No Shit There I Was
No shit there I was on the top of frog’s hole on big drop three of Cataract Canyon coming in sideways. Now if there is any place on the big drop three you don’t want to be in a 8 foot paddle boat is the top of frog’s hole, and no shit there I was. After scouting the hole from the top, looking at the river and knowing I could be anywhere on that section of rapids except in frog’s hole and after being told by our esteemed and super hot river guide that no matter what we did not want to end up in frog’s hole, there I was.
It started when leaving the eddy where we shored up to scout big drop three, it was the all forward command followed shortly by dig in, and then the hottie guide really started freaking out! Dig In! He screamed over and over again; panic welling in his voice with each DIG IN. All 7 of us in the boat were paddling for our lives and safety, literally. GIVE IT ALL YOU HAVE! He screamed and then it was too late, I was staring sideways down into the biggest hole I have ever seen, a Class V rapid and we were coming in hot. Fortunately 5 of us were experienced white water river rats and launched ourselves into the wave that descended crashing on top of us. The side of our raft was 5 degrees shy of vertical. I dove into the wave, which seems like a suicide thing to do but in reality it is the only way not to flip the boat and survive. Four of us threw everything we had into that wave, life and limb and the wave crashed us back into our seats.
If you survive frog’s hole (80% of the privates and 40% of the commercial single oar rigs have not) it then becomes the wildest ride of your life through a chain of erratic 15-footers into the Gut. Satan’s Gut, the huge pour-over in Big Drop three. After that it’s a mile or so more with five big rapids, and emphasis on big.
When we finally cleared the rapids we were celebrities. No one believed we were going to make it out without a call to life flight, but all 7 of us were intact in the boat and only some really interesting bruises, wrenched muscles and one hell of story to tell to show for our ride. To say the least it was one of the best moments of my life.
It started when leaving the eddy where we shored up to scout big drop three, it was the all forward command followed shortly by dig in, and then the hottie guide really started freaking out! Dig In! He screamed over and over again; panic welling in his voice with each DIG IN. All 7 of us in the boat were paddling for our lives and safety, literally. GIVE IT ALL YOU HAVE! He screamed and then it was too late, I was staring sideways down into the biggest hole I have ever seen, a Class V rapid and we were coming in hot. Fortunately 5 of us were experienced white water river rats and launched ourselves into the wave that descended crashing on top of us. The side of our raft was 5 degrees shy of vertical. I dove into the wave, which seems like a suicide thing to do but in reality it is the only way not to flip the boat and survive. Four of us threw everything we had into that wave, life and limb and the wave crashed us back into our seats.
If you survive frog’s hole (80% of the privates and 40% of the commercial single oar rigs have not) it then becomes the wildest ride of your life through a chain of erratic 15-footers into the Gut. Satan’s Gut, the huge pour-over in Big Drop three. After that it’s a mile or so more with five big rapids, and emphasis on big.
When we finally cleared the rapids we were celebrities. No one believed we were going to make it out without a call to life flight, but all 7 of us were intact in the boat and only some really interesting bruises, wrenched muscles and one hell of story to tell to show for our ride. To say the least it was one of the best moments of my life.
posted by Spin_Doc1 at
7:21 AM
3 Comments:
OH my goodness, my hat is off to your skill and bravery but I am glad I was sitting in an inner tube floating on a relatively peaceful river and drinking beer rather than with you on that raft!
Glad you made it out!
By
i used to be me, at 8:51 AM
AWESOME!!!!!
What a rush it must've been!
I'd have had a stroke and died.
By
chesneygirl, at 10:08 PM
Genius,
There was days of doing just that too, but some of those stories I can't share on this blog.
Chesney Girl,
It so totally was!!!! I loved it!
PS Meadow is fine
By
Spin_Doc1, at 7:45 AM
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