We got to the loading place for rafting and there was a wall of helmets. These would definitely come in use later (completely unbeknowest to me)...
Let me preface this next story with the assurance that I am completely ok. Seriously. Morgan and I were in a boat with a young couple from Indiana and our guide (who had rafted the river since he was little and professionally for the past 9 summers). They told us NUMEROUS times that the river was running really high so that the rapids were going to be intense. They gave us the rescue speech (which I had heard numerous times because I have rafted a lot). I knew what to do if anything happened. We got in the boat and set off. At first everything was awesome! We were laughing and having a great time. We were the smallest load boat (the other boats had over 7 people on them) so we were the lightest boat. This doesn't sound like a problem until you hit the rapids. Where the rapids got intense was where the river we were on hit the water coming off of the glacier. Then it got intense. It got class 5 intense. We took the first hit pretty well. The next rapid hit us back and caused my entire boat to flip out including our guide. We got back in pretty quickly because all of us popped back up right next to the boat. I was one of the first people hauled back into the boat (keep in mind we are still hitting rapids at this point) so I head up to the front of the boat to grab my paddle. Then we got DRILLED by a rapid known as "Clubber". I proceed to cartwheel out of the boat in the middle of class 5 rapids by myself. The boat continues on while I am ripped around by the rapids. I had no idea which way was up or where anyone was. I desperately tried to put my feet downstream and every time I thought that I was in the air I stuck my hand up in hopes that someone would grab it. I did not panic to where it affected me but I was freaking out in my mind. I flipped down almost the entire string of class 5 rapids for over 30 seconds before I was caught. Morgan was apparently freaking out in the boat but she was the one who grabbed onto my life jacket and yanked me in the boat. She watched my bright yellow helmet bob along through all of the rapids. Once I was in the boat, I threw up glacier silt river water everywhere and just tried to catch my breath because I couldn't breathe while I was in and under the water. We had to get through one more massive rapid before there was a spot that everyone could pull over. Our guide dragged us to the side of the river where all of the other boats had stopped in case they had to catch me as I came through. The guide was sitting indian style in the river next to me while I threw up and he just kept apologizing over and over again. After I was done throwing up, I said my first phrase. This phrase cannot be written because it involved some very bad words. However, that phrase let Morgan know that I was ok and it definitely eased the stress/tension that was in our boat. After a while, the guide asked if I was ok to continue and paddle to which I nodded. NOTHING GETS ME DOWN! He then told us that was the first time he had ever been out of his boat as a guide and that it was the hardest hit that he has ever taken. My story of flipping down Class 5 rapids now rates in his top 3 of crazy stories during rafting. I never cried afterwards and joked about it for the rest of the trip (I also kept stating that I wanted a drink)....apparently I handled that incident better than the majority of people. Our guide said that if anyone had to go for that "swim" that he was glad it was someone like me who has had experience. IT SUCKED though. I will probably not be going white water rafting for a long long long time.
I AM OK.
The pictures that are next are after I had taken my "swim" but still in some big rapids.....
I am the bright yellow helmet on the left.
No comments:
Post a Comment