Back to photos"We are going rafting this weekend, " Matthew announced one day, "on some class IV rapids!" OK, I thought, didn't we just do that recently? We just came back from a trip to Waterton/Glaicer park, where we did some rafting on the St. Mary River, among other things. That was fun, a little exciting, but mostly pretty relaxing. "But those were not class IV rapids..." mumbled Matthew. Well, I got to find out, first hand, exactly what that means...
We took our time travelling to the Merced River -- on our way we checked out Mercer Caverns, (and almost checked out a not well marked prison camp!), at night we camped at Mariposa. After a night sleeping under a very bright and starry sky (the most starry I've seen in California), we woke up (me by a super loud bird chirping in the tree above our tent, oblivious to my hissing and shaking of the branches), had breakfast, packed up tent, and were ready for some rafting.
At first glance, we could tell the Merced River was cold -- it just had that look: clear, swift, and brisk. We drove along it for a bit, and sure enough the rapids looked a lot whiter and bigger than the ones we saw on the St. Mary, and unlike the St. Mary, there were not many calm parts between the rapids. Still I was not overly concerned -- we were going out with a non-profit group that specializes in taking inner city kids on rafting trips, and that does not sound like a terribly high risk venture to me.
We met up with our captains and the rest of the crew, and all thirteen (is that supposed to be an ominous number?) of us got ready to raft: the rafts were inflated, the rafters suited up in wetsuits, helmets and life jackets. For some, to wear or not to wear a wetsuit was a dilema -- the air was as hot as in an oven, but the water was freezing cold. But I know I always get cold so I put on my full body wetsuit without too much mental debate.
After much preparation, everyone sat down for a slightly sobering prep talk, and we were taught the paddling stroke, what to do when we fall out of the river (get in the "swimmer's position"!), etc. When we learnt that the chance of falling into the river is 50% (is that real stat. info?), some of us started to look a bit uneasy, while others were more concerned about arrangements for lunch. Finally we were all set up in the two rafts. Our team consisted of Anna, Jon, Matthew, I, and Anna's coworkers Jeremy and Sunny. Jeremy was the guide, and Sunny had never been on a raft before. Anna and I sat up in the front, which Jeremy promised to be the safest spot on the raft -- you get splashed a lot, but won't fall out.
While our team sat loitering and joked around and thought about lunch and stuff, the other team was having a pretty serious paddling drill under the leadership of their guide, Dalton. They practised paddling forward, backward, left turn right turn while tied up to the shore, until Dalton was satisfied. And off we went floating down the river!
We floated/paddled down some class II-III rapids, which were fun and harmless -- we were bounced about in the waves just to get sprayed but never felt in danger of tipping or anything. There was some waving at tourists gawking on the shore and many smiling pictures were taken by our official photographer, Martin. Everyone was feeling pretty good about himself. Then Jeremy announced that we were coming up to our first class IV rapid: nightmarish Island! Ahead, big rocks loomed, and the water looked whiter than ever.
The other team zoomed through the rocks, amid the booming cries of Dalton "FORWARD!!" Somehow, our raft went straight toward one rock barely covered by the water, and there, we were stuck. Then the raft was spun around, and we went down the rapids backwards. And things quickly turned from bad to worse from here.
Anna and I were no longer in the "safe" spot as the front of the raft had become the rear (where people are most likely to fall out). My first reaction was to duck down and find something to hold on to, which I did for a second. But then I thought I should try to paddle -- Jeremy must be giving out some command but his voice was drowned by the now thundering sounds of the rapid. As I scrambled to position myself with my paddle a big wave hit me directly (as Matthew told me later, since I did not see anything), and I "disappeared", or according to another witness, Jon, I "flew off" the raft. Meanwhile Matthew saw Anna "dragged into the water" by that same wave.
As for me, I was dumb and clueless as to how I got into the water, and images and thoughts crossed my mind in flashes: "How did I get to be in the water so easily? Did the raft flip?" I was half disbelieving, and half feeling embarrassed. I did not see the wave that lifted me off the raft like a leaf blown off a tree, and did not felt the coldness of the water as I slid in the river. Something knocked my head lightly -- I must be under the raft, what did they say we do if that happens? Then my head came out of the water, and I caught a glimps of another helmet in the water, quite a bit downstream from me -- was it Anna? or someone else? I was a little relieved that I was not the only one who felt off. Then from the corner of my eyes I saw the raft just to my right. I should grab it! But no sooner did that thought came I was pushed away, and in a flash the raft was nowhere in sight. (You just shot away, said Matthew.) And what more can I do but to stay calm, and put myself in the "swimmer's position" and let go with the waves, hoping for the best.
