Not a broken boat story, but my husband and his buddy hiked out of there because they had 007s and it was way too high and gnarlier than they thought it would be. Have you ever just got so tired of scouting and being discouraged by how huge and scary what you see is, that you just decide to start running blind because you know you HAVE to get down the river?  A storm was coming in, and they were at that point. One had to force the other one to get out and portage what he describes as a log infested Jacob's Ladder. The water was huge, there were dead animals and logs everywhere. They decided to climb a steep, loose scree canyon wall to portage. After they got a ways up it, they couldn't get back down. Violent wind gusts were whipping their boats around and with every step they slid and scrambled to not fall into the river. They saw the top of the canyon (they thought) and decided to just hike up and out. Dodging dead animal carcasses that were being picked apart by buzzards, and nearly losing their boats with every wind gust, they struggled up the loose scree slopes to THREE false horizons before getting to the top. Once at the top, they could see for miles and the severe storm was closing in. They also knew the put-in was notorious for being impossible to get out of when wet. Between them and the van were miles of potato fields, which wouldn't seem that bad, except you sink knee to thigh high with every step. And you are trespassing. As they trudged exhaustingly across the potato fields, it began to hail. They were wearing shorts and shortys and the temperature dropped 40 degrees.

When they eventually got out of there, they stopped at a truck stop, took hot showers and ate two meals and two desserts each. So funny! I laugh every time he tells this story. :)