South Fork of the Payette

 Today my dad took Jeff and  me on a rafting trip down the South Fork of the Payette River. My dad is awesome and booked us a ride down a much more intense river than what I had asked for- he book us on the South Fork- and I'm glad he did because we had a great time! It was 6 hours of class 3 and class 4 rapids and a 6 ft drop waterfall. Our rafting company even had a photographer about half way through the day that took pictures. 

We thought they were too great-

 Check out Jeff's face! I'm sitting right behind Jeff, and my dad is on the other side in the back- my dad was being nice and let us ride near the front since he's been on this run a few times before.

 Down we go! Jeff's going in, and I'm definitely looking stressed!

 Yup, here we lost Jeff and the guy behind me

 Thankfully we got everyone back in the boat! We almost lost Jeff a few times, but when we went through one special set of rapids there really wasn't much we could do as our whole boat capsized onto us. This isn't us (below), but it is what our boat looked like!

 Jeff and I were on the right side, and in the middle of some class four rapids, the right side popped up and came down on top of us. At first I didn't panic at all and I tucked my feet in towards my chest and let my life vest pull me towards the surface with the plan to just ride it out, but I couldn't make it to the surface because the raft was on top me- it was also on top of Jeff- and that's when I started to freak out a little bit. When the raft tipped, the guy on my right had kind of fallen on top of me and pushed me pretty deep into the water- it also didn't really give me a ton of time to get a deep breath or anything. As the raft pushed me back down deeper into the water everything around me was black and I thought....crap, this is a legit way that people die!  I eventually made it to the surface, but as soon as I could open my mouth for air- a huge wave came over my head and I ended up swallowing tons of river water. Right about now is when someone grabbed me from behind and got me out of the tail end of the rapids. I thought it was the guide who had grabbed me, but nope- my knight in shining armor was none other than my hubs. 

Awesome. 

If you ever want to do a quick check on your loved one to see how he reacts in a life or death situation all you need to do is capsize your raft on the South Fork and see if he can fight the rapids and undertow to get to you- if he's lame, he'll bail and head for the shore. Thankfully, Jeff- who had also been sucked under and stuck for a bit as well- is not lame and was able to pop up and get above the water enough to spot me. From there I reminded him to pull his legs up (I was very into the safety lecture they had given us about turning yourself into a ball in case you fall out) and we rode down the river until we ran into the other raft in our group which had already picked up my dad. My dad scooped me out of the water and the guys at the front of this raft were able to grab Jeff. Whew! We were finally safe!

  The guy sitting behind me on the bad side (my side) had been picked up by the safety kayaker  the river company has patrolling the "danger" areas. Other than some bruises and scrapes and a nasty goose egg on my dad's shin, we were okay! By the time we reached the end of our run, I was a little sad- I actually wouldn't have minded going again! For the most part, it was just so much fun. I ended up having to cough up a lot of the river water I had swallowed, but overall I was just impressed that Jeff had found me and got us out of the worst of it! Thanks to Dad for such a fun and exciting day!
Pretty sure my adrenaline is still going strong.