DOWN
THE CREEK
PAGE A22, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 26, 2021
without a paddle
By JIM TAYLOR
Rick Stevens was about to leave his West
Linn home when his wife told him to wear a
lifejacket if he went down to the dock and
not to let Luna, their Blue Healer dog out
on it. It was late afternoon when Rick left to
check on their house and property on the
Siletz River, about eight miles above the
Highway 101 bridge.It was storming and the
river was flooding.
He arrived at the house about 6 p.m. in
a driving rain storm and 50 mile per hour
winds. After turning on the lights in the
house he looked out back toward he river.
In the ambient light from the back porch he
could see a large tree had washed down the
river and was caught on his dock. He knew
he had to try and dislodge it before more
debris piled up and swept away his dock.
Throwing on his wood jacket and base-
ball hat, Rick headed out, followed by Luna,
his ever-faithful dog.
The stuck tree was a fir, three to four feet
across with large limbs protruding skyward.
Using his shoulder he pushed on the near-
est limb slightly moving tree. Luna has
been standing on the dock and when the
tree moved she jumped from the dock to
the tree. Rick immediately waded out a little
further, hung onto a limb with his left hand
and reached out as far as he could, grabbing
Luna and tossing her back onto the dock.
Now, all was good except the inertia
of saving the dog had dislodged the tree.
Because of its long limbs sticking up, the
current caused the tree to roll over. A bro-
ken limb caught Rick under his arm, catch-
ing his jacket and tossing him across the
tree into the river. He quickly crawled onto
the tree with was now swiftly going down
the flooded river. He yelled to Luna on the
dock to stay. So she quickly jumped in,
swimming after him. As she was going by,
he was able to grab a back leg and hoist her
onto the tree.
By now, he was passing his neighbor’s
house and saw them watching television
in their front room. He yelled for help over
The GREAT Outdoors
and over, but the wind, rain and river, they
couldn’t possibly hear him. He was soon out
of sight of any lights and in complete dark-
ness, holding on a small broken limb to stay
on the only hope he and Luna had.
His first thought was to stay calm and he
was concerned for his dog, and she for him,
as she kept licking him. Suddenly the tree
came to a stop. The long limbs were acting
as a keel, getting stuck on the river bottom.
He could hear other logs and debris piling
up against his tree-raft, finally creating
enough pressure to break the river bottom’s
grip and send them down the river. This
happened many times. Occasionally a log
hit them so hard it knocked Luna into the
river. Being completely dark, Rick could do
nothing for Luna.
Rick remained calm through all this but
was heart sickened for his dog. Although
it was unseasonably warm for January—in
the high 50s—he was beginning to be con-
cerned about hypothermia. The water was
cold, he was soaked, a potential fatal situa-
tion. It occurred to him that if he died, swept
down by the river and possibly out to sea,
nobody would know what happened. He
was determined not to let that happen.
All through this he kept trying to see the
river bank. It was so dark he could not see
his own hand. At last, after a couple of hours
in the river, a single, far off light appeared
to the north, beyond where the paved road
should be. He thought he could make out
the silhouette of vegetation about 25 feet
away. Was it his imagination or was it real?
He knew he was running out of time, so he
decided to go for it. Kicking of his boots,
he went into the water, leaving the tree that
had both nearly killed him and then saved
him.
After swimming a short distance he
reached the bank and crawled up to level
ground. He could no longer see the far off
light. In total darkness, with only socks on
his feet, he slowly began to navigate toward
where he thought the road should be.
Feeling along with his feet and hands, he
slowly advanced through brush and trees
until he came to what felt like a gravel road.
Following the road by feel only, he came to
what felt like asphalt. Knowing he needed
to go right at this time to get back to his
house. This part of the road is very curvy
and many times he walked off the road only
to have to find it again.
He walked blind for what turned out to
be more than two miles, he saw the lights
of his house. His pace quickened and he
reached his front door. It was after 10 p.m.
Not one car had come down the road the
whole time was walking back.
The wind was still blowing but his power
was still on. He was shivering and very cold.
He needed to get out of his wet clothes and
into a warm shower. After undressing in
the utility room, he opened the back door
to put his wet clothes on the back porch.
There, curled up was Luna. He never felt
so relieved and happy. And he still had his
baseball hat. All was good.
There is a lesson to be learned from this
story. If your wife tells you to wear a life
jacket down to the river, wear it. If your wife
tells you not to let the dog on the dock…
don’t! Wives are always right.
Cat of the Week
Name: DUCHESS, Age: 2 1/2
HISTORY: She showed up at
the shelter May of last year.
She had 6 kittens that were
all adopted. They are a little
confused with the rest of her
history because the previous
owner who filled out the form
didn’t make themselves clear
about the cat.
PREFERRED HOME: Duchess
is very shy but loves affection
by being petted. She doesn’t
do well with other pets or small
kids. The owner needs to be
patient with her, as she takes
time to warm up to others.
We have moved! Our new location is 4157 Cherry Avenue, Keizer • 503-362-5611