Eat Rocks and Bleed - Part 2

This is the second part of a post originally written for LiveJournal in 2005.

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With a food coma threatening, we jumped in our boats and started downriver. A couple of times we jumped into the water and drifted down the slower parts holding onto the raft while we passed giant granite boulders, sweeping trees, amazing vistas in every direction.

We stopped at Jumping Rock, taking turns leaping off the 15 foot ledge. We looked back at our first spill and wondered out loud if Justin tipped us on purpose to get rid of our cockiness and help Chad and I relax and alleviate our fears.  We were calm, laughing, enjoying ourselves.

The slow pace of the river started to pick up and we knew we were heading towards the series of four Class 4’s that would end the trip. The first one was beautiful. Eight-foot drops, spins, waves breaking over us. It was amazing!! We got to the second one and took it like pros. Paddling when Justin told us to, stopping when he said. Riding that sucker like veteran bronc busters.

Then we got to “Eat Rocks and Bleed”. We started our run last, behind the other rafts. As we went down the first part, a helicopter appeared over the trees, swooping down the river. We looked up and, distracted, didn’t paddle when Justin told us to paddle. Suddenly, he flew by me yelling, “HIGH SIDE!!” We scrambled to the high side of the boat, resting against a rock. But we weren’t fast enough. In less than a second we were tossed out.

I went under. I fought my way to the surface, but kept hitting the raft with the top of my head. Realizing I was trapped under it, I reached out and grabbed one of the tubes and pushed it away, fighting to the surface, disoriented and gasping for breath. This was nothing like our first spill. White water swirled around me. Boulders the size of SUVs loomed. The water tore at my shoes until they hung off my feet by their ankle straps. I gripped the raft with both hands.

Justin yelled from his perch on the upside down raft, “Let go!”

He pushed at my fingers clinging to the raft. Realizing that I’d get smashed between the raft and rocks, I opened my hands, throwing myself into the swirling madness of the river. It was the loneliest feeling in the world to let go and put your life into the capricious hands of the River Gods.

Justin yelled to put my feet up, that the water was shallow. I forced my feet ahead of me and looked forward to see a boulder rushing at me, water barely skimming the surface. I slammed into it, my legs buckling, my butt hitting hard.

It hurt so bad I couldn’t think. And then there was another rock. SLAM! I concentrated on making myself as flat as possible. SLAM! At this point I couldn’t even think about Chad, about Danielle, about Adam. All I could think of was getting past the next boulder. SLAM! And then I saw a paddle to my left.

With a burst of energy I reached out and grabbed it for all I was worth. The same guy from before pulled me into his raft, laughing that we have to stop meeting like this. I looked at him, said something inane like, “oh, you again” and crumpled to the bottom of the raft shaking and coughing up water. I looked feverishly over the side for Chad, finally finding him in another boat. Danielle was gasping for air, paler than a sheet, asking where Adam was. We found him in yet another raft. There wasn’t any whooping this time. One of the guides, much in the same way a parent comforts a child who has fallen down, kept telling us we were all right, to shake it off.

We got back in our raft, exhausted after almost eight hours of paddling and our frantic sweep down the river. I was done. Completely and totally done. But like jumping out of a plane, once you start, there's no going back. I didn’t want to fall in again, but we still had one more Class 4 before we were done.

The Pinball.

I approached every stretch of white water with trepidation.

“Is that the Pinball?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Is THAT the Pinball?”

“No. Look. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. We’ll take the conservative route. You guys have done great. We took all the hardest lines and you nailed most of them. We’ll take this one easy. Now, I have to tell you. There’s a guide launch at the beginning. If I fall in, you need to put out your paddle as quickly as possible and get me back in the raft.”

Because that's what I want to hear.

We hit guide launch. Justin was catapulted five feet in the air, landing between Danielle and me. He quickly scrambled to the back and started yelling the strokes. Then, in an eerie re-cap of Eat Rocks and Bleed, we went up the side of a rock.

“HIGH SIDE!!” We leaped to the high side. I gripped the rock, my knuckles white. I made the decision right then and there that I was not going to let go of that rock. I was not going back in the water. We were able to right the raft and went careening down the rapids. We crashed into low hanging trees, flattening ourselves to the bottom of the raft, losing two paddles. Chad and Adam grabbed our paddles and started paddling for all they were worth. We came out of it to a slow portion of the river and then, it was over. We saw the bus up ahead.

I've never been so happy to see a smelly, diesel bus in my life.