazing little flashlight that stewdogg gave me. I will say, this saved my tail during this time on the river...and if you keep reading, I will tell you how it potentially saved my life! (It's my story, I can write how I personally viewed it! )
Well, I spent the next THREE hours traversing the river in the dark. I would float and paddle until I got stuck on a sand bar. Then I'd have to get out, testing the stability of the sand (and praying there was no gumbo) with the paddle...drag the raft a couple feet. Test where I was going to walk. Drag the raft. Wonder why in the hell I still had that massive piece of petrified wood along for the ride, but knowing since I had put up with it from the mid-day point, I wasn't going to get rid of it now...otherwise why take it in the first place! So, when I would get out of the raft, I'd have to use the flashlight briefly to see where the river deepened and where I'd have to drag the raft. Then I'd turn the flashlight off, let my eyes readjust to the darkness, and then drag the raft in the dark. Mind you, the raft was taking on water at a faster rate than it was before...which meant I had to bail at a quicker pace as well! If I didn't bail before EVERY time I had to drag the raft, it was an additional 50 pounds I was trying to drag! It was somewhere during these three hours in which I came face to face with a pasture line that could easily be seen in the light, but in the dark, not so much! I was bailing water when all of a sudden I was hit in the face with a barbed wire fence! Yes, they do cross the river! So, I had to do my best impression of Mary Lou Retton and do a backbend in the raft and go under the barbed wires!
Okay, so long story short...ha ha! It's way too late for that, and I haven't even gotten to the good parts!
So, around 10:30pm after three VERY long and EXTREMELY stressful hours of floating/dragging/walking the river in the dark, I finally make it to the bridge and the exit point! Hoorah, this is almost over! But wait...there's more! Just as got to the bridge area, it was too dark for me to see what was happening, so I missed the place that I could beach the raft. I missed it by about 20 yards. So, I had to try and maneuver over some large boulders trying to drag the raft back upstream and believe it or not, it was in a deep part of the river for once! I had managed to make it all day long not getting anything wet above my knees...until now! As I was trying to drag that raft, my feet finally slipped out from underneath me and I went swimming! Oh, did I forget to mention the Cheyenne River goes all through cattle country...so that means it's a great source of liquid cow crap and cow pee! Basically, not a river you want to be snorkeling in! Needless to say I thought that was going to be the icing on the cake for the day...except my cell phone was in my pocket when I went under! Apparently, that kind of technology doesn't like doing laps in a river! But, I didn't know that at the time as it still showed it had power. I finally was able to get the raft pulled ashore...but I had to unload the raft of all the apparent "precious" cargo as I was too exhausted to pull it up with it loaded. I also had to dump the extra 20 pounds of water out of my hip waders that I'd just acquired during my unintentional swim.
At this point I figured I'd climb up the bank and there would finally be cell service...all day long I'd been wrong about where I'd have cell service...and apparently now was not going to be any different! So...once again I had the option of stopping or pressing on. I had to press on. The Cheyenne River is in a valley...which meant I needed to walk up the highway in order to get to the top of the hills to get cell service. So, I set off walking...even though I was without a doubt the most exhausted I had ever been! So there I was walking down the highway in hip waders, shirt soaked, pants soaked, feet soaked, looking like a crazy person - thus it's not a surprise no one who drove by stopped!
Well, I had to have walked about 45 minutes to get to the top hill of the valley. Checked my phone, no cell service. I had reached my breaking point...or stopping point really. I decided I needed to finally stop, sit down, and just rest for a few minutes. So, I walked down the embankment of the highway a little bit and sat down. After a few minutes of that, I thought it would be more comfortable if I just laid back a little...I mean my backpack (which was the only thing dry I had!) seemed to feel like a great seatback at that point. After about 15 minutes of that, I realized just how comfortable this really was...and being that it was now after midnight, I figured I needed a nap. So, I pulled out a neoprene jacket and emergency blanket from my backpack...which was one of the smartest things - and one of the only planned things that worked out on the trip...so far.
