Well, once again we checked into kayaking the local rivers. The guy at the Moab visitor center was very helpful, gave us a map of the Colorado River just northeast of Moab, told us the river in this area was very flat and easy, except for "White Rapids" which he labeled on the map for us, placing it just upriver of Rocky Rapids. Apparently a man on a commercial rafting trip had died on White Rapids just last week.
So after we drove the river and scouted it from the road, Gary launched from just below Rocky Rapids (ie., which was supposed to be downriver from White Rapids, per the helpful illustration scrawled on the map by the visitor center person).
Unfortunately, it turns out White Rapids is actually just DOWN river from Rocky Rapids. So Gary very quickly came right up onto it. Coincidentally, this was the first turnout I pulled into, watching for Gary coming down the river; I spotted him in the distance just before he entered the white stuff. Then when I zoomed in (taking the picture below), it looked like Gary was no longer in the boat! (he wasn't)
Needless to say, I was a bit anxious at this point.
As the boat got closer, I could see through the zoom that Gary was clinging to the side!
Gary had hit the rapids like running into a 3-foot wall of water, dropping 4 feet on the other side; it turned the boat sideways, then held it in a trough just below a monstrous boulder; he could not break loose, the boat filled with water and flipped. He lost grip on the line, had to swim for the paddle, then could not get ahold of the boat as it was always slipping just out of his reach (said he felt like the squirrel in the Ice Age movies, with that nut always juuust out of reach...eeh eeh eeh). Now he doesn't think wearing the life vest is silly.
He was so exhausted when he finally got ahold of the boat, he did not have the strength to either get in, or swim to shore. I yelled down to him to head to the left since I knew rafters were lunching there on the shore, and he made his way towards the left shore; fortunately the rafters had seen his predicament, threw him a line and helped him to shore.
WOW, what is it that Gary's always saying.....you're not having fun if you're not bleeding? Well, he came out with just a bloody knee and a lost hat. Are we having fun yet?
Gary's rafting saviors (from Adrift, that's them in the bright blue boats) invited him to finish his journey along with them, so he did. Fortunately, the remainder was calm, easy, and uneventful down to Take-Out Beach. Gary thought it was fun, but I think I'll stick to lakes and nice quiet marinas.
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