Harpeth Canoe Trip - Nashville

Sunday morning we all packed up to leave the hotel and I headed to Adam’s brother’s place in Nashville to meet up with him. They had planned a canoe trip on the Harpeth River. The crew included me, Adam, John (Adam’s Brother), Amy (John’s Wife), little Johnny (John’s Son), Mason (John’s Son), Cheryl (Adam’s Mom), Charlie (Cheryl’s Husband), and Taylor (Little Johnny’s Friend). It was nice being on the cold river on a hot day. It was Little Johnny’s first trip captaining his own canoe.
We stopped to do some swimming and cool off and Mason wanted to ride in our canoe. We took a little while to get situated and the rest of the crew moved on. We came around the bend to find John and Amy and Little John and Taylor waiting for us in front of a downed tree. As we past them and maneuvered through the small rapids Adam made the comment that this was going to be bad. When we were in calm water, we turned around to see Amy hanging on to a flipped canoe and John powering up stream to rescue the boys. Cheryl and Charlie were already downstream and were busy gathering up cameras, clothes, coolers, and oars.
Of course, being a former lifeguard, my first instinct was to jump in and save some kids. But we had Mason who is 6 in our canoe and he was scared. Adam jumped out and grabbed Amy and her canoe. He was holding both canoes against the rapids. Sort of like He-Man. The river at that point was only about 2 feet deep, but it was moving fast. John finally made it to us with the boys and we all parked on a little island to get ourselves together. Cheryl and Charlie had grabbed the boys’ canoe but we lost 3 oars, Amy’s clothes, and ruined a digital camera.
Everything happened really fast and I was glad that everyone was Ok and I didn’t need to perform CPR. I was certified when I was 15 and I am sure nothing has changed since then.
The wreck really spiced up the canoe trip and I think the boys loved the excitement. Luckily we all made it out alive!!