So, I didn't really care about the occasional car that was passing by...I was just off the road enough that I didn't think anyone would see me and think there was a dead body on the side of the road! What did bother me (just a little) was hearing the pack of coyotes that was going crazy down by the river...where I had just come from! Well, they finally settled down and there was about a half hour of quiet. I was starting to doze a little when I heard them once again, except this time, they were about half a mile (maybe a mile) in the direction I was going to be heading...which meant they had to have traveled near enough to me to concern me a little more. But, not enough to sit up. What was enough to make me sit straight up at exactly 1am, throwing my blanket off the top of me, and hollering like a crazy man (so I'd match the looks) was a sound like no other I'd heard...and it was CLOSE! If you want to hear what I heard, click here! Well, that's the one that keeps me up on normal nights...this is the one that I heard that night! Now, if you clicked on the second link, you will know what I was up against...but being that it was pitch dark, I had NO clue! When I heard the noise, I immediately grabbed for my flashlight and in one swoop got into my backpack and pulled out my gun...yes, I had a gun the whole time! All I could see in the beam of the flashlight was a set of eyes snarling at me from about 40 yards away. It was the snarl that made me take the first shot - I didn't aim for the eyes, but close to it. I figured that would scare whatever it was off. Nope! It (again, at the time I didn't know what it was) started coming down the hill straight at me, stalking and snarling...I kid you not, I know it was coming for me! Once it got to within 30 yards, I took the second shot. At that point it took off up the hill...stopped at the top...snarled a few more times, then disappeared (or the glowing eyes did!) over the hill!
Well, needless to say I was a tad bit more awake at this point and decided maybe this wasn't the best place to stop and take a rest...so I decided I should push on! By this time it was about 1:30am and I walked for another half hour before I FINALLY got cell service. So I immediately called my wife. I knew she'd be asleep, but knew she'd want the call. She answered. I said "I'm okay" but for some reason, I had lost my voice...which didn't make any sense because the only words I'd said all day were to the deer earlier...that and the crazy-man scream I hollered at the mad badger! Well, just as she was asking me if I wanted her to pick me up, the call dropped. Now, the problems associated with the swim my cell phone took were taking full effect! My phone would power on, but would shut down at 30 seconds. So I called again, got enough said to let her know yes, pick me up and I needed water (I had drank six bottles of water the whole day...but it wasn't enough...and the mouthful of river water I got when I went for the swim didn't do any good!). I wasn't sure she got that last part before the phone shut off, so I texted her "I need water". So, I kept trying to turn my phone on to talk to her...and every time I turned my phone on, it would resend that text "I need water"! (I found out today, my phone's board has a short and is shot...which means it was in the process of sending that message when it shut down, so every time I power it on, my wife gets that text!) Well, I didn't know that last night, and neither did she! So, she's thinking I'm having some kind of heat stroke and have no idea I'm sending the same text over and over...my phone wasn't showing it!
Well, believe it or not, where I was stuck was only a 20 minute drive from our house. So, I was watching for a vehicle coming...I figured there couldn't be that many cars driving down the road at 2:15 in the morning! I was standing on the side of the road...and I mean RIGHT on the side of the road - you know so close that a car going by couldn't miss seeing me (hopefully missing me though!). So here comes a vehicle...and it whizzed right by me! I thought the headlights looked like our vehicle, but maybe it wasn't. So I waited...and waited. All of a sudden I saw a vehicle coming from the other direction park on the side of the road on top of the hill where I'd come from. So I text my wife asking if she was parked on the side of the road. The text she GOT was "I need water"...I got no reply. All of a sudden the car pulled out and turned around and went the wrong way! After another 20 minutes of attempting to contact her again, I saw the vehicle stop at the top of the hill. So, I walked back from whence I came and tried to reach the vehicle. It pulled out. CRAP! However, it pulled out coming towards me and parked on the side of the highway again. I picked up my step and lo and behold it was my wife! Needless to say, she was in a complete panic when I finally got in the car. It's then I learned about the 20 texts that I needed water...and it's then that I learned she had called my parents and her sister because she thought I had totally lost it!
