Tubing Trip Goes Awry When Women Learn That the River Doesn't Run in a Circle

(Image: Google Maps/Michigan Live)

It seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, floating down a stream in an inner tube can be fun. You just need to arrange for someone to pick you up at a certain point and deliver you back to your starting point where you parked your car.

But these three women in Muskegon County, Michigan didn't know that because they had never tubed before. When they arrived at a launch site on the Muskegon River, someone told them that there was no need to arrange for pickup downstream because the river ran in a circle. If they stayed in the water, they'd just float back to starting point.

Alas, hydrology did not cooperate. The Muskegon River does not flow in a circle. Firefighters rescued them 20 hours later after they spent a night floating 3 miles downstream. Michigan Live interviewed Fire Chief Bob Grabinski about the incident:

Muskegon Township firefighters launched their 16-foot jet propulsion river rescue boat from the Holton Duck Lake Road launch ramp and found the women about a quarter-mile downriver, he said. Dalton Township firefighters also responded with their boat in case it was needed.

Other than a few bug bites and scratches, the women were fine, Grabinski said. He estimated they had traveled roughly 3 miles.

"In their words, they're never going tubing again," he said. "My words are know the river or take someone with you who knows it and have a plan."

-via American Digest