• Happy International Mermaid Day! 🧜🏼‍♀️

Scary and it could happen in a canoe around cottage country.

Here in the ADK's there is beautiful, overdeveloped, overused Lake George.
Every year, in early summer, the locals gather for a day long party in Log Bay, known as Log Bay Day.
2 years ago, a group of 20somethings were drinking and drugging at that party.
That evening, they over ran a Garwood triple cockpit classic boat, with 3 generations of a family on board.
A little girl, sleeping on her mom's lap, died instantly, her mother horrifically injured, and the others sustained injuries as well, when the 20something guy that was piloting his father's speedboat ran them over.
He never stopped, despite the screams audible from shoreline witnesses, and those of the family in the Garwood.
The party kids then quietly sneaked away and hid their damaged boat.

It took about a year, but all 5 of those turds were convicted of varying levels of the crime...but no punishment will ever bring back that little girl.

Those folks in the video were lucky to have seen the boat coming...
I have some friends that were struck by a speedboat while they were fishing in a little V hull, yes, on Lake George. Of the three brothers fishing, one had his back ripped apart by the prop, another brother (my buddy) sustained ever worsening brain damage. Third and youngest brother escaped injury. None of them ever ventured out on Lake George again. Speedboat pilot was drunk, it was his first day with his new boat.
 
Another reason why I rarely paddle on other than motor less lakes. Some are not bad. cranberry lake in the adks has the most considerate power boaters I have ever seen. i drove through lake George once-that was enough.
 
To put things into perspective stuff like this happens every day and still we....
drive in a car. Not every other driver is paying attention nor is sober
 
Holeeeee yes. I have had powerboats come awfully close to running my canoe over. That is why I stay off busy lakes and rivers as much as possible.
 
There are idiots everywhere. They sometimes operate power boats, trucks and cars, shopping carts...Gotta always watch out for the other guy. I practise defensive driving. No guarantees in life though. So far I haven't had any problems on the water. Last fall we kept closer to shore and out of the boat traffic. That was sensible and suited everyone I'm sure. Not sure if the power boaters knew or cared about right-of-way rules, and I wasn't going to test them. We stayed well out of the way until all was clear to cross the busy channels. As with automobiles, just because operators have a license doesn't mean they obey rules, much less care about what they're doing.
 
Truly, truly frightening! Something similar happend in Stonington CT a few years back that resulted in the death of the fisherman on the boat that was run over. The boat at fault was being captained by a professional who was delivering the larger boat to a marina down the channel. Evidently neither he nor the mate were keeping any sort of lookout...boat might have been on autopilot, even to navigate this particular channel.
What a shame. Makes you think about your own ability to avoid danger (and recover) while out on larger waters.
 
Luckily I can say I avoided something like the video but not by much. I was on a college trip with a student in my bow who was unable to paddle due to an injury he experienced that morning. We were on Middle Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks and a motor boat just wasn't paying attention. Our small flotilla amounted to 5 canoes but the driver of the powerboat wasn't paying any attention. He kept coming and coming and coming. I told the students to paddle as fast as possible out of his pathway and they did. We were fortunate that he eventually saw us and pulled up and off to the side but not before lots of folks were looking for a change of underwear.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time....be well.

snapper
 
I normally train for canoe races on a very popular cottage lined lake not far from my home near the Adirondacks. Too many times I have had to alter my course due to motorboats and especially jet skis. Usually just a major annoyance, but you never really know. One time 2 jet skis with kids kept circling me, just to create huge waves for me to negotiate. Never got close enough for me to read the registration number for me to report. Unless I paddled early mornings on a weekday, I came to feel that I was taking my life in my hands on weekends. So last fall I bought a bare piece of lakefront property on another lake, one that does not allow motor boats of any kind. You can't find many of those any more, and I'm not getting any younger and land is not getting any cheaper.
 