So, after finally getting to bed at 4am, and waking up at 6am, I had to drive back out to the river and hope my raft and "precious" pet wood was still where I'd left them! They were thankfully! The rest of Saturday was spent taking a nap or two...taking a crapload of Ibuprofen...and making phone calls (on my wife's phone) to all the family who were put into a panic because of really really poor planning on my part, a lot of bad luck, technology failures...oh and did I mention some really poor planning on my part!
I knew I wanted a new cell phone...I just didn't want to HAVE to get one right now...and didn't want to lose everything off the old one! Oh well...who said rockhounding wasn't an expensive hobby! Once I get the new phone, I'll post some pictures of the damn...I mean precious petrified log and other collectibles! If you read this whole thing, then you're probably as nuts as I am! So, thank you...and welcome to the Mad Badger Club!
So, do you ever have one of those experiences in which someone has the nerve to say, "Someday you're going to laugh about all this!"? Well, it turns out I've had such an experience last Friday. And while I'm trying to find the humor in all of what occurred, I'm not the point of chuckling about SEVERAL things that happened! ( LOL - kinda)
I had decided I should take another rafting trip down the Cheyenne River...since the last time was SO successful (NOT!) I keep hearing about people being able to find monster Fairburns along the Cheyenne River, so I thought "Why not me?". It turns out the bigger question I was going to end up asking that day was "What the heck, why me??"! I studied the map of the river, and one of the biggest issues with the Cheyenne River is there are very few entry and exit points...unless they're on private property. Well, unfortunately along the section of river I wanted to float, I don't have any ties to the landowners. So, I saw on the map a road that would work for an entry point and the exit point was going to be where a local highway crosses the river. Easy enough, right? Wrong!
I organized the drop off with my father, who is fully retired and loves waking up early in the morning for no special reason...okay that last part isn't entirely accurate! Anyway, he was going to drop me off, and my wife was going to pick me up at the exit point when I got there and called her to let her know I was out and ready to be picked up. Early Friday morning she did ask me to make sure I texted her at some point during the day to let her know I was doing ok. I told her I would "try" to remember to do that. I'm not sure why, but she wasn't entirely pleased with that response.
So, my dad showed up a few minutes before 6am and we loaded up the raft and supplies and headed out. Just two happy go-lucky guys...one headed for a happy little adventure that morning...and the other headed for a float trip down the river! So, I bring up Google Map so we can get to the drop off location and we start heading out. They weren't difficult directions. Head down the Highway, turn on the road right before the river, then take one dirt road over to the river. Well, Google Map sucks! As we get about a mile from the drop off location on that "dirt road", the road quickly goes from a dirt track to a field with NO tracks! Crap! I've got no access to my entry point! Well, we had just passed a gate going onto private property that led down to a field adjacent to the river. Of course there were "Private Property" and "Keep Out" signs posted all over the gate. Well, my dad thought that maybe those were "suggestions" and not hard and fast rules. So he suggested we go down their road and see if there was a farmhouse down at the bottom and maybe we could ask for permission to access the river from there. I am in no way proud about what I'm about to tell you...it just happened...and I'm not a fan of what "we" did! Well, there was no farmhouse down at the bottom of the hill, but there was a turn-around to get back out...it just happened to be right by the river. So, as my dad was "turning around" I jumped out, threw my raft onto the river edge...along with my other supplies. And thought it best my dad should hightail it out of there before there were some unexpected - although potentially warranted gunshots in our direction. Hmmm...this isn't the last time gunshots will be talked about in this story...
It was right around 7:00am when I finally got into the river as I was ducking from the dust and gravel flying as my dad spun out of there leaving me to my own demise! Now, the last time I floated the river, the water level was low...and since we've had ZERO rain since then I was pretty sure there was a chance the river hadn't changed for the positive with regards to making it easier to float. Turns out I was right...more than right!
