Every year, we hear about people who are injured or killed while
they are out paddling on canoe trips. This is a shame, since
wilderness canoeing is not in of itself a dangerous activity.
Most accidents and fatalities we hear about are not due to
dangerous conditions or equipment failure, but to human error,
ignorance and bad judgment.
What can happen? We can drown in a rapid, or get hit by
lightning. We can get swamped by huge rolling waves on a large
lake, or a tree can get blown down and land on our tent at
night. These things may make canoeing sound quite dangerous, but
we have to take a step back and look at what really caused the
accident.
Let's look at the first example - a paddler who drowns in a
dangerous rapid. The fact that a rapid is big, swift and
dangerous doesn't really mean a lot - we have to ask ourselves
why did the person drown in that rapid? No matter how violent a
rapid is, a group of paddlers won't drown on the portage trail
around it. Why didn't that person use the portage? Now we're
possibly looking at a probably question of judgment instead of
one of danger. What if the person drowned because the group
didn't know that the rapid was around that corner? That probably
means that the group had old maps, no maps, didn't know how to
read the maps or hadn't researched the route very well. What if
the group planned to take the portage, but the take-out for that
portage was very close to the rapid and the canoe was swept into
the fast water? Again, the issue becomes one where we have to
ask ourselves was the fatality due to the rapid, or due to the
fact that the paddlers didn't have the necessary expertise to
paddle that particular route.
The same applies to our other examples. Did someone get hit by
lightning because they were too impatient to take an hour off
during an electrical storm? Did a group make a poor decision by
heading out into a large lake with large waves? Did a tree fall
on a tent because the group didn't take the time to see if there
were any snags or dead trees leaning over the tent site?
As in any situation - we have to practice avoidance. Rather than
have to deal with a tricky or dangerous situation, we have to
learn to make decisions which will prevent us from being in that
dangerous situation in the first place.
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