(Video also here) A bunch of nerds on South Fork American River for a company off-site, one with a digital camera. Charles and I fell out out of the raft at Satan’s Cesspool, a grade three rapid. Under the water I felt like I was in a giant washing machine, spinning around surrounded by bubbles. I kept waiting to bob to the surface but I couldn’t even tell which way was up. I managed to stay under for a whole eight seconds, which is really quite impressive given that I had a huge lifejacket on. It seemed like forever. When I did surface I was so panicked I couldn’t decide whether to swim for the shore or wait for a raft, or notice that my team mates were reaching out to me, trying to pull me onto their raft. Thanks everyone!
From Ye, on the raft that rescued me: This is awesome! You did pop-out pretty far from the place you went in. We heard you fall, and after a long log times saw an itty bitty paddle handle stick out of the water way further down, and you popped out right after. You must have fallen into a reversal, but was able to catch the wash-out rapid towards the bottom of the river, which carried you pretty far down stream of your boat… I thought you were shouting “where’s my paddle” when you were really saying “where should I go?” ;) Our guide commanded us to row forward to go get you but our whole crew were busy looking at you sloshing around and Charles being pulled back into his boat to really start rowing. Our guide had to shout out “guys! Row FORWARD! We need to go rescue that guy!”. That snapped us into action :) …I always wondered what it felt like going into one of those holes/reversals/spin cycles. :) Thanks for providing us with the extra excitement!
And Laura: The best part was hauling you aboard and hearing you say, “My camera was running the whole time!” Guess he’s OK then.
GPS Track (from Charles)
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