The riverbed...
I postponed writing this entry until things were a little less of a whirlwind around here. I am back home and doing well though. The rest of my rafting trip was amazing and very beautiful
but also incredibly frightening.
The second river that we ran while I was out there was the Ocoee - upper and middle sections. part of this course was made for the Olympics and presented some pretty tough rapids. We were approaching a section of the river that had 2 of the largest 'holes' in the course. A section of water that creates a hydraulic effect because of water rushing back in to fill the sudden drop / loss of water as I understand it.. almost like a washing machine as I learned first hand..
To get the raft across and away from something like this you need to have momentum going in and keep moving through it or the hydraulic will pull your raft back in. We made it through the first hole ' Godzilla ' and as we were coming up on the very next one ' Humongous ' we saw that there was another raft in front of us stuck in it. There was no time to correct course really and we ended up slamming into them. I believe they were bumped out, but we were stuck right in the middle of this rapid and in the hydraulic.. the guide told us to get down into the floor of the raft, which promptly began to tilt up in the air with Jimmy and I on the low / water side.. there was no way to hold on or stay in the raft as the water rushed over our side and we both got dumped in.
Let me just say, it feels exactly like what I would envision a washing machine to be like.. I hit the river with some water in my mouth and the start of my airway almost immediately and could think of nothing except getting back up to the surface.. I fought through what felt like 2 cycles in that hydraulic to try and get above water but it just wasn't happening. you can get close to the surface where there is foam and spray all around you but it's not high enough to take a breath. I remembered some of the video that they showed us that said to keep your feet up and let the river take you and I grabbed onto the front of my life vest to see what would happen... and I did feel the water carrying me up towards the surface.. and pushing me right into the bottom of our raft with Dave, Janet and our guide James still inside.
Real panic set in when this happened.. all I could think of was getting trapped under this raft and drowning while I was in here... I pushed on the bottom of the raft and tried to move around the side of it. I was difficult because I could feel myself and the raft being moved by the water.. and I had no idea if I was even going in the right direction towards the side or the long way of the raft. Eventually I shot my had up and could feel air around my hand and wrist and James grabbed my hand and pulled to get my hand on the rope that is along the side of the raft and then the rest of the way in.
All I could do at the time was cough out water.. everyone kept asking me if I was ok and at the time I felt like I couldn't breathe so I kept shaking my head no.. I huddled in the middle of the raft for awhile while James guided it to the bank and realized that Jimmy wasn't in the raft and asked where he was when I could talk... no one gave me an answer at first.. and there was a look of fear in Dave's eyes ...more panic seeped into my head before James declared that someone threw him a rope and recovered him.
When I was first pulled out.. I was certain beyond measure that there was no way I was going to finish this river.. we had gone about 5 miles and there was another 5 to go, and there was just no way I was going to get back in the front of that raft. I saw Jimmy walking with our guide along the bank.. he looked pretty shaken up as I am sure I did. Somehow he managed to still have a paddle in his hand...
I was shaking but I stood up and got into the front of the raft.. I'm not even sure what willed me to do it.. I just felt like I couldn't give up and go home scared and coughing halfway done...
The rest of the trip went really well. there were parts of the river calm enough to swim in.. the area was just fiercely beautiful.. it was like being in a basin of pure green forest. We managed not to
tip over again and it was comforting to have James tell us that there really was nothing we could have done differently to prevent us from going over when we did.
It certainly was the 'full' experience ^__^ and I am really glad I got to do something like this.
Thanks to Dave, Jimmy, Janet, and James for everything, it was an amazing time.
Jimmy's account here
but also incredibly frightening.
The second river that we ran while I was out there was the Ocoee - upper and middle sections. part of this course was made for the Olympics and presented some pretty tough rapids. We were approaching a section of the river that had 2 of the largest 'holes' in the course. A section of water that creates a hydraulic effect because of water rushing back in to fill the sudden drop / loss of water as I understand it.. almost like a washing machine as I learned first hand..
To get the raft across and away from something like this you need to have momentum going in and keep moving through it or the hydraulic will pull your raft back in. We made it through the first hole ' Godzilla ' and as we were coming up on the very next one ' Humongous ' we saw that there was another raft in front of us stuck in it. There was no time to correct course really and we ended up slamming into them. I believe they were bumped out, but we were stuck right in the middle of this rapid and in the hydraulic.. the guide told us to get down into the floor of the raft, which promptly began to tilt up in the air with Jimmy and I on the low / water side.. there was no way to hold on or stay in the raft as the water rushed over our side and we both got dumped in.
Let me just say, it feels exactly like what I would envision a washing machine to be like.. I hit the river with some water in my mouth and the start of my airway almost immediately and could think of nothing except getting back up to the surface.. I fought through what felt like 2 cycles in that hydraulic to try and get above water but it just wasn't happening. you can get close to the surface where there is foam and spray all around you but it's not high enough to take a breath. I remembered some of the video that they showed us that said to keep your feet up and let the river take you and I grabbed onto the front of my life vest to see what would happen... and I did feel the water carrying me up towards the surface.. and pushing me right into the bottom of our raft with Dave, Janet and our guide James still inside.
Real panic set in when this happened.. all I could think of was getting trapped under this raft and drowning while I was in here... I pushed on the bottom of the raft and tried to move around the side of it. I was difficult because I could feel myself and the raft being moved by the water.. and I had no idea if I was even going in the right direction towards the side or the long way of the raft. Eventually I shot my had up and could feel air around my hand and wrist and James grabbed my hand and pulled to get my hand on the rope that is along the side of the raft and then the rest of the way in.
All I could do at the time was cough out water.. everyone kept asking me if I was ok and at the time I felt like I couldn't breathe so I kept shaking my head no.. I huddled in the middle of the raft for awhile while James guided it to the bank and realized that Jimmy wasn't in the raft and asked where he was when I could talk... no one gave me an answer at first.. and there was a look of fear in Dave's eyes ...more panic seeped into my head before James declared that someone threw him a rope and recovered him.
When I was first pulled out.. I was certain beyond measure that there was no way I was going to finish this river.. we had gone about 5 miles and there was another 5 to go, and there was just no way I was going to get back in the front of that raft. I saw Jimmy walking with our guide along the bank.. he looked pretty shaken up as I am sure I did. Somehow he managed to still have a paddle in his hand...
I was shaking but I stood up and got into the front of the raft.. I'm not even sure what willed me to do it.. I just felt like I couldn't give up and go home scared and coughing halfway done...
The rest of the trip went really well. there were parts of the river calm enough to swim in.. the area was just fiercely beautiful.. it was like being in a basin of pure green forest. We managed not to
tip over again and it was comforting to have James tell us that there really was nothing we could have done differently to prevent us from going over when we did.
It certainly was the 'full' experience ^__^ and I am really glad I got to do something like this.
Thanks to Dave, Jimmy, Janet, and James for everything, it was an amazing time.
Jimmy's account here