The river was actually pretty floatable in that first part...and by that first part, I mean the first 500 yards. I spent the next several hours paddling through the deeper sections of the river - which were about 3 foot deep and about 3 foot wide. The remaining 37 feet of the river's width ranged from 3"-6" of water above sandbars. I was able to find numerous rock bars where I would stop, picking through the rocks and having every expectation of finding a monster Fairburn...or seven. Well, as the hours passed and the amount of time spent on rock bars increased, my Fairburn count remained the same...ZERO!
I did however run across numerous pieces of petrified wood, one piece of something that really looks like obsidian which I will post some pictures of at some point to try and get and ID on it...it's very intriguing! I also ran across numerous "normal" looking Prairie Agates, but I only kept the really special looking ones. The main reason I was super selective was because I had found this one particular piece of petrified wood that couldn't be passed up. The problem with the piece of pet wood is it was HUGE! I haven't weighed it yet, but it has to be close to 50 pounds. It wouldn't fit into one of the four 5-gallon buckets I had with me. So, it got wedged into the top of the bucket because there was no other place to put it! So, with the monster piece of pet wood, and the other various pieces of pet wood, and other rocks, I figure I had somewhere near 120-150 pounds of rocks. Now, since last year, I've put on about 20 pounds, so I'm now upwards of 170...I don't know exactly my weight because our bathroom scale's battery died a few weeks ago and I keep forgetting to get one...and my wife refuses to pick one up because she says that damn thing is a freaking liar! Anyway, all that weight plays a major factor when someone is trying to get through a river that gets about 3" deep in some (read that as MOST) spots!
Well, it shouldn't have been TOO much of a surprise that somewhere around noon, I noticed my feet were covered in water. Now, being that I was IN the raft at the time, I realized this wasn't a "good thing"! Turns out when you bottom out your raft as it's going over rocks (and it's loaded to the gills with "necessary" finds), there's a really good chance it might develop what some people might call a hole in the bottom! Thankfully it was in the bottom of the raft, and not in the inflatable sections of the raft. So, while it would float (if the water was deep enough!)...it became increasingly difficult to move when it became moored on the sand bars because the added water in the raft added another 50 pounds (easily)...and you would be amazed at how many sand bars could be in a river...and how freaking heavy a raft can be when you're trying to drag it through the sandbars and just praying for a good 10" of water (at the least) so maybe there could be some buoyancy again!
Well, I was a little surprised the entire morning I had not been within any kind of cell range. I knew that wasn't going to make my wife happy by not getting a text from me...but what made it a little more "interesting" was no cell service meant no Google Maps...so I had no clue where I was at in relation to my exit point. So around 1:30pm I decided I better refrain from stopping at rock bars looking for rocks and better get going, as again I had no idea how far I'd gone and how far I had left to go. Mind you I had to make this painstaking decision JUST as I had reached a point in the river where it had been diverted, leaving TONS of river rock exposed! I just knew there were six Fairburns hiding in there somewhere!
So, my afternoon was filled with paddling...followed by bailing water out of the raft...paddling...pulling the raft along 30 feet of sand bar to get back to a high water point...more bailing...more paddling...even MORE pulling a fully loaded down raft across sand bars! You get the point! Well, one of the issues with the Cheyenne River is there are sections of the river where it is a "gumbo mud" on the bottom of the river...the type of mud that if you step in it, your foot sinks in and will NOT come out! So, every time I had to get out of the raft and pull it across the sand bars, the only way to do it was to walk backwards pulling the raft towards me...which meant I couldn't watch 100% where I was stepping! I was concerned (read that as terrified) I was going to encounter that gumbo, and in one motion pull the raft over the top of me, and being stuck in the mud, there wouldn't have been anything I could do. Well, obviously since you're reading this (if you are still!) that didn't happen...but at the time, I didn't know for sure it wasn't going to happen!
