I've experienced a few of the above, but I thought I was the only person to ever see flames freeze solid. Really! Papa is telling it like it is.

As for finding the ol' cold "turtle neck" with frozen fingers when nature calls, that can be real fun, eh? My advise is don't wait too long to take care of biz. I've been there when buddies have pee'd themselves by waiting too long to get after this winter task. Must be nice having your genitals become encased in a frozen pocket of yellow ice. Wheeeee.

I've had a near frozen face several times running my sled in winter on the Clackamas River. Made me learn to use a ski mask and goggles during freezing days. One winter day I got caught in a sudden heavy snow storm on that river and couldn't see well enough to run the rapids. Being a long way from the ramp made it a wait out situation. It put over 2" of snow all over the deck and hull of my sled. Later it took 2 trucks to get it up the boatramp - and tow it to the nearby Clackacraft d-boat factory (thanks Bruce!).

The only 2 times the cold ever had me really scared was the time my d-boat broke loose on the iced over Siskyville steep wooden rail launch on the Wilson R., with a guy down near the bottom of it. And the time my dad fell out of my first driftboat flat on his back in about 3 ft. of water when it was around 20 degrees out on the Nestucca R.

The boat 'slide' could have taken out the guy down below, but fortunately it hit the water. And it skipped across to the other side of the river and then slowly drifted on down by itself.

As for dad, he was drenched and I worried about hypothermia setting in due to 20 deg. cold and a light wind. It was a long way to the takeout so I got ready to give him my jacket and hightail it to the ramp. Just then a nearby farmer came down to the hole to see how fishing was and came to our rescue - taking dad up to dry off, and his wife put dad's clothes into their dryer. Very lucky. ... Oh ya, how did he fall out? I came wading back to the boat in my waders and assumed he saw me getting in the other side - not. It suddenly tipped the boat and he backed right over the gunnel and flat on his back and flailing the cold water. Lesson learned. Never dumped anyone else, rapids or otherwise, except that one time.

Oh, there was one other scare. I was with a couple friends in a 2 wheel drive truck going over the coast range to fish near Tillamook. A Jeep came up behind us and wanted to pass. So our driver pulled in to a side spot a little too fast, and we slide toward a cliff with a long steep hill down thru flocked trees. His truck stopped just on the edge of the embankment - whew!

RT