Caddo pitches shutout vs. paddlers

GLENWOOD — Once again I can say that I’ve never gotten so wet so fast.

Tumping a canoe drenches you much faster than a cloudburst, as happened Sept. 24.

That trip on the Caddo River with Ray Tucker was a scouting voyage for a family event that took place Friday, when my sister Karol McNutt blew into town from St. Louis. We do a float trip together every year, usually on the Buffalo River, but Karol wanted something more challenging. The Caddo fit the bill, and it’s a lot closer than the Buffalo.

As mentioned in Sunday’s feature story, the Caddo was low and semi-navigable all summer. Heavy rain over the past couple of weeks raised it to a perfect floating level Sept. 24. It was falling then, but another round of rain spiked it back into an ideal zone that stabilized by Friday morning.

At 6 a.m., my brother Brad texted and asked whether he could ride in my boat. That was a surprise. Brad, an attorney, so infrequently has time for such larks that I didn’t think to invite him.

Karol doesn’t ask. She marched into his office and told him that he was coming. Big sisters can do things like that, and Brad’s right hand, Michelle Tyree, reinforced her.

“Go,” Tyree said. “You need it. We’ll manage without you just fine for a few hours.”

Brad, a close friend of the late singer-songwriter Blaze Foley, shared some great stories about Foley on the ride to Glenwood. He is grateful that Foley is finally getting long due — even if posthumously — recognition, thanks largely to Ethan Hawke’s new biopic, Blaze.

He also told us about a missed opportunity to represent rap artist Snoop Dogg.

It happened many years ago when Brad started his own law firm. He got all manner of phone calls at all hours, including one from a guy claiming to be Snoop Dogg. Brad hung up on him. Snoop called back. “This ain’t no Snoop Dogg, so quit bothering me!” Brad said, and he hung up again.

Except that it was. Snoop Dogg was in a jam somewhere in Arkansas and needed a lawyer pronto. A different lawyer, ultimately.

“He was done with me,” Brad said.

Accompanying us for this trip were Laura Hendricks, Laura McNutt of Little Rock and Connie Curtis, a Little Rock native residing in Albany, N.Y.

Miss Laura is experienced on the Caddo River, and Brad floated it with me once in 1997. For the rest, it was their maiden voyage. Brad fronted a canoe with me, and Miss Laura backed Karol in a tandem kayak. Laura McNutt and Curtis rented solo kayaks, all from Lucky’s Canoe Rental in Glenwood.

Lucky put us in at the Swinging Bridge Access. The river was full and swift, but our paddles were barely wet when Brad and I tangled with a submerged boulder. I usually paddle solo, and a boat that’s light in the bow scoots harmlessly over such perils.

Not so when there’s weight up front. The bow plunged into the rock and hurled us into the river.

Miss Laura and Karol were the next to go. It happened at the end of a benign little rapid with a big rock at the end. Karol looked back to check on the others. Miss Laura yelled, “Watch out for that rock!” They hit it sideways and rolled, and just like that, the Caddo took a 4-0 lead.

Unlike mine and Brad’s wreck, theirs was in slow motion, complete with flailing arms and feet.

“And, of course, desperately grabbing for non-existent tree branches,” said Brad, wiping away tears as he laughed.

Curtis got more baptisms than a serial revivalist, but her best moment came as we passed an elderly gentleman fishing in a kayak. Curtis whooped encouragement as he battled a monster smallmouth bass, but her outburst so startled him that he lost the fish.

“Oops! Sorry!” Curtis said timidly as she passed his bow.

He glared at her wordlessly for what seemed like an eternity before he grumbled glumly, “What a beautiful fish that was.”

As soon as we were out of his sight, Brad began laughing so hard that the boat shook.

“Did you see the look he gave her?” he asked. “Oh, lord, life is so funny if you just let it be.”

McNutt, who successfully negotiated the worst rapids, got smug and started celebrating as she approached the end zone. The Caddo tackled her at the 1 to complete the shutout.