Once the canoe had settled on the creek bed, Clete let go of the roots and started catching the supplies that floated his direction. We were both up to our armpits in 45 degree water and shivering so bad that we had to give up looking for things on the creek bottom. We climbed up the bank on to a fairly flat bench of wooded land. We hurriedly divvied up chores. I would gather wood and make a fire and Clete would do his best not to succumb to hypothermia.
Actually, Clete rose to the occasion and strung some rope through some bushes near a huge hollowed out Beech tree stump where I was feeding the fire I had been lucky to start. The wood I found was nice and dry and the stump worked like a furnace. I knew we had to get out of our wet clothes or we would hypothermiate. As soon as the fire radiated a steady heat, we shucked our duds and hung them in the bushes.
That fire was a life saver, but when our fronts got warm our backs would freeze. We were spinning around like a couple of plucked chickens on a vertical rotisserie. Naked, sylvan Sufis happy to have saved ourselves we were. Right about then we heard somebody coming through the woods. No, not somebody; somebodies.
A troop of Boy Scouts silently filed past about 30 feet from us. I desperately hoped they hadn’ t seen us. But their troop leader called out in a smirky voice,“ Kinda early in the season for a swim, ain’ t it, boys?” For that we weren’ t prepared.•
Kyle Birkemeier for Brown County COUNTY COMMISSIONER
“ Time for a Change”
New Leadership for Brown County by Vision, not by Crisis
Break the buddy system and promote transparency Paid for by Birkemeier for Commissioner
“ I will bring a fresh perspective and wide range of civil and criminal law experience to the bench.
I am committed to this community and it would be my honor to serve Brown County.”
March / April 2018 • Our Brown County 53