White
water rafting could be fun if all goes well I suppose. For me, my one and only trip did not!
This was back in 1992, and was down the Kennebec here in Maine. It was spring run off, so very fast water, and 18 years old and full-of-himself, I chose to sit up front.
We did okay until we got to the worst part of the rapids. The raft hit a rock and folded inward, called tacoing, so I fell inside. BUT as the raft went up over the rock, it pitched backwards over the other side. This was just when I went to sit back on the gunwhale. The momentum carried me right over the other side, and I flipped into the water.
But now I had caught my foot on the rope that encircles the rafts gunwhale. I was trapped UNDER the boat, bouncing off from rocks with a raft on top of me, and plenty of water around me, all the while my foot was caught. I thought I was going to drown.
The guide in our boat (Registered Maine Guide), took her knife and cut the rope so I could get free, but now I am floating down the worst part of the rapids in nothing but a life vest. I kept grabbing at rocks and
roots along the shoreline, but it was zipping by at 60 miles an hour. I would see a
root, try to grab it, and was already by it by fifty feet. Always a strong swimmer, I just started swimming hard for the boat, which IS NOT the right thing to do because of all the rocks you can bounce your head off from. I did not care, I wanted out of that river. When the guide finally grabbed me and pulled me in the boat, I was never shaking so hard in my life.
I do not see web feet and toes on me, so I am NEVER doing that again.
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