So, as the hours ticked by and my physical strength was exhausting, I kept a keen eye on the sun dropping lower and lower in the sky. Still no cell service. As I rounded every bend in the river, I was just sure there would be service. Nope. Nothing! And don't think it didn't escape my thoughts at how worried (read that as pissed) my wife was going to be that she hadn't received a text! So, still not knowing where I was at, I had no choice but to press on. During those afternoon hours of "exercise", I did see a nice White-tail buck cross the river. The grunting, the head throwing, and the gnashing teeth were something very strange to see. I imagine that deer probably never saw someone on the river doing all those things! He did learn a few new words too! I also encountered three very gorgeous bald eagles along the river...or maybe it was the same bald eagle that I saw three times. It (they) would fly downriver, then I'd see another one (the same one) about an hour later. I figure he was getting disgusted that someone was chasing him...although it was NOT a very "high-speed" chase!
Well, it kept getting later and later. It was somewhere right around 6:30pm that I started hearing cars. So, I just knew I had to be getting close to the bridge...and the final destination! Being that the sun was going to set around 7:30, and even though I was exhausted, I did get a surge of energy just knowing if I pushed it, I'd be able to get there quicker! Well, just as the sun was going down, I saw headlights...so it just had to be the bridge!
The sun officially set. Friday night, there was a sliver of moon...and it was only up for a very short period and it gave NO light. So, the river became pitch-black dark! As I rounded a couple more bends, I realized the headlights of the cars I was seeing were veering AWAY from the river and not towards it! It was then that my heart sunk! I had to come to the realization the bridge must be a couple more miles down the river and all I had been seeing was a span of the highway!
When I went through Basic Training in the Army, we had a Drill Sergeant who was a long-distance runner. We all hated him. He would take us on these morning runs in the dark. We'd be exhausted when we reached the road leading back to the barracks. We could see the lights of the barracks in the distance. The end was in sight! Except, he would veer onto that road, then veer back onto the main road to continue the marathon! We hated him for that! Looking back, I know he was trying to teach all of us that even when you see the finish line and expect it to be over, there are times when you need to dig deep and push further, because the finish line can and often times does change. That was a really great lesson to learn...as there have been several times in my life where that applied...at this point of the journey, it was definitely one of those times! (Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful he taught me that lesson, but I still hate that Drill Sergeant to this day! LOL)
Now knowing that I was still several miles away from my destination, I had to make a choice. I figured I had three options. I could stop and try to scramble to the top of a hill...in the pitch black dark to see if I could get cell service. If there was, I'd be able to figure out my exact location from Google Maps...oops...and "most importantly" finally send a text to my wife! But, if I couldn't get cell service, I figure I'd waste an hour (at least) going up a hill and coming back down to the river - yes, the hills were that tall! Another option was to find a place to beach the raft and spend the night where I could (and when I say beach the raft, I mean OFF the river as I'd been beaching it ON the river all day!). My final, and to be honest, the scariest option was to push on. Remember this river was a son-of-a-gun to maneuver in the daylight. It was going to be near impossible to do it at night in the pitch dark!
Ever since I was a kid, my mother has always said, "I don't understand how someone who is as smart as you are could do so many stupid things!" Well, not wanting my mother to be wrong, I chose the scariest of the options and rolled the dice going forward on the river! One of the things I carry in my backpack is an amazing little flashlight that stewdogg gave me. I will say, this saved my tail during this time on the river...and if you keep reading, I will tell you how it potentially saved my life! (It's my story, I can write how I personally viewed it! )
Well, I spent the next THREE hours traversing the river in the dark. I would float and paddle until I got stuck on a sand bar. Then I'd have to get out, testing the stability of the sand (and praying there was no gumbo) with the paddle...drag the raft a couple feet. Test where I was going to walk. Drag the raft. Wonder why in the hell I still had that massive piece of petrified wood along for the ride, but knowing since I had put up with it from the mid-day point, I wasn't going to get rid of it now...otherwise why take it in the first place! So, when I would get out of the raft, I'd have to use the flashlight briefly to see where the river deepened and where I'd have to drag the raft. Then I'd turn the flashlight off, let my eyes readjust to the darkness, and then drag the raft in the dark. Mind you, the raft was taking on water at a faster rate than it was before...which meant I had to bail at a quicker pace as well! If I didn't bail before EVERY time I had to drag the raft, it was an additional 50 pounds I was trying to drag! It was somewhere during these three hours in which I came face to face with a pasture line that could easily be seen in the light, but in the dark, not so much! I was bailing water when all of a sudden I was hit in the face with a barbed wire fence! Yes, they do cross the river! So, I had to do my best impression of Mary Lou Retton and do a backbend in the raft and go under the barbed wires!
