as it turned out, they were flushing the river so that the salmon could spawn and it was higher up and stronger than usual that day, this we also didn't learn until afterwards.
we got to some rapids that sounded too strong for out wal-mart style rafts to handle, so we pulled off to the side to get out and walk around them. just as we pull to the side, the current is too strong and carries me away in the boat.
it ends up flipping over on my head and the raft being a shitty raft, has loops for rope to go through and tie together so that the boat can be lifted out easily. but because the rope isn't long enough, i had to tie it to the boat. and because the loops weren't completely closed, the rope came out and wrapped around my neck as the ends tied to the boat were pulling me down river and choking me.
so adam and matt are hanging onto ta tree and adam lets go to get me. he pulled the rope off my neck and it took a couple seconds for me to stop choking.
then we had to have matt pull me while i pushed with my legs against a tree and adam was pushing me to get out of the water.
by the time we all got out of the water, matt lost his keys, wallet (which had a nice chunk of change), and backpack. i lost my shoes, my pants were torn, and now i have a scratch on my stomach the rivals in length to my other stomach scar. adam lost his shoes, a shirt, and our cooler. somehow through it all, adam still had his wallet and keys and one of his shirts didn't get too soaking wet.
so matt went out ahead of us and me and adam stayed behind as we had no shoes and couldn't climb over the blackberry vines as easily as matt. we also happened to land in a mosquito nesting ground and were promptly covered in the bugs. while i was wiping them off of adam, they all attacked behind my knees and my back.
we walked for about twenty minutes and found some people that were a touch drunk who drove us to the road. but she wouldn't drive us two miles more to adam's car. so we stared walking along the road and had a couple people pass us without offering help. finally this guy and his wife stop and come back with a truck and take us to adam's car. we didn't get home until after ten at night and had to call locksmiths to open up matt's truck, which didn't happen until the day.
all in all, i almost died, matt lost most of his life, and adam got a couple scratches. thinking back on it, if we had worn life jackets, matt and adam wouldn't have been able to grab onto the trees and pull me out of the water, so i'm not too tore up about not wearing them.
but yeah, that was my hellish day of rafting in knights ferry. we've all decided on a couple things 1:the next time we go rafting, don't buy them or oars from walmart 2: if there aren't rafting trips going on in knights ferry, ask why 3: don't bring your keys and wallet with you 4: don't buy rafts or any outdoor equipment from wal-mart, because it's usually crap and will most likely kill you if you follow the directions.
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