jrglasgow.com

We decided that this morning we were going to float the Boise River. My wife (Emily, herein Big Emily) and I met my sister Malinda at Ann Morrison Park in Boise. Malinda Rode with us to Barber Park, also in Boise. The idea is that when we are done floating Malinda could drive a couple of people back to Barber Park to get the rest of the vehicles.

When we got to Barber Park we met up with Nancy(another sister) and her family Brad(Husband) and three of her four kids, Rebecca, Emily(herein Little Emily) and Issac. Kevin the youngest spent the day with Linda, Brad's Mom.

After Nancy rented a four man raft, and Brad aired up his 2(1.5) man raft. and Emily an I aired up our inner tubes we set off. Emily wanted to make sure we spent the time together so she borrowed a rope from Brad to tie our tubes together.

We were off. Brad and Isaac in his small raft, Nancy, Malinda, Rebecca and Little Emily in the rented raft. Big Emily and I in our tubes tied together. Well, not really tied, we had an old ski rope Brad had found in the middle of some lake somewhere, it had a loop in the end and a handle at the other end. We looped the rope around the two tubes and put the handle through it basically making it variable length, Big Emily had the free end and she could therefore adjust the length to her liking, pull me close for a kiss or push me away.

After a while Big Emily and I noticed that the people in our group in rafts were going faster than us in tubes. Actually Big Emily went faster in her tube that I did in mine, maybe it was because I am more massive than Big Emily, or because my but stuck out under the tube more, who knows? I paddled as fast as I could and we finally caught up with the rest of the group. We went down a rock dam with then, (natural or not, I don't know). We helped Isaac transfer to the big raft, and Little Emily transfer to the little one. By this time Brad had broken the end of one of his plastic oars, so he put it in the big raft.

I noticed quickly that the river in some parts wasn't deep, when you are laying on an inner tube and you can reach down and touch the rocks below it's not hard to figure out.

Big Emily and I quickly got left behind again. We went oner another rock dam, we know it was because both our buts hurt afterwards. then we went over a concrete dam, we knew the construction of this one for the same reason.

After a while we caught up with the big raft (they waited for us), this time Brad was in it with Malinda, Little Emily, and Isaac, Nancy and Rebecca got in the little raft, of course, they told us, the other paddle for the little raft had broken. "She's up the creek without a paddle!" Malinda said.

They decided to paddle to catch up with Nancy and Rebecca so I tied the rope to the back ring on the raft to let them pull Big Emily and myself. Brad and Malinda were paddling while my wife and I were lazy.

A few minutes later we came upon a log on the right side of the river the raft missed it but Big Emily and I got caught. The river was running fast, it basically swept me off of my tube. I tried grabbing a ring on the big raft, but couldn't get it, brad reached out an oar to me for me to grab, but I couldn't hold on.

I was pushed down stream, in most spots it was shallow enough that I could touch the bottom with my feet, but the rocks were too slippery and the water too fast. Finally when the river took a bend I saw a beach sort of, there was no sand, but there was plenty of rocks. I swam over to this "beach" on the south side of the river. I got on land and realized that I couldn't stand, I don't know if it was because my legs were tired, or if I was just too shaken up. so I waded in the river up to my knees and tried to get my bearings.

I figured I was near a park because to the west of me, on the other(North) side of the river I saw a park bench, and a few people possibly having a picnic. After about five minutes I saw my wife coming down the river without her tube. this concerned me because she was like me and didn't have a floatation device(no vest) and she didn't have her tube, and she is not as good a swimmer as I am. Big Emily managed to get to the side of the river and grab a branch to help her out of the water(on the north side, opposite of me and a little up river). I called out to her a few times but didn't hear a response(I am a little hard of hearing), finally I saw her wave to me. I called to her to climb up the bank, that there was a path. I knew it was the Boise Greenbelt, I could easily see walkers and bikers from my vantage point.