Okay, so long story short...ha ha! It's way too late for that, and I haven't even gotten to the good parts!
So, around 10:30pm after three VERY long and EXTREMELY stressful hours of floating/dragging/walking the river in the dark, I finally make it to the bridge and the exit point! Hoorah, this is almost over! But wait...there's more! Just as got to the bridge area, it was too dark for me to see what was happening, so I missed the place that I could beach the raft. I missed it by about 20 yards. So, I had to try and maneuver over some large boulders trying to drag the raft back upstream and believe it or not, it was in a deep part of the river for once! I had managed to make it all day long not getting anything wet above my knees...until now! As I was trying to drag that raft, my feet finally slipped out from underneath me and I went swimming! Oh, did I forget to mention the Cheyenne River goes all through cattle country...so that means it's a great source of liquid cow crap and cow pee! Basically, not a river you want to be snorkeling in! Needless to say I thought that was going to be the icing on the cake for the day...except my cell phone was in my pocket when I went under! Apparently, that kind of technology doesn't like doing laps in a river! But, I didn't know that at the time as it still showed it had power. I finally was able to get the raft pulled ashore...but I had to unload the raft of all the apparent "precious" cargo as I was too exhausted to pull it up with it loaded. I also had to dump the extra 20 pounds of water out of my hip waders that I'd just acquired during my unintentional swim.
At this point I figured I'd climb up the bank and there would finally be cell service...all day long I'd been wrong about where I'd have cell service...and apparently now was not going to be any different! So...once again I had the option of stopping or pressing on. I had to press on. The Cheyenne River is in a valley...which meant I needed to walk up the highway in order to get to the top of the hills to get cell service. So, I set off walking...even though I was without a doubt the most exhausted I had ever been! So there I was walking down the highway in hip waders, shirt soaked, pants soaked, feet soaked, looking like a crazy person - thus it's not a surprise no one who drove by stopped!
Well, I had to have walked about 45 minutes to get to the top hill of the valley. Checked my phone, no cell service. I had reached my breaking point...or stopping point really. I decided I needed to finally stop, sit down, and just rest for a few minutes. So, I walked down the embankment of the highway a little bit and sat down. After a few minutes of that, I thought it would be more comfortable if I just laid back a little...I mean my backpack (which was the only thing dry I had!) seemed to feel like a great seatback at that point. After about 15 minutes of that, I realized just how comfortable this really was...and being that it was now after midnight, I figured I needed a nap. So, I pulled out a neoprene jacket and emergency blanket from my backpack...which was one of the smartest things - and one of the only planned things that worked out on the trip...so far.
So, I didn't really care about the occasional car that was passing by...I was just off the road enough that I didn't think anyone would see me and think there was a dead body on the side of the road! What did bother me (just a little) was hearing the pack of coyotes that was going crazy down by the river...where I had just come from! Well, they finally settled down and there was about a half hour of quiet. I was starting to doze a little when I heard them once again, except this time, they were about half a mile (maybe a mile) in the direction I was going to be heading...which meant they had to have traveled near enough to me to concern me a little more. But, not enough to sit up. What was enough to make me sit straight up at exactly 1am, throwing my blanket off the top of me, and hollering like a crazy man (so I'd match the looks) was a sound like no other I'd heard...and it was CLOSE! If you want to hear what I heard, click here! Well, that's the one that keeps me up on normal nights...this is the one that I heard that night! Now, if you clicked on the second link, you will know what I was up against...but being that it was pitch dark, I had NO clue! When I heard the noise, I immediately grabbed for my flashlight and in one swoop got into my backpack and pulled out my gun...yes, I had a gun the whole time! All I could see in the beam of the flashlight was a set of eyes snarling at me from about 40 yards away. It was the snarl that made me take the first shot - I didn't aim for the eyes, but close to it. I figured that would scare whatever it was off. Nope! It (again, at the time I didn't know what it was) started coming down the hill straight at me, stalking and snarling...I kid you not, I know it was coming for me! Once it got to within 30 yards, I took the second shot. At that point it took off up the hill...stopped at the top...snarled a few more times, then disappeared (or the glowing eyes did!) over the hill!
