When one paddles down river, an important consideration is how to get back to where you started.  Usually, some of the participants’ vehicles used to carry the canoes and other gear are left at the terminus (a.k.a. the “take-out”) while everything is loaded onto the remaining vehicles to drive to the point of the trip’s origin (a.k.a. the “put-in”).  Somebody recently told me a funny shuttle story, and that reminded me of the time many years ago when I paddled with some friends down the Amazon, a total of 2,832 miles... and at that, we did not go all the way to the headwaters, but we did start at about 16,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains.  We planned to take out about 70 miles before actually reaching the Ocean, because the river was so wide and deep by then that shipping was a hazard to canoeists.  Anyway, since it was the first time down the Amazon for all of us, I guess in the excitement, nobody thought about shuttle! 

            Man that portage back was something.  I was in my old yellow canoe which weighs about 75 pounds on its own, and it was still fairly loaded with camping gear etc., although at least it was minus the l00 days food rations we had started with.  Well, there we were no shuttle and about out of food, and we knew the likelihood of finding any convenience stores along the way back was slim, since we had actually not seen a single person the entire trip (this was before all the deforestation had begun in the 1970s).  Also, 70 miles from the Ocean may not seem like much but then we were still on the fringes of civilization.  The shipping ports were little more than offloading stations for heavy equipment... the beginning of deforestation I guess. 

            Well, there was nothing we could do but set up camp and start the process of gathering and drying fruit and trapping small mammals to make jerky.  I really acquired a liking for a small rabbit-sized animal’s jerky, but I kinda lost my taste for it when I learned it was the jungle’s version of a very large rat.  Anyway, after about 3 months of food preparation, we felt like we had enough to start the portage back and, thus, began the daily grind of hauling the canoes about 5 miles, leaving them, and going back for the food and gear.  Five miles was about average.  On good days, we made 7 or 8 and on bad days barely a mile.  Those waterfalls and long descents that were so much fun on the way down were not so much fun on the way back. 

            As you can imagine, 100 days down would not be 100 days back, and there was no way we could manage to haul all the food stores that the return trip would require.  Three more layovers were necessary to gather and prepare food.  We even got so that we hated to eat much during the layovers, because we knew every time we ate was more time needed to prepare food.  By the third layover, people were getting grouchy and began to blame one another for being so dumb as to forget about shuttle.  I, of course, in my infinite wisdom said that we had been collectively dumb and that no one individual should bear a disproportionate share of the blame.  Well one individual who shall remain unnamed still tried to blame the others, but we collectively told him to “kiss our butts,” and he shut up after that. 

            Except for that little disharmony, we all got along pretty well.  I did get a good tan and lost a few pounds (that part I could use again!).  Four years later when we finally got back to the put in, there were the vehicles waiting for us.  But wouldn't you know it, every single one of them had flat tires and dead batteries.  Well, you guessed it, there wasn't anything else we could do...but start back down river while we still had a little food left... we surely weren't going to find much food at 16,000 feet.  The moral of this story is...

DON'T FORGET ABOUT SHUTTLE!