We were greeted by cooler than normal temperatures and sunny skies.

After strapping gear to the rafts as best we could, we pushed off at about 9:30 am.

Before noon we arrived at House Rock, the first large rapid we have encountered. As we scouted it from the right shore, I felt an uncomfortable but familiar feeling I call “river mortis”. A series of waves-each larger than the one before-leads to a large hole in the center of the river near the bottom of the rapid.

Al and I went first in the kayaks; we were able to make our way just touching the right side of the big hole. The rafts came next and all did fine.

Since there were several smaller rapids following, I decided it was a good time for a rowing lesson and Peggy gave me her spot at the oars. I did reasonably well on the smaller riffles, but it was obvious I had a lot to learn in the bigger white water sections.

At the bottom of a rapid called Cave Springs, I was whooping because I thought we had made it. Suddenly the raft was hit by a wave from one side and a strong eddy on the other. It went sideways, then tipped to almost vertical.

With nothing to hold on to but the oars, I was tossed into the turbulent, swirly water. I had the sensation of being spun in circles while going deeper until my ears popped. I knew not to fight it and waited for my life jacket to bring me to the surface, which seemed like several minutes, but was probably more like twenty seconds.

When I finally popped up, I was completely out of breath. The next challenge was to get out of the cold water fast, because I was wearing nothing but the life jacket and a pair of pants, which were now down around my knees.

I got to the left shore and realized my hat, sunglasses and their restraint had all been torn off by the current. It was the first swim of the entire journey and the closest I have come to disaster on any river since a very bad experience over thirty years ago.

The mood during the rest of our time-covering a total of 17 for the day- was a lot more subdued. It didn’t help that another private group declined to let us stop at one of the classic hikes known as Silver Grotto.

We were relieved to find a good camp and quickly got situated, had dinner and retired early. No one talked about how bad things could have been, but at least for me, it was impossible not to think of it.