Virginia Labelle, her daughter and granddaughter were having an excellent paddle one minute and the next they were in the water at the lower end of Miles Canyon.

Labelle recalled this morning how the trip from just below the locks at Lewes River Bridge was going great on Sunday.

Her eight-year-old granddaughter, Laura Dornian, had even taken a turn paddling up front in the bow.

They’d seen a mountain goat hanging out on the bluff overlooking the river.

They were most of the way through the canyon, past the Miles Canyon Bridge and not far from the mouth of Schwatka Lake.

Labelle said she was paddling in the bow and her daughter, Helen Booth, was in the stern.

There was nothing untoward about the water up ahead. They were in the middle of the canyon.

But the next thing they knew, they were in the water, Labelle told the Star.

She said they were all wearing lifejackets, and had discussed before launching what to do if they did capsize.

Ken Putnam of Captain Ken’s Adventures, was heading back up Miles Canyon for a second time with three clients on board his boat and a kayak.

At first, he couldn’t make out what was in the water. He quickly recognized it was an overturned canoe with three hanging on.

Putnam told the Star this morning that after being assured by the two women that they were OK, they took the girl to the Schwatka day use area and left her there with one of his clients, a dry bag full of fleece clothes and a sleeping bag to wrap the girl in.

It wasn’t more than five minutes later that they got the two women into the boat and towed their canoe back to the day use area.

“Thanks for Captain Ken being there with the boat,” Labelle said, noting they were starting to get pretty cold.

She said both her and her daughter are experienced paddlers and later discussed what could have happened, as one second everything was fine and the next they were in the drink.

They suspect they were overturned by an unforeseen current or back eddy.

Labelle said they asked at Up North Adventures about what might have happened.

They were told that when the water is running high and fast, the canyon can present some gnarly water without much warning.

Putnam then carried on with his clients, a Swiss father-and-son team and a professional photographer hired to get shots of the son, Jean, paddling his kayak through the canyon.

The photographer stationed high on shore overlooking the canyon.

Following the first run after the rescue, they wanted to do a second shoot run of Jean paddling through the canyon.

Putnam said he got the call from the photographer that Jean had flipped his kayak in the canyon.

Jean was rescued by Putnam, and they called it a day.