Well, needless to say I was a tad bit more awake at this point and decided maybe this wasn't the best place to stop and take a rest...so I decided I should push on! By this time it was about 1:30am and I walked for another half hour before I FINALLY got cell service. So I immediately called my wife. I knew she'd be asleep, but knew she'd want the call. She answered. I said "I'm okay" but for some reason, I had lost my voice...which didn't make any sense because the only words I'd said all day were to the deer earlier...that and the crazy-man scream I hollered at the mad badger! Well, just as she was asking me if I wanted her to pick me up, the call dropped. Now, the problems associated with the swim my cell phone took were taking full effect! My phone would power on, but would shut down at 30 seconds. So I called again, got enough said to let her know yes, pick me up and I needed water (I had drank six bottles of water the whole day...but it wasn't enough...and the mouthful of river water I got when I went for the swim didn't do any good!). I wasn't sure she got that last part before the phone shut off, so I texted her "I need water". So, I kept trying to turn my phone on to talk to her...and every time I turned my phone on, it would resend that text "I need water"! (I found out today, my phone's board has a short and is shot...which means it was in the process of sending that message when it shut down, so every time I power it on, my wife gets that text!) Well, I didn't know that last night, and neither did she! So, she's thinking I'm having some kind of heat stroke and have no idea I'm sending the same text over and over...my phone wasn't showing it!
Well, believe it or not, where I was stuck was only a 20 minute drive from our house. So, I was watching for a vehicle coming...I figured there couldn't be that many cars driving down the road at 2:15 in the morning! I was standing on the side of the road...and I mean RIGHT on the side of the road - you know so close that a car going by couldn't miss seeing me (hopefully missing me though!). So here comes a vehicle...and it whizzed right by me! I thought the headlights looked like our vehicle, but maybe it wasn't. So I waited...and waited. All of a sudden I saw a vehicle coming from the other direction park on the side of the road on top of the hill where I'd come from. So I text my wife asking if she was parked on the side of the road. The text she GOT was "I need water"...I got no reply. All of a sudden the car pulled out and turned around and went the wrong way! After another 20 minutes of attempting to contact her again, I saw the vehicle stop at the top of the hill. So, I walked back from whence I came and tried to reach the vehicle. It pulled out. CRAP! However, it pulled out coming towards me and parked on the side of the highway again. I picked up my step and lo and behold it was my wife! Needless to say, she was in a complete panic when I finally got in the car. It's then I learned about the 20 texts that I needed water...and it's then that I learned she had called my parents and her sister because she thought I had totally lost it!
So, after finally getting to bed at 4am, and waking up at 6am, I had to drive back out to the river and hope my raft and "precious" pet wood was still where I'd left them! They were thankfully! The rest of Saturday was spent taking a nap or two...taking a crapload of Ibuprofen...and making phone calls (on my wife's phone) to all the family who were put into a panic because of really really poor planning on my part, a lot of bad luck, technology failures...oh and did I mention some really poor planning on my part!
I knew I wanted a new cell phone...I just didn't want to HAVE to get one right now...and didn't want to lose everything off the old one! Oh well...who said rockhounding wasn't an expensive hobby! Once I get the new phone, I'll post some pictures of the damn...I mean precious petrified log and other collectibles! If you read this whole thing, then you're probably as nuts as I am! So, thank you...and welcome to the Mad Badger Club!