Saturday Sept 5 Rafting day-3

Today we entered probably the most dangerous rapid on the river…this one has eaten several rafts and claimed a few lives. The day went well until we beached the rafts to scout the Blossom Bar before running it. A fellow river traveler’s raft was wrapped around “the picket fence”, one of the boulders, directly in the path we had to follow. All we could do was watch as their crew worked from shore and mid stream to free the raft and stranded rafters. Finally the raft was freed but three rafters were still stranded on the rocks in the river.

Now, with the path clear Jeni and five of us started thru the channel. Jeni nailed the maneuver and we slid perfectly into the eddy and started our next maneuver…as we rounded the point and neared the stranded rafters one of them dove into the front of our raft…totally to our surprise! Down river a short distance we deposited him onshore and pulled up to await our other two rafts. Our second raft safely managed the rapids with only minor problems. From our downriver location we could barely see our third raft (hauling equipment & food) as it entered the channel…it wasn’t long until we realized the raft was in serious trouble. It was wrapped and on it side…a dangerous situation for the oarsman, his single female passenger and all our clothing and supplies were in peril as well. We could see Billy, the oarsman, but not Kerri his passenger.


The crew immediately sprang into action…Al, the crew leader, called all available manpower to the scene…I took the oars of the smaller raft with fellow guest, Darrell, and with Rob & Janda in duckies, we headed downstream to an eddy to retrieve equipment as it was released from the upturned raft. Rob & Janda in the duckies and Darrel and I in the paddle boat began our retrieval of floating equipment and supplies. Rob and Janda would corral the items, I would paddle out of the eddy into the current and Darrell would pull the items into our raft…then back into the eddy and unload them on the river bank. We repeated this action several times until all was retrieved.

Billy did everything possible to save the raft…Kerri, held on to a rescue line until she let go and floated down the shute to an eddy and climbed ashore…shaken and bruised but safe. Billy stayed with his raft like a true river man and with help from his fellow crewmen and women ashore worked to retrieve his raft from “the jaws of hell”…

After regrouping in the rescue eddy, equipment was reloaded, everyone calmed down a bit and we headed downstream for camp. Having lost most of the kitchen, dinner was a challenge, but no one complained or even mentioned we had missed lunch…all were happy that everyone was safe and we were on our way again.