Just yesterday had a close call on Upper St Regis here in the Adks. Coming back from the St Regis Canoe Area, just at dusk, to the put in I had to cross in front of a private marina. 2 motor boats pull into the marina, one docks up the other heads back out, puts it in full throttle right at me. The bow was coming straight at me, had to paddle like H--- to just clear the boat. Driver was looking back in his boat, never did see me. Now, that being said , I did not have my headlamp on, I was pushing it to get back before dusk. The other 5 ponds I was on are motorless.
 
The bow was coming straight at me, had to paddle like H--- to just clear the boat. Driver was looking back in his boat, never did see me.

That's happened to me before, too - in broad daylight - and it's frustrating as heck ... particularly since it was in what was supposed to be a "no wake" area.
 
yknpdlr, I had the same thing happen to me- fully loaded canoe, provincial park, inland lake, jerk on a jetski trying to swamp us! fortunately I carry my flares and bear bangers strapped to my rear thwart, so I sent a flare "across the bow". He got the hint pretty quickly, but even better a park ranger saw my flare and hopped in HIS boat (no-motor lake, but most larger ones have a stashed boat for ranger "emergency" use) and came shooting over. Turned out that buddy had driven on a hiking trail to the water and launched from there.
The idiot lost his jetski AND pickup truck (Used to commit a crime) got fines up the wazoo, and 60 days+ 5 yr suspension and loss of his driver's license for 3 years for "reckless endangerment" He also got about $5000 in fines for "motor vehicle on closed road, using a motor on a closed lake, no boating license, unregistered powercraft over 9.9HP, and a bunch of other stuff (yup- I went and testified)
Pretty steep hit, but as the judge said, He actually got off easy, as the THREE "attempted manslaughter" charges were plead down to reckless endangerment!
 
yknpdlr,
Pretty steep hit, but as the judge said, He actually got off easy, as the THREE "attempted manslaughter" charges were plead down to reckless endangerment!

Nice to know there is some justice in the world. I have been pretty lucky so far with my experiences - but probably due to lack of exposure more than anything.
 
I used to paddle a sea kayak on big lakes around power boats. I painted the deck yellow so everyone could see it. The deck was varnished.
Some powerboaters have the bad habit of heading straight at you, then veering away. The message to me is that they don't see me or plan to run over me. I cannot stand that. When you run a power boat, never take a bearing that aims at a craft that is not under power. Some lady did this to me about 3 times. Finally on the next pass I was so mad I gave her the finger, which I never do. She came by and gave me a lecture. I told her to stop scaring people.


I used to have a ski boat, a Ski Centrion made pull skiers and wakeboarders. One evening the sun was low on the water.
We were adrift on a quiet lake deciding if anyone wanted to wakeboard in the nice flat conditions.
I was that the helm, and noticed a power boat coming down the lake pulling some tubes at maybe 20 mph. He kept getting closer. He was aimed right at us, but surely I thought he would change his heading. It did not even occur to me to start the Ford V-8. It should have. The guy kept coming. People on my boat got up and were literally getting ready to jump when I gave a blast from an air horn the boat changed course and missed us. I fired up the engine, and caught up with him. He was not even apologetic. He said he was "driving into the sun" and could not see our boat.
Dumbass Nation folks. People are more stupid than you can even imagine.
 
Another reason why I rarely paddle on other than motor less lakes. Some are not bad. cranberry lake in the adks has the most considerate power boaters I have ever seen. i drove through lake George once-that was enough.

even that's not always safe! We were canoe tripping in a provincial park, on a no motor lake when a punk on a jetski came ripping up and started doing donuts around us, trying to swamp us. I had to fire a flare towards him,
 
Last edited:
I paddled up the McCloud Arm of Lake Shasta a few years ago. In a 4-5 day trip the power boats never did anything dangerous, but in all of that time not one of them slowed down to reduce their wake. One afternoon out our quiet paddle in campground, an enormous house boat showed up full of U of Oregon students showed up. I had a chat with them after dinner hoping they would respect other people. They did not. We could not leave due to the steep shoreline.

When we returned to the trucks, mine was broken into stealing a bunch of stuff. No more trips to Lake Shasta. The Town of Redding, CA has a lot of drug problems. Use caution and only store your vehicles in a place with security.
 
Back
Top