Barbara wrote:
Another article I read said they were experienced kayakers.
One can't assume that they were clueless. We have no idea what happened, so speculation is pointless.
Barbara
Unfortunately, being experienced doesn't always result in good judgement.
I was on a May long weekend trip to Algonquin with our canoe club. It was a wet, cold weekend and we found one participant was really poorly equipped clothing wise for the trip. We were surprised because he had done quite a few trips with the club the previous year. Apparently, he had experienced only good weather on all of those trip!
My wife and I frequently do trips with another couple. They have plenty of canoeing experience, including multi day whitewater trips. Two years ago on a week long trip to Algonquin in June we started off one day with sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. However, it soon started to cloud over and we had received some showers before stopping on an island for lunch. I thought we would camp there but our friends wanted to travel to another part of the lake, hoping to find a campsite with fewer bugs. It was starting to rain lightly so I put on my rain gear and asked my friends if they were going to put on their rain gear. Much to my surprise, the husband replied that his rain gear was in the bottom of his dry bag! My wife, perhaps not wanting to offend our friends, also declined to put on her rain gear. The area we paddled to was far worse for bugs than the island so we decided to head back to the island. In the meantime the rain had started to pickup and the temperature was falling. By the time we got back to the island the three of them were soaked to the skin. It was not yet a crisis but it was certainly heading that way! I managed to get the tarp up in record time and the three of them had to get under the tarp, strip off everything they were wearing and put on dry clothes and their rain gear. I am still amazed that this incident happened because everyone on that trip had a lot of outdoor experience.
