Posted on 08/26/2017 12:03:08 PM PDT by Aliska
Caked in mud and covered with bug bites, a shivering group of six friends from the Quad-Cities huddled together in the dark this past Sunday, stranded in the woods of northeast Iowa.
(Excerpt) Read more at qctimes.com ...
Nice for a happy ending. But I question how experienced these girls were in outdoor activities, to be doing this rafting in the first place.
Flame away.
“I question how experienced these girls were”
Not as inexperienced as these girls who thought the river ran in a circle: /http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2016/07/muskegon_river_tubing_trip_tur.html
"It's a little embarrassing," she said, noting this was not their first trip in the wilderness. "We've all floated before, kayaked before and backpacked before; it just takes one mistake for something like this to turn into a pretty bad situation."
Must’ve been a big@ass drone. Can I go for a drone ride? Sounds fun.
Good thing they didn’t get washed out into the Gulf of Iowa or they’d be goners for sure.
After pinpointing their location, volunteer firefighter and quadcopter pilot Zach Kerndt attached a radio transmitter to the aircraft and delivered it to the group. “It felt like we were in a movie,” said Saathoff, whose trio received the communication device. “It was just surreal.”
Well, not totally clueless...
Always, always, always remember: a text will often go through in areas of very poor cell reception when a call will not.
I did the Upper Iowa River a few years back. Put in at Kendalville and got out at Bluffton.
Took a canoe with my youngest daughter.
They had said the river was low but we still figured we would make good time - how low could it be.
Well, it was low and we spent a good bit of time switching sides, walking, bumping bottom, on and on. Took longer than we thought and it wasn’t as much fun as it could have been.
Thanks. That's a good one to know...
There’s a river near where I grew up that’s popular for tubing and kayaking, the Dan River. Very scenic on that section, running past mountains, lots of rocky cliffs and navigable minor waterfalls. But, if it’s in any shape to be on in a tube or kayak, you’re going to be bumping your backside and walking a fair amount. If it’s up enough that you’re not, you really don’t want to be on it because it’s going to be rough and fast enough to be dangerous to all but the most experienced.
Geez. That group was clueless and they are lucky to be alive.
They probably thought the river was like the circular courses found at water parks.
But then you wonder do some people know what a river is, what a lake is, what a pond is, etc. Or understand that a river is not going to flow in a circle???
Still didn't say but later the drone delivered a radio transmitter to one group of the women who had been separated from their friends.
Maybe they could have gone a little better prepared with communications equipment or device beside a cell phone. It's pretty remote in that part of the state, more than I realized having been thru it via the Great River Road a couple times which is fairly well travelled.
I have several friends and family members with weekend places in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, as well as some on the more remote beaches here, and I learned that from visiting them there. They have to text to communicate, cell phone calls do not go through. If they need to actually speak with anyone, they’ve got to drive into “town” or at least closer to civilization. They do love the wildness though, and so do I. It has it’s drawbacks though, and that’s one of them.
City folk lost in the woods. This is what’s going to happen to them when the SHTF moment happens and they decide to go and steal the stuff of the rural folks.
One thing the girls didn’t do is hit the mapping program.
Even along the rivers you’re generally not more than a farmer’s field from a paved road.
“Without the drone, Kerndt said, “It would’ve been really hard to find them.” Answer to prayers. The ladies were skilled and very lucky to have a pro fireman with a drone to find them and to deliver a radio to them.
Unless they’d made a hobby out of orienteering or something it’s doubtful that doing that would have entered most girls’ minds, probably going to get flamed but it’s one of those gender differences we’re not supposed to notice. Most guys would probably realize what direction the nearest town was and just go due east (or west or wherever it happened to be in relation) toward it, knowing that they’d encounter a road even in rural Iowa. I’m always amazed at people lost on mountains overnight in populated areas. Just look down, see those lights? That’s where the people are. Go there.
They were right near Effigy Mounds and Hwy 76 (two lanes) that leads up away from the Mississippi River to the flatter portions of Iowa.
Some steep hills coming up off the river - but not really far from “civilization”.
Kids loved stopping at Effigy Mounds.
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