Going In Blind by J.B. MacKinnon

Rating:**

This article is about being a true adventurer by making yourself unprepared for the adventure. In this case it was group of inexperienced canoers who paddled down the Fraser River in B.C.

They started out in the morning and paddled down a 21km stretch of the river called ‘Skeena’. It might as well have been the first decent down the river because they did not research anything about the river’s rapids, falls, or canyons. However they knew that there was one canyon deadlier than any other on that river, the Kitselas Canyon. They had no idea when to expect it, or just how bad it would be. They reached it by mid-afternoon and it had the illusion of still water. But that’s not at all what they got when they were swallowed into the mouth of the canyon. It was a trap of enormous whirlpools, eddies, and turbulent water to say the least. After eight hours of paddling, they pulled up on shore exhausted, but amazed that they made it out. After so many before, much more experienced, had perished to the dark waters.

This article taught me that taking risks isn’t always a bad thing. However I don’t think I would be able to take such a wild and dangerous adventure. But after all, how do you think our ancestors did it. They were true adventurers, always taking risks to advance civilization.

MacKinnon, J.B. ‘Going In Blind’. Explore, September/October 2006.