I don't even know where to start it was such an event filled day with the Bushwhacker; One thing for sure this work thing I do gets in the way of blogging; OK I hit it hard with friends at Crawfish after work and knocked back 10 hot wings and a few beers... I'm just saying...
A word from Mike Smith:
I'm home and at least half healed, still feeling light headed with a
queasy stomach. I'm guessing I picked up some bacteria off my water line
which I use to drink out of like a camel back drinking system. It
occasionally would fall in the bottom of the canoe which of course had
river water, mud etc. All I know is late Sat. I started to getting a
queasy stomach and thought it was from drinking to much Gator Aide so I
stopped drinking that and went to straight water. Also during the
afternoon I got a bad case of the hiccups and heart burn from hell! That
caused some breathing problems. After reaching my goal of 50 miles the
first day in 15 hrs. its time to pass out, the sleeping pad under the
stars was perfect and felt awesome for this tired and drained ole body.
But them pesky hiccups insisted on keeping me company thru the night,
ever try sleeping with the hiccups? I might have slept an hr.
Launching
at 6:20 Sun. morning I felt off kilter with an upset stomach and
tired but ok to push on. As the early hrs wore on and I started eating
and drinking I also started throwing up. My energy level dropping off as
fast as the temperature was rising. The log jams and upstream paddling
were demanding. By noon it was evident I'm in trouble.
Temperatures pushing up to 90 the sun baking and taking its
toll, continually puking up everything I drank and ate. Them damn Energy
bars taste just as bad coming up as they do going down! George and I
would often stop and drench our self in the cool water but with the
temperatures soaring it just wasn't enough. We slowed down the pace,
stopped and took a couple 20 minute breaks, stopped every 15 minutes but
the stomach wasn't having any of it now the dry heaves have set in. I'm
feeling delirium, sweating profusely, seeing things, and walking like a
drunken sailor while out of my boat, cussing at myself to get it
together and keep moving. Obviously that wasn't working, after taking
another break George was getting concerned and said we should to go to a
house across the river and pull out. That was around 2:00pm I wanted to
push on for a little while longer hoping I would recover I hated the
thought of pulling out. It wasn't long after that I realized George was
right I was going downhill like a sinking ship forcing each paddle
stroke gaining little doing it. The time has come this is it, I called
Michael Doty who was in the area and he met us at a nearby bridge,
thanks Mike, that was after 4:00 pm. I think we made 17 miles in 9 hrs.
not good but not bad considering the circumstances.
In
retrospect the chain of events over 2 days and nearly 70 miles were
almost comical, not to funny at the time but non the less I would never
have guessed anything like this would happen leavening me limping home
ward bound beaten, bedraggled, confused and worst of all not making it
to the finish line. All the planning, training, reading maps, physically
and mentally preparing for the challenge wasn't enough this time
around. As I found myself in the middle of a "Perfect Storm".
Thanks to everyone for the help and encouragement. Wishing the reaming teams the best, have a safe trip to the finsih line.
paddlepaddlepaddle
Mike
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