I'll spare you the details of the trip for now and just focus on "the incident" which involved our raft getting capsized. As we drifted briskly downstream we came around a bend and to our surprise, the river was covered in deadfall. Not only that, but the speed of the current really picked up and forced us towards a large bush/tree plant. We hastily tried to paddle around the beast and despite our frantic efforts, we were unable to avoid a collision. Contact. We were pressed up sideways against the plant and all sat very still, shocked that we were still afloat. Our good fortune was short lived. With Steve and I sitting in the middle of the raft on either side, the weight unbalance was too much. Steve's side began to take on water and with a final cry of, "We're being swamped!", Steve was thrown from the raft and was at the mercy of the rapid current of the river. I remember Sean climbing up the plant, Jeff sitting there motionless and then about two seconds later, I was thrown from the raft as well.
As it turns out, Steve was able to fall to the left side of the plant which poured out into the main river. This meant that he was able to drift for a while until he could find his footing and stand up. Being less fortunate, I was tossed to the right side and ended up with a bit of a rough situation. Weighing a massive hundred and twenty pounds, I was chucked from the raft with considerable force. Struggling to keep my head above water and hold on to the oar at the same time, I had my work cut out for me. With the current on the right side being forced through a narrow gap between the edge of the river and the plant, it was considerably stronger than the rest of the river which also influenced the difficulty of the situation.
Directly after being hurled into the water and struggling to get my head out of it, I found myself pressed up against the edge of the river with the oar pressed up against my chest from the front, and the accumulating force of the water behind me. After struggling for a few moments while being unable to breathe, I decided that the deposit on the oar could be forfeited and that my life was slightly more important than the $50.00 or so. I finally managed to break free, sans oar, and was once again at the mercy of the current. Seconds after my first breath of oxygen in what seemed like 5 minutes, I was unable to breathe a sigh of relief but was relieved nonetheless. Little did I know that the ordeal was not yet over.
Hurtling directly towards me in the raft, Jeff yelled, "Grab on!" Much to my alarm. I managed to move my head out of the way, narrowly avoiding another submersive episode and grabbed on to one of the ropes, still gasping for air. As soon as I climbed on board, Jeff frantically asked me, "How do you stop this thing?" which I managed to laugh at despite the situation. We then both hopped off the raft and struggled to pull it to shore as our precious supply of beer cans drifted by us. I was amazed at Jeff's restraint when he only attempted to catch only the ones close to him as opposed to hopping on the raft and chasing after them all. Due to my whopping weight, I too was being pulled downstream and was forced to hold onto the raft just to keep from getting swept away. Jeff basically pulled me with the raft. A later incident was further proof of this drifting tendency as Steve reached out his hand and grabbed me as I was helplessly floating away, most likely saving me from being drowned in the process.
Anyway, once we had reunited with Sean and Steve, we took a quick assessment of the damage. It turns out that I was the only one who lost his oar, a shame I will never live down. It was at this reunion that we decided to take some pictures of us all to remember what had happened. Steve and Jeff displayed their potential for the San Diego Chargers by failing to hand-off the camera to each other three consecutive times, resulting in it being smashed on a rock that was in between the two and ruining all our subsequent pictures. We actually had some pretty good pictures on the roll too which was a pity. After this incident the rest of the trip was spent reclaiming lost equipment, including backpacks and pirate swords, from various points in the river. Surprisingly enough, we managed to find just about everything we lost including my oar so we didn't even need to forfeit the deposit. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty solid trip and the danger aspect was shitty at the time, but it definitely made the trip more interesting. We also learned a valuable lesson in preparation, in knowing the route and being wary of the conditions. We chose not to apply these lessons though in Sheep River II, but that's another story for another time.
-Amit