The "swimmer's position" was easy enough to obtain, as it was only natural to look where I was going. But I soon realized that my visibility was limited -- all I could see was white water around me, and the waves that were coming toward me. When boom the waves hit, well, my head was buried under it and I could not even breath, let alone see anything. I held my breath, and hoped that when I come up I would still be pointing downstream... I came up, attempted to take a breath... oops, another set of waves washed over me, and that breath turned into a mouthful of water, and I went under again... This process continued until I began to get annoyed -- "I had enough water! Better let me breath next time!". Thankfully, I came out of the rapids just when I swallowed enough water and had not went out of breath. In front of me, was a bit of calm water, in which lay waiting the other raft, not far behind them was another set of rapids. The people in the raft seemed to be beckening at me, were they yelling "Swim!"? I felt slightly dazed but managed to flip myself into a swimming position (instead of the "swimmer's" position) and made a general attempt at swimming towards the raft, still clutching my paddle. In not time I was by the raft, and was plucked out of the water. I was saved!
I flopped myself into the middle of the raft, and basked in the comfort and the luxory of breathing. "Are you OK?" asked my saviors. I announced that aside from being no longer thirsty, I was feeling generally fine. But where's Anna, or whoever it was whose helmet I saw downstream from me? How come he/she was not on the raft? This question was answered shortly by commotion behind us: first came a "swimmer", then the raft, with Jon sitting in the front now.
Alas, it was Anna in the water, and she was not successfully rescued yet when we went into the next set of rapids, which looked even nastier than the first set -- how did this happen? I thought she was way ahead of me. I was confused but my thoughts were soon occupied by the rapids that we were in now -- I don't know if it's just my newly tested nerves, or it actually looked scarier from the raft than in the water, since you do get a more "panoramic view" from out of the water. But even cowering in the middle of the raft I was feeling a bit scared, especially when the raft appeared to be heading straight toward a big rock. Meanwhile Dalton was running a tight ship, yelling out urgent commands, and the crew were paddling hard as one -- somehow this crew just seemed more serious than ours. I was enormously thankful to be going through this in the raft, rather than tumbling by myself, like Anna was, and I couldn't help feeling concerned for her.
We passed the rapids whole! Then waited around in an eddy for the rest of our people -- first came Anna, just a little red dot tumbling in all that white froth, than the raft bounced by, catching up to her, they all passed us in a flash and went out of sight. "Get into position and get your swimmer!" Dalton yelled after them. He then shook his head, "She swam two rapids, that's not good. " From my little experience in the rapid, I fully agree with him. But why do they refer to us as "swimmers"? I found that a bit peculiar -- when I was in the water, I was definitely not swimming, but just getting sloshed around by the waves.
Finally, we saw Anna getting picked up in the distance. After another set of rapids, I was reunited with my team, and we paddled downstream just a bit to our lunch spot.
At lunch, there was exciting recount of our experiences. Sunny appeared rather shaky and expressed relief that he did not fall in, but Jon claimed that he was jealous of Anna! "Next class IV rapids, Matthew and I are jumping in. We will not be outdone by our wives!" Anna was sporting a limp -- she had been bounced around quite a few rocks, but otherwise OK. I realized how lucky I was, and felt somewhat more apprehensive of the journey ahead -- we had rafted 2 miles out of an 8 mile journey.
So after lunch we continued down the river, through more rapids (including a few more class IVs). Aah, the thrills and excitement! And, the nerve-wrecking moments! To be honest, I was quite scared that I had used up my luck for the day after hearing Anna's story. I absolutely did not want to fall out of the raft again! At each seemingly dangerous turn, if we were not paddling, my hand would automatically seek the reassurance of the strap tied onto the middle of the raft, which made three of us -- Anna and Sunny also had the same bright idea. Anna obviously did not want to swim another rapid, and Sunny was certainly in no mood to try his first time either. At one point, a relatively smooth moving part of the river, Jeremy let Jon took the skipper position, and our raft started to wander in a semi random fashion down the river, spinning slowly, the three of us constantly had our hands on the strap. A collective sigh of relief could almost be heard when Jeremy was steering again.
After a while another stream joined the river and the wave got even bigger! There was one section of the river when we bounced from one huge wave to another, roller-coaster fashion. Despite my fear, I rather enjoyed this! In fact, as long as I was facing downstream, I felt Ok. But as soon as the raft started to turn it would recall the circumstances of our last "falling out" and I would be scared. In those moments, I understood what it means to "stare fear in the face" in a sense. But we bounced through all those waves, splashed all over, and made it without losing another crew again. Little by little I beccame more relaxed.
For the last stretch of the river, Matthew took over the steering and we cruised down to our destination beach with no incident. Seeing his chance of falling into the rapids disappearing, Jon jumped into the water and swam the last few yards... We admired Anna's big bruise, which was quickly turning from red to purple to blue... There was packing, hitch-hiking, and loading to be done, then we were on our long drive home, talking all the way about the events (actually THE event) of the day...
Anyway, I finally found the definition for a class IV rapid: