A number of years ago, a buddy and I were sitting on some rock ledges looking at the whitewater rafts and kayaks shooting the Lunch Counter on the Snake River just down from Jackson Hole Wyoming. We were a bit ripped and thought that it look like great fun to jump in and swim the rapids. Never mind that just a few miles up the canyon in the Tetons the water used to be snow, it being late spring and all the water was really rocking. Lunch Counter is one of the bigger rapids on that river run.
My buddy went first, pair of short and shoes, he bobbed and tread water and went around a bend, after a long while he didn't show up, so I went looking for him, founding him sitting on a rock on the bank about a half a mile down river. When he saw me he jumped up and started in on how great it was. It seems, (I later found out), that I was a little late in catching him coughing and puking up water.
Hot day, a little booze, sounds like fun. I jumped in just missing a kayak dude, well he'd been playing in that same whirlpool for quite awhile and it was my turn. I hit the water and it was so fucking cold I gasped, not such a good thing as I was underwater at the time. When I hit the surface, I only had time to cough and sputter a bit before I went under again, (I do remember the kayak guy screaming at me "Stupid" blah, blah, blah), after a few more bobs, gasps and sputters I could kind of breath again and even swim a little. I headed for the side and ended up about a half mile from where I'd jumped in, as the water was kind of rushing.
After getting back to my buddy, we sat down and had a couple more drinks and compared notes. It was at that point that I decided that my pal was trying to kill me. OK, here is the really stupid part. After regaining our buzz, we jumped in again, just as cold and fast, but it went better this time for both of us.
I know that God watches over drunks and idiots. The next day a guided raft tipped in that same spot and two people drowned, (well one was kind of beat to death before she could drowned) and they had life jackets on.
The more I think back on it, the more I realize just how stupid that was and how lucky we both were to have survived that stroke of drunken insanity.
