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| A tranquil raft outing #1 - Gallatin River |
What began as a relaxing weekend fishing the Gallatin and Yellowstone Rivers from a new (to me) cataraft turned ominous Sunday when I tried to navigate Yankee Jim Canyon in it. Definitely a poor decision, but rumor had it the water was even from the rate of flow through the canyon.
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| A nice bow from the Gallatin |
The water picked up in flow overnight from Saturday to Sunday, and while the first two rapids were scary, I was able to manage them (lost an oar in the first, but it was recovered). The third rapid, Boxcar Rapids, nearly made me turn my turquoise swim trunks brown.
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| Entering Yankee Jim |
As I entered the rapid, the first wave completely engulfed the raft and myself. While underwater, the undertow flipped the raft on top of me and wrapped the anchor paracord around my neck. After getting out from underneath the raft, I attempted to swim to the inside of the bend, with very little success. I immediately switched direction and hauled ass for the outside of the bend. Once I got out of the rapid, the flow pushed me toward the bank and I was able to crawl out.
I crawled over a small cliff to try and find some friends in a raft ahead of me, and they were busy rescuing the upside down raft and oars floating out of the canyon. Luckily, there was a group not far behind us. After I confirmed I wasn't having a heart attack from the 45 degree water and the swimming effort, I started breathing again and flagged them down. They gave me a ride down to my raft, and I cracked a beer and let Ted row the cataraft to the take out. I preferred to relax on the front of the 14' raft with a beer for the remainder of the float.
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| Should probably read these from time to time |
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