Remember
I told you that it's pretty hard to flip a raft? Well, it is as
long as you are trying not to. About the next to last day, I was
in the paddle raft along with Dorothy, Ajax, JJ, Mike and Angie and Tom
(one of the guides nicknamed Hydro for his early river running
exploits). Well, I told Tom that he couldn't get Angie and I out
of the boat. He asked if we wanted to surf. The first spot
was a hole known as Little Bastard. We slide in backwards,
paddling furiously up river and we were surfing for the fraction of a
second it took the river to twist the boat and flip me out. I think
some others went out as well. We all scrambled back in the boat
and when another chance came to surf Tom asked if we were up for
it. I was. So we set up again this time approaching from
below. Again we are paddling like mad and the get in there surf
for oh at least a microsecond more than the first time and the river
twists the raft and in we go. We all get scooped back into the
raft and work back into the eddy. Everyone is ok and Tom wants to
know if we want to try again. I'm game. We work up the eddy
and in we go paddling hard. But the river is ready to paddle us
harder. The boat twists and out I go again. Dorothy goes out
too and pops a finger joint but it doesn't seem to phase her - I think
she's enjoying the experience. Angie is moving toward the center
of the raft and so is Mike's butt. They meet and aren't too tender
with each other. We climb back aboard and do damage assessment as
listed above. No more surfing today. Ah but it was worth it
if you ask me. On shore for the evening Angie ices off her face
with cold river water. But don't worry she's still beautiful.
Well,
the next day we float down to the take out at Diamond Creek. The
end of a summer's journey. Now sometimes people ask me "how
was your summer?". Here's the answer in brief. I am
working on the journals we kept and there is some possibility of
publishing them as a book.
I'd like
to thank my brother Tom and his fiancée for picking up our truck at the
put in in Wyoming, for being patient with our ever changing launch date
and for allowing us to reset at their house in Idaho.
