I went swimming. It wasn't a long one, but I went swimming.
We went up to Riggins the weekend after Memorial Day for another river adventure on Salmon River. Josh's sister, Adrianne, and our friend Marti came with us and we all vowed to try to plow through four cases of beer throughout the weekend, which ended up not being a problem, even with my ONE beer that I drank on Friday. We rocked Shorts Bar (campground) on Saturday night, more than you can ever imagine. We deserved it though.
Saturday morning we awoke and made our way up to Spring Bar to get the rafting day started. We scouted Lake Creek and Ruby along the way and determined the best route through the huge rapids. We put in a little while later with Josh rowing the blue boat with me on the back, and Marti rowing the yellow boat with Adrianne on the back. The water level was super high - I think it was around 48,000 cfs or something crazy like that, so you can only imagine how big the rapids were. We came up upon Ruby, and Josh managed to hit the sweet spot. We rowed through the biggest waves I've ever seen - I felt like I was on the ocean. (Marti and Adrianne missed the big waves but still had a good ride.) Josh and I celebrated our magnificent run through Ruby with a beer, and the grins on our faces didn't cease....until we turn the corner and saw Lake Creek, in all its glory. Holy shit. HUGE.
When we got closer, Josh questioned his line. I never knew exactly what the plan was. Josh went for the right run, in hopes that we would skirt the gigantic hole under the bridge. Every few seconds, explosions of water would erupt - like grenades hitting the water, right on our line. There was no backing down. I placed my half-drunk beer in the pocket of my life jacket, which has always been a safe spot for such drinks. For a second, it looked like we would make it on the right line, then one of those explosions happened right underneath our boat. One moment we were in the line and the next moment we were headed right for the biggest hole I've ever seen. It made Lochsa Falls look like nothing.
Josh gave two big pushes, and the boat went straight to the wave and then to a 45 degree angle. I knew where I needed to hi-side....straight to the oar stand. I made another Super Woman leap to the oar stand, and suddenly, I was under water. I was only under for a few seconds, but couldn't figure out how, when I had leapt toward the right oar stand, ended up on the left side of the boat when I came up. The boat made it over the wave and Josh began celebrating. Then, he looked around and noticed I was gone. Somehow, I managed to come up out of the water right next to the boat and my go-go-gadget arm held the side of the boat and the spare oar while Josh looked around for me. He grabbed the throw rope and looked again. Haha, I was right there the whole time. He pulled me into the boat. Adrenaline pumped through my veins so hard I probably could have run a marathon....or maybe a mile. The funniest thing to me is that when we reviewed the pictures taken by a lady on the side of the road, it turns out that I didn't fall off the right side of the boat at all. My only explanation is that one of those explosions happened next to me and a wave shoved me to the left side of the boat. I'm including my favorite pictures. You'll notice that it looks like I'm trying to bring Josh down with me. Neither of us remember that.
As for the beer can, it was squeezed together so tightly in the middle that it made a perfectly flat center. The ends, however, were still perfectly round. I wish I had a picture of that....these will have to suffice....
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