Saturday May 6, 1995
 Canoe trip on Dead Creek Addison County Easy moderate pace 
Leader:  Ann Burcroff


A TRIP REPORT by Barbara Agnew

" ... The water meanders slowly along on nearly imperceptible current (flowing to the north) .... " So says Alex Wilson about Addison County's Dead Creek in his 1992 edition of THE AMC QUIET WATER CANOE GUIDE. Wilson was not at the Dead Creek on Saturday, May 6.

Over a dozen canoes and kayaks propelled by their intrepid handlers launched in ominously brisk winds on a bright spring morning. I was apprehensive about my ability to control my solo canoe in such conditions but chalked it up to early-season jitters. Mistake # l.

Within 15 minutes of entering the wildness, that feisty little boat tossed me out and proceeded downwind without me. The water was cold; it was wet; it was dirty. And now I was cold, and wet, and dirty. Fortunately I had done a few things right: I was wearing my life jacket, I was still holding onto my paddle, and I had a dry bag with dry clothes lashed into my boat. Amazing.

Thanks to my fellow paddlers, I was soon out of wet clothes and into warm dry ones (sans underwear, but modesty is not paramount in such situations), paddling bowseat in another canoe while Bob and Cindy Lindemann kindly took turns with mine. But in the end most of us had to leave the water to escape the forces of a fierce wind that increased in intensity as the day progressed, and a current that warred with the wind.

Ultimately only a few vessels made it back to the landing; then the survivors ferried cars to pick up the rest of us. We were all safe, if exhausted and horrendously messy, and we had learned many lessons that day.

There was a lot of the Dead Creek in the bottom of my bathtub that night. And now I include underwear in the dry bag of extra clothes. Not that anybody asked ....