So I'm on the south side of the river without my tube, and I can see my wife across the river a little upstream. I decided to walk upstream on my side, I didn't know how far downstream I had been swept, but I could at least get upstream enough to swim across to my wife. Before I was up stream enough to get to Big Emily I spot the raft, still stuck to the tubes, attatched to the log. I look to see if everyone is still alright and in the raft, I see Malinda, Little Emily, and Isaac and... wait a minute Brad doesn't have a goatee.

I continue upstream to where there a number of floaters stopped, trying to get the raft free. I started wading out to try to help, but I saw Malinda, with Little Emily and Isaac leaving the raft. I swam out to help them. I caught up to Malinda and the kids, for the most part. Malinda asked me to take Isaac. I couldn't, Malinda and the kids at least had on their PFD's I had none. I could have taken Isaac, but likely while trying to help him get to shore I would have drown. As it was a couple of times I could barely keep my head above water (remember I had swam this part once before just a couple of minutes ago). I started to fall behind them. I don't know why I always fall behin people when we are in the water. I hear Malinda say a quick prayer, and she asked the two kids with her their favorite primary song to sing. I suggested "I am a child of God", but Little Emily had something else in mind and they started singing something else, I couldn't quite make it out.

I tell Malinda to get to the right side if she can because there is a park there. As we float by where I had seen Big Emily I point out the spot to Malinda. "That's where Emily got out." Shortley there after we get to the north side of the river and we get out. Some of the floaters come up to the shore to make sure we are alright. We were, but Little Emily and Isaac needed to use a restroom. Someone suggested they use a bush, but I figured that since we were right next to the greenbelt, and there was a park insight I decide to take the kids to find a restroom in the park. Malinda stayed by the bench where we got out to watch the PFD's.

I didn't exactly know where we were but I knew we were just west of a park on the north side of the boise river. I thought Julia Davis, I was wrong, Municipal. After Isaac and I were finished and were were waiting for Little Emily I saw a volunteer driving a Boise Police golf cart through the park. He stopped to asked me what was amis. I had started to explain the predicament when I spotted Big Emily walking down the greenbelt. I yelled to her, and the guy, I never did get his name, noticed that she was limping, he suggested he go get her.

By the time they got back to us Little Emily was out. We finished explaining what happened and that were were still missing some of or company. He asked if anyone had a cell phone, we said yes, plenty of cell phones, but they are all locked in cars either at Ann Morrison or Barber Park. the one at Ann Morrison where Nancy was likely to be was in Malinda's car, the only car key Nancy didn't have in her raft, the key was safety pinned to Malinda's swimming suit. The volunteer called a buddy of his, also a volunteer with a vehicle, to come help get to Ann Morrison Park.

We went to where Malinda as waiting by river while waiting for the other golf cart to arrive from Ann Morrison Park, He was by the playground, crazy enough that's where we left Malinda's Car.

When we got to Ann Morrison I got out of the cart and looked by the river to see if Brad, Nancy, or Rebecca had arrived yet. I didn't see them anywhere. An inflatable canoe beached and one of the guys, the guy who stopped at Municipal Park to make sure we were ok, asked if everyone was ok. We told him we were still missing a few more people. He went partway across the bridge, came back and said it looked like the little raft that had been with us was coming. I went partway across myself to see if it was them(Nancy and Rebecca). I couldn't tell, until they started waving to me.

I went down to the river to be there to help them out of the water and I saw another raft pull up with Brad in it. When Nancy and Rebecca got there we helped them out of the raft and took it to the picnic table where Big and Little Emily and Isaac were sitting, Malinda had gone to her car.

We now knew everyone was safe, we just had the slight problem of losing a $1,100 raft that we were financially responsible for.

Brad and I decided that we should go back and see if the raft was still stuck, and if so we would try to get it unstuck.

Malinda, Big Emily, Brad and I drove in Malinda's car back to Municipal Park, Nancy Called Linda(Brad's Mom) to get her and the 3 kids from Ann Morrison Park. We got to Municipal Park on the east end and walked to the river. I recognized the spot across the river as the place I got to shore the first time.

Brad and I left Malinda and Emily behind and ran upriver a quarter mile and spotted the raft upstream, still stuck. After walking for another short while along the greenbelt we decided to get to the river( the greenbelt follows the river mostly, but at this point it was about 100 ft from the river). We got to the river and looked downstream and saw the raft. I decided to walk along a small path I found along the river. Brad decided to hitch a ride with the next group of rafters that came along.
When I got to where the raft was caught I noticed that it was the rope tieing the two tubes together that was caught on the log in the river.

Malinda then showed up at the tree and told me that Big Emily was downstream a little ways watching. I saw Brad upstream talking to some rafters. I decided to get in the water upstream on the log and work my way down it. Brad and the rafters he was with passed me on the log and failed to get the raft loose. I kept working my way to the tubes, when I got there I couldn't hardly see what I was doing, I couldn't reach the bottom of the river with my feet, the water was rushing so fast over me that I couldn't keep my head above the water. I finally decided that either I had to let go and be swept downstream again, or drown.

As I passed the raft I tried grabbing one of the rings but couldn't hold on. When I managed to get to the side shortly there after I looked back and realized that when Brad and the rafters he was with hit the log Brad was thrown overboard as well as a little girl that was with the rafters. She was just upstream of the raft holding on to the rope being kept afloat by the PFD she was wearing. I got to shore and ran back to the raft. Malinda was on shore encouraging the girl to keep holding on and someone would be there to help her. I went up stream to the log I went out by the last time and by the time I got there and looked to see where the little girl was I saw that she wasn't there anymore, I went back to Malinda to find out what had happened. She told me that a person on a tube grabbed the girl as they went past. The little girl was safe.

As I was talking to Malinda we saw a guy in the water working his way up to the log the tubes were caught on. I yelled to him to get his attention. "Buddy, I have a pocket knife to cut the rope. Could you cut it for us, I don't care about the tubes, just the raft."

"Yeah, toss me the knife" he said.

I tossed him the pocket knife Malinda had gotten out of her car.

I ran back downstream where I had just gotten out to grab the raft while it was going by. I spotted Brad heading back upstream and got his attention. There we stood, in a wide spot on the north side of the river, Brad 15 yards upstream from me. We saw the guy with the knife crawl ontop of the log to the tubes, then they were free. I saw one of the tubes coming my way and went for it. I figured that I would have a better chance to get the raft if I didn't have to worry about drowning. I hopped on to the tube and looked for the raft, and noticed it hitting me. I grabbed onto a ring on the tube and was swept downstream.

I was floating downstream on a tube holding on to the raft near the north shore of the river. a couple of times I bumped the shore. One time I almost got of the tube and tried standing up, but the river was running too fast there. Finally I got to a point where it was slow enough I could stand up. I put the tube on a log. I untied the rope from the raft and tossed it aside. I considered tossing the tube in the raft and hopping in and finishing the trip down the river, but I noticed that the raft was extremely full of water and it would be hard to steer it, especially as I didn't have an oar. I decided to take the rope, tie it back to the raft and tie it to a tree that was near by.

I tossed the end of the rope over the tree branch, and as I was trying to decide the best knot to tie I heard, "James, What are you doing?" It was Malinda and Brad walking back to Municipal Park. I explained to them my desire to empty the raft of water, and possibly get a drink from the park, since I hadn't had an opportunity since I helped Malinda, Little Emily and Isaac from the river. I noticed we were on the East side of Municipal Park. We spotted Big Emily walking back from the restrooms and flagged her down. Then the four of us emptied the water from the raft. While doing so we determined that right across from this spot I had gotten out of the river the first time, Big Emily had gotten out about 15 yards upstream, and this was the spot Brad had gotten out as well.

With the water out of the raft we decided that Brad would use the oar he had(it had left the rafters he was with last about the same time he did) to navigate the raft downstream and turn it in. Malinda would take Big Emily and I back to Barber Park to get Nancy's van and my car, then I would drive back to Ann Morrison Park to pick up Brad. And thus is was...

Now as I am finishing this post the day after, I am very sore, but I am looking forward to doing this again on Labor Day weekend with more of my family. We just won't bring a rope, and we will make sure everyone has a PFD.