Low Head Dam Hidden Under Flood Waters

I don’t believe in wake up calls. The problem is that in order to “wake up” to something you have to be paying attention in the first place. Usually the folks who need the wakeup call are not the folks paying attention. . or they wouldn’t need the wakeup call in the first place. Quite a carousel ride if I do say so myself!

So I had mixed feelings when I read about another kayaker’s death in the Flint Michigan area. The article talks about another educated, skilled and safety minded person who lost their life doing what they loved. Of course many experienced paddlers will cringe when they hear he took an Old Town Otter over a low head dam. . during a period of high water no less. A little bit of experience, reading and preparation should be telling paddlers that low head dams are dangerous at the best of times. This is something I’m quite familiar with. As a child I grew up near one. (pictured above in flood). It seemed at least once a year some canoeists would attempt to shoot the dam when the river was well past flood stage. Usually resulting in a tragedy. When you saw those flashing lights out the window, usually in the spring, you could guess what had happened. In fact one time we had paddlers at our door wrapped in wet blankets looking for a phone. They were lucky. Since then that dam along with 4 others on the river have been removed making the lowly Baraboo river the longest river in the country to be restored to its pre-settlement condition.

The problem is that paddlers come into the sport with different mindsets. Usually folks who purchase those fat, stable recreational boats are not the same folks who read the magazines, take classes, or even slip into the kayak blogosphere. Kayak Manufactures are way to focused toward selling the “safety” of recreational kayaks to slip in the “downsides”.  Imagine a salesperson at a chain store saying,  “This boat could be a potential death trap without the proper education and training.”.  Or those glossy brocures listing all the places NOT to take your new kayak. (Ain’t gonna happen!) What makes things worse is that these new paddlers build up years of false confidence paddling in benign conditions. Then over time they start pushing the envelope. The confidence they’ve acquired over all that time on flat water tends to blind them to saftey  information that is readily available if they looked for it. I mean, “It’s just the river after all”. They wore their PFD, (Oops, I mean “LIFE JACKET”)  and heck, even the dam is under water “so it will be a straight shot”. Simple and safe. Of course it’s not. But knowing that depends on seeking out the information before you take the risk. Something that often will just never happen in the recreational market. I don’t know. Maybe there is a “wake up call” in there after all.

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