A flood of panic

Gary and Maddie came down a couple weeks ago for some canoeing on the cannon river.  The river has been high all summer, and was finally settling down, so I figured it would be a good time to get some boats out.  It rained about 7" in a couple hours the night before we went however, so the river was very high and fast when we put in Saturday morning.  The trip started alright, and we made really good time, hardly needing to paddle.  There were a lot of trees down and debris requiring some navigation skills, which it turns out we don't really have.  We overturned the boat going under a tree and only then realized the predicament we had gotten ourselves into.  It was warm out, but the water was surprisingly cool.  More noticeably it was very fast, and high enough that it went well back into the trees near the typical shoreline, so there was no safe way to get the boat out of the current.  Maddie was in a kayak and her quick reaction saved our paddles and a couple other random objects.  We floated downriver with the boat for a while and finally managed to manhandle it over to a downed tree where we could anchor ourselves and get the boat righted, although it was a tough fight with the current to get it out of the water and upright.  Our poles and tackle were sadly lost, and I had to untangle my legs from the fishing line, but we got back underway.  We didn't make it near as far before tipping a second time, and needed to work over into some shallows and right the boat.  Then We decided to try me in the stern and Gary paddling bow, but barely got underway before tipping again.  This time we got caught on a pile of flotsam, but Gary had to drift away.  I managed to hang and get the boat flipped and emptied on my own while bracing on a log that seemed mostly stable, then sat in the bottom of the boat and turned it by leaning and paddling with my hands until Gary could grab hold and pull himself into the boat, while going downriver.  Maddie saved our paddles each time, and handled her kayak very well, without her there things would have been much the worse.  We ended up stopping when we reached a good place to beach along Hwy 3 and had Gary's dad come rescue us.  I think all of us had as much adventure as we cared to that day, and it was a good reminder how much the speed and power of a river differs from the lakes where I have been doing most of my paddling as of late.