Trying to Stay Afloat in Swirling Waters

Day 2 of the rafting and we were all set to go.  I was in the lead raft in the front with my paddle ready for whatever we were to face.  There are four commands that a rafter must know.  1.Front, which of course means paddle front.  2. Back, paddle backwards.  3.  Hold, which means don't paddle and 4. High side which means move to the side of the raft that is highest.  Then the day starts.

The morning started out with no surprises but that didn't last long.  We had fall drops and lots of rocks to watch for.  One rafting move that we used a lot  was the bump and spin.  Sometimes it is safer for the raft to bump off a rock and spin in the rapids than it is to maneuver out of the way.  What was hard is that this was a new river since the flood.  Aniakchak has no dams or buildings or water structures of any kind.  It is a true wild river.
We were doing a pretty good job of making down the rapids.  Then we noticed a fall coming up and we were in position for it  but as we started to drip we noticed a rock that we had not seen.  We tried to manuever around it but we did not have enough time.  Our raft bounced on the rock and stayed there.  Both of us moved to the high side.  No movement.  We started to rock the raft trying to get the high side to fall over the rock.  The trick was to move the raft off the rock without flipping the raft.  Together the two of us rocked the raft.  Then finally it slipped back into the fast moving water.

I turned to see if the second raft had made it over the rock.  It was a ways behind us but they had seen us stuck and had planned a different manuever over the falls and made it safe and sound.  Agin we paddle, twisted and turned our way down the river.  We saw a falls up ahead where the water went down and then turned to the right.  We got into position but again there was a rock that we had not seen on the fall down.  Agian our raft got on the rock.  High side didn't release the raft.  We rocked the raft.  Nothing.  My boss got up and stood on the high side an jumped up and down.  Still Nothing.  Then he saw the other raft just about to go over the falls.  Hang on he said.

Over came the second raft.  The leader in the second raft braced his oar into the water so that his boat would bump our raft and hopefully spin him around and over the rest of the falls while giving our raft a push off the rock.  His raft bumped but as the second raft bounced off our boat the oar released and slammed into my back.  I had just enough time to yell ow when our raft released from the rock.  No time to consider the pain in my back I had to keep paddling. 

Then the second raft which was now in the lead got stuck.  We were coming up on it fast and then we rammed into it so that it would release itself from its position.  It worked.   Everyone was tired and needed a break.  We found a sandbar and pulled off for lunch.  What a morning.