A few years ago during day 6 of an 11 day trip, we lost a paddle over Blueberry Falls. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but it happened nonetheless. We spent the next hour paddling down the rest of the Crow and some of the Pet, looking for the missing paddle - but no luck, it would not be recovered. We stopped to make camp at Wagtail Raps (awesome campsite, by the way) and decided not to make a paddle until our next lake - which wasn't very far away, as we had the next two nights booked at Eustache. The next day we one-paddled to Eustache Lake and while there we made a replacement paddle. We used a small tree, some cordage and duct tape. It was heavy, but it did the job - and we really needed a 2nd paddle as our exit point was McManus Lake.
We leave Eustache and the paddle works just fine, but heavy. It gets us across Lake Travers and down the Pet to the Crooked Chute Cabin for the night. We decide to convert the cabin's broom (which I later replaced) into a paddle by duct-taping the bristles nice and flat. The following morning we leave the first paddle we made at the cabin, to make up for the loss of the broom. We used the duct-taped broom to paddle to the Natch. While hiking the cliffs of the Natch, a couple was headed down the trail back to their boat. We exchanged greetings and we're on our way. After taking in the awesome view from the top of the Natch, we head down the trail and back to the boat - only to find the couple had left us their spare paddle. I guess they saw our pathetic broom paddle and decided to pay it forward.
Annnnnyway, we leave the Natch and decide to run the next small swift. Mistake. Camera now at the bottom of the river and there are no photos of this trip - or our make shift paddles. While floating down the swift I almost lost our newfound paddle - so I swam hard for it, secured it, then swam back to the boat and my buddy (he managed to get the boat up on some rocks int he middle of the river). The losses were heavy. 1 Canon 60D, 1 Samsung Note III, 1 iPhone 4s, 1 Garmin GPS. The only thing physically lost was the camera, the rest were just water-damaged beyond repair. Anyway, enough about that.
Except..
The following month, I returned to the Crooked Chute Cabin (and yes, I really did portage-in a new broom for the cabin to replace the one I took) and lo and behold the paddle we made on Eustache was still there! No one took or burned it!
So the only evidence I have regard this entire 11 day trip is the paddle. That's it. I took it home and have it still - never getting rid of it. That trip taught me so many lessons and this paddle is a constant reminder.
