The flip

"Its called Electric Peak. The top of it is made of iron oxide, which is a conductor, that's why so much lightning strikes it." Cole, our tour guide said. Interesting, I thought. I knew it was a fact I'd remember, but was I necessarily paying attention? No. I was not. I do that a lot, pay attention when it seems like i'm not. But, back to the story. It wasn't necessarily a fact I was fascinated by, but still moderately interesting. At this point on the rafting trip, everything just felt ominous. Rain had started pouring, thunder boomed, and echoed through the canyons, and the sky had gone near black. We were playing this game called wheel of fortune, no, not that wheel of fortune. It's a game you play on a raft, one person stands at the front lip of the raft, while everyone spins the boat as fast as they can in an attempt to knock the person standing on the front lip off the boat. The goal is to stay on the lip for at least 8 seconds. Easier said than done. Somehow my 11 year old brother managed to stay on for 22 seconds, how? I have zero clue. But he did, so props to him.

The River had started to consistently get narrower and narrower. At first it was around 50 yards wide, and had stayed that way for a while. But as we got closer to Yankee Jim canyon, the River had gotten narrower, and narrower. Another thing that had added onto the ominous feeling. I decided to put my sunglasses into the hopefully dry bag, I put my case on, and slipped them in. All my brother could talk about was this supposed rapid in Yankee Jim canyon called the "Boat Eater" it was only a class three, so no big deal, i've done multiple class fours before that, by no means was I worried. The start of the rafting trip had been the best so far, we were about three or four hours in now, during our lunch break we put on a frame with bigger ores for the guide. I will say, that was some pretty decent rafting trip food.

Now the thunder and rain had really started to get heavy. Constant booming, i had already saw around three bolts of lightning, and the crack of the thunder was comparable to a super bowl stadium in terms of volume. I could start to see the canyon, although the rainfall was so heavy you couldn't see as far as you normally could. The temperature had dropped around twenty degrees from how it was when we started out. At this point my step dad had put his sunglasses on his lifejacket clip, as well as my mom, while my brother put his inside my stepdads velcro pocket. The clouds were almost purple at this point. Interesting how quickly the weather changed, I thought. When we put in it was around eighty degrees and sunny. Now, not so much.

I could see the canyon, it was 100 meters away. I love this, I thought, the thrill of this, adrenaline junky? Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn't say I am, but some people would consider me as one. I could feel the cold breeze, on top of the cold weather, on top of the rain, on top of the thunder, on top of the river. Everything was perfect. Just how I like it. Exciting, daring, edgy, and ominous. The river was waving through the wind, more than ripples now, more than a few waves, it was roaring. The Rapids closing in towards us, I couldn't identify any of the rapids, i'd never rafted the Yellowstone River before, this was new territory. The water was having the same effect it always did on me, it made me feel more like me, it made me feel truly, thoroughly, and genuinely alive. As cheesy, and corny as that may sound. It's true.

The rapids were within 30 meters now, basically 100 feet, now I could hear it, I could hear the roar of the rapids. Another strike of lightning bolted through the sky. Another boom of thunder echoed through the canyon, this time amplified because of how close we were to the canyon, I felt everything shake, the sound of that boom seemed to have rocked the world. Wow, I thought, this is going to be fun.

We punched through the first rapid, water thrown all over me, It was freezing but I didn't care, All I could feel was excitement, all I could hear were commands and roars of the waves. "All forward!" cole said, but by instinct I was already doing so, I dug as deep as I possibly could into the water, my paddle seeming to be part of me, what I was doing felt like nature. We crashed into the next rapid, powering through it like a freight train trampling through a car. I could see it, far bigger than I anticipated, the Boat Eater. It looked fierce, but I felt fierce too, Our raft dipped into the rapid, powering through, reaching the top, then, stalling. There was no movement, only the wind. my weight shifted backwards, our raft began to go down the rapid, but we went down on the same side we came, the raft started to lean to my right. Then finally, the flip happened.

I was submerged, my helmet felt loose, resting two inches above my head. I forced myself to the right, swimming away from the boat. Then, I paused, left myself weightless, just to float back up. I breached the surface of the flowing water, Took in a breath, then crashed myself through a wave. I looked around, saw my mother, saw my step father, but my brother was nowhere to be found, then I saw the other two girls that were in their boat, I saw my tour guide trying to get the raft to flip, but still, No sign of my brother. I started to scream his name, I inhaled some water from an incoming wave, then I started to drift off, I let go of the raft, I saw a boat, and I started to drift towards it. Effortlessly, I didn't even need to make the slightest movement of my hands or feet. I just drifted towards that boat, against the current, effortlessly.

I started to think back, to my last rafting trip. On the Deschutes River outside of Maupin, Oregon. We hit this rapid called boxcar, but we hit it so perfectly, our boat fully submerged, but came back up completely fine. I started to think how it happened. I can picture it so clearly, right down to the pollen floating in the air. We hit the left side of the rapid, and submerged, but somehow came up unharmed.
I soon reached the boat, I heard voices over the roar of the rapids. I felt a strong tug on the top of my life jacket, then I was lifted into the boat. I looked around immediately, searching for everyone, I identified my mother, stepfather, and the two other girls in our boat. Our tour guide had our raft back up. Then finally, I saw my brother, he was in a boat behind me. I calmed down, slowed my heart rate, and focused on staying warm.

What just happened? I thought. At the moment trying to comprehend what had just happened. I helped row the boat I had been harbored onto. Then my original boat came and I got back onto that. Soon enough, after a few bends in the river, we had reached the pick up spot. At this point everything all seemed to go by like lightning. I got out, put the ores in the bus, making sure I didn't take my life jacket off. Not because I was afraid of drowning in the river I was out of, but because I wanted to stay as warm as I possibly could. I helped bring two rafts up to the trailer, but as I was going back to check that everything was cleared out, I had a moment. I really thought back to that moment, of the flip. I made note of how fortunate I was that perhaps more than just out of luck, the current had carried my right to that boat. I thought about how happy I was, happy being relative to the situation, that my brother was okay. But at the same time, how much i'd like to do that all over again.

Call me crazy for wanting to do that again, but that's just how I am. I got onto the bus, got my sunglasses out of the not so dry bag, they were soaked, but that was okay. I just sat in the window, mindless. Excited to go again at a summer camp I go to that we go on an overnight rafting trip at. I saw a restaurant pass by us, and the sweet smell of food. Good, homemade food. We passed the rapid that it all happened at, then we drove by a church that we passed on the way down. After all that, my eyes started to close, peacefully, happily, and joyfully. I needed to rest, so, I did. I dozed off, and I woke up back in Gardiner Montana.