Day 14

That is a big wave

Lava falls, as seen from a half mile away

Today was planned to be a long boating day, actually the rest of the trip will be long boating days in order to reach the takeout on time.  However, today was also the day in which we encountered Lava Falls!  Lava is the biggest rapid on the river.  Now for me, after Crystal Rapid being such a disappointment, I was apprehensive to allow myself to build Lava up too much.  I needn’t have worried.  Lava would live up to the hype, and more.  From even four hundred yards away it sounded like a jumbo jet at takeoff power.  We first scouted it from a great distance; there were large ledge drops and a very large wave at the bottom.  Even from where I stood the wave was huge.  If anything on this river was going to flip our raft, this was going to be the one.  Tom took the oars for the run and did a masterful job of lining us right into the meat of the rapid.  We bounced and bobbed, smashed and crashed, we hit the last wave, we went vertical, and we came through in one piece; it was EPIC!  Of the rafts the only casualty was a broken oar. 

Tenny was the last to go in her ducky; she bounced and bobbed, crashing through holes and up waves that dwarfed her tiny craft.  She flashed in and out of sight all the way through to the last wave.  For a couple seconds we didn’t see her and then all of the sudden her entire boat shot up out of the wave like a breaching whale.  The little raft hung suspended for a minute and then as if flipping a coin and losing it tipped backwards and flipped.  That is the only time I have witnessed a boat flip end over end. 

What would a pirate ship be with out a figurehead?

After the rapid, we joined in the namesake tradition at Tequila beach; then ventured on our way.  Later in that day we earned the reputation of the pirate boat.  We learned to use our umbrella to catch a nice tailwind thus becoming far faster than the rest of our fleet.  Then much later in the day, Tom feeling in a rowdy mood, decided to raid one of the near boats.  The craft of Carson, Brendan, and Will became the unsuspecting target.  Tom’s rowdiness however, met its match in the sheer force of Brendon.  They both ended up in the water on two different occasions, but it made the afternoon more exciting.

Brendan and Tom in the water

Tom storming the enemy

-SM-
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