I think the rafting trip started a lot earlier for me than everyone else.  The night before the trip we all gathered at Jeff's to "plan" our trip.  Naturally this ended up with us spending more time researching how to make paper pirate hats on the internet (you really can find anything on the internet) than we did actually planning useful stuff, like how best to not die.  Well, being the constant worrier that I am, I decided to err on the side of safety and stay up until about 3 in the morning making a full line of water proof pirate attire using common household items.  Using only newspaper, a full roll of packing tape, tinfoil, an Electrasol box, and some string I fashioned myself a hat, done in the timeless "two points" style with a jolly roger on the front to distinguish my pirate status.  I also constructed a fairly intimidating cutlass, using the tinfoil and Electrasol box, as well as an eye patch.  I felt that depth perception really wouldn't be necessary on this trip, which was to be a relaxing day of floating majestically down the river from Turner Valley to Okotoks, drinking beer and eating candy along the way.

            I'm sure the Jewish Jewel will have covered the portion of the trip from when I finished my pirate gear to when we got underway. 

            We're about 20 minutes into the trip and things are going pretty smoothly.  It's a bit faster than we anticipated and we've had to paddle hard to avoid some deadfall, but we're pretty sure we've got the situation well in hand.  Then things got a bit trickier.  We came around a left hand corner and saw some deadfall jutting out from the right hand bank.  The deadfall artificially caused a narrows in the river, making it flow much quicker through here.  Seeing the deadfall we all panicked and started paddling as hard as we could, so basically Steve, Amit, and I gave it everything we had and Kadler flailed around in the back, or "stern" of the vessel.  We managed to narrowly avoid the first deadfall but as we came flying around the corner we found out there was another uprooted tree just around the next bend.  In the split second we had to react we decided that the path on the left was too narrow and treacherous so we should try and cut back to the right.  As it turn out this was a bad idea.  Because the deadfall was right in the middle of the river the current was going straight towards it.  Despite our best efforts we were sucked right into the roots, and it looked as though they were coming to break us off. 

            We slammed straight sideways into a pile of dirt and roots that protruded about 5 feet up out of the water.  As we hurtled towards it I had visions of us getting swept under the branches and roots, which probably wouldn't have gone too well.  What actually happened was that at first the raft just stayed pinned against the deadfall.  It was right about here that I thought things were going to be fine, although I had no idea how we were going to free the raft, what with it being pinned by the current.  I was looking around taking stock of the situation when I heard Steve shout behind me, "We're swamping!!!"  I turned around and saw the mighty Sheep River pouring in over the starboard gunwales.  Before I knew what was happening the raft was flattened sideways against the roots.  Now I really had no idea how we were going to free the raft.  I think I saw Amit get swept away along with most of our bags, which I had meant to tie down, but hadn't quite gotten around to it yet.  I decided that it would probably be for the best if I got out of the water so I started climbing up onto the top of the deadfall.  Just as I got over the top I saw Steve float around the bend, followed by Jeff on the raft.  I realized that everyone had been swept away along with my only means of getting home, so I might as well get back in the water and try to catch up.

             I climbed down the other side of the deadfall and gently lowered myself into the river.  Luckily I only had to swim a short way before I reached a sandbar in the middle of the river.  I climbed out of the water and met up with Steve who had managed to climb out at about the same spot, conveniently with his backpack in hand.  We then waded across the rest of the river to the bank and hiked through some scrub and bushes down to where Jeff and Amit had managed to stop the raft, with some difficulty as I hear. Overview.

-Sean