My brother Bryan, his wife Tessa, my dad's cousin Liz and her husband Mark and my mom and me all went. We all expected just a nice kayak trip down the river. A lot of the entrances to the river were closed (should have been our first clue). Then, we found a way in and saw a bunch of cows. None of them were by the water which probably should have been another clue...
We pumped up the kayaks, got our life jackets on and carried our kayaks toward the river. My mom and I were in a kayak together, her in front, me in the back. We started out and quickly realized we were pretty inexperienced at steering. We soon learned that I was to do most of it, and my mom would help us make a big turn or go faster. Bryan and Tessa were in a kayak together.
Not 5 minutes into kayaking, there was a wire fence laid down horizontally in the river. Water was rushing up against it then succumbed underneath it. Our kayak was pushing against it, beckoning us to go under too and follow the flow. We held onto whatever tree branch we could to prevent that from happening. But my dad's cousin, Liz, wasn't able to push against it, and she went under with the water, and her kayak stayed in place because her husband held on to it. We were calling after her frantically and then saw her head pop up a few years down from the fence. She held on to a tree, glasses crooked, hair wet, though stoically calm.
Then, another one bites the dust and my dad also went under the fence! After a few minutes, Liz and my dad were both reunited with their kayaks. Meanwhile, my mom and I, Bryan and Tessa, had decided to go around through the sidebrush to avoid the fate of my dad and Liz. After much heaving and pulling of branches to help us go against the current, we all got back to the main river.
I think at this point, we know this trip was going to be tumultuous. We had hoped that was the worst of it but kind of knew it wasn't.
So, we continued on, back and forth, getting the hang of the steering .Soon, there was a curve. Hurry, quick, dodge the low hanging tree branch! We couldn't steer away in time .Crash! We again, were pulling hard to avoid going under the tree and losing our boat as the water beckoned it to follow. We again tried moving backwards against the current against the side of the river. I ended up getting out in the water, and pulling the kayak onto the land. We were stuck for a few minutes while my dad called, "Are you ok?" With which we responded, "No!"
There was no easy path however. My mom and I pulled and dragged the heavy, wet kayak on the dirt, dodging little branches, steeping over big ones, trying to find a path. My dad appeared, knowing we were stuck and pulled us around the bend, There was a flat stretch of still water, so we put the kayak on there, and pulled it through, stepping through big globs of mud along the way.
As soon as we were in the kayak, my dad said, "Ok, are you guys ready?" before he let both of us back onto the fast-paced water. We looked at each other and said "No.." but alas, we didn't really have a choice. We knew we had to keep going to finish. So we started out paddling. Unfortunately, a fast moving curve came right away with yet another huge low hanging branch. This time, I went off the kayak, in the water, under the branch. The branch pushed my mom off too but she held onto the boat. When I came out of the water, I heard my mom yelling "Amy! Amy" in a voice I hope I never hear my name called again.
I looked around and everyone else was out of sight around the corner. I was in the water to my ankles, afraid if I went in further, I would be overpowered by it's force. I saw Liz on an island in the middle of the river. I called out to her as I very slowly trudged through the water, trying not to get swept away. I made it across but she only had a one person kayak and said I will go ahead and tell everyone where you are, why don't you try going along the river to find everyone. " And she left. And I found myself alone on this island. I went back across the river, more confident this time of my ability to overcome it's power.
I went down the river some on the right side but soon found it was deepening. I looked around and weighed my choices. I could stay here and hope someone came back for me. But I had no guarantee of that or how would they be able to come upstream. I didn't have a watch or phone or anyway to tell how long it had been. My water bottle and everything had been swept away the river's current.
I thought I could try to swim across but was scared I wasn't strong enough to do so and would crash against a big tree trunk, this time without a kayak to take some of the impact.
I remained fairly calm but soon realized I had no boat, was all alone, and really had very few choices. I could also go on the land and try to fight the insane overgrown desert brush. Finally, I heard my mom call for me. I yelled as loud as I could and made my way on the land, decided my path for me. I had to move branches away at every turn and step over stumps. Finally, my mom was in clear sight and we ran toward each other and embraced. We held each other, tears in our eyes, glad to be together!
Then, my mom said Bryan had yelled to her for us to find the road. So we knew we had to climb this cactus covered hill, in hopes we would find a road. We started up, just hoping we were going to find it soon. We had no water, no phones, only life jackets and muddied shoes. After a few minutes, we heard a glorious sound--- cars! We moved at a quicker pace, encouraged by a possible way out of this mess. We climbed up and saw a fence. I spit at it to make sure it wasn't an electric fence. No crackle, we were clear! We stepped over it, hopped over and made it to the road!
Well we sat down on a rock under the tiniest tree for even a droplet of shade. And we said, "Um, now what?" We could have tried to walk to the car but we weren't exactly sure how far. There wasn't much of a shoulder to walk on, and it was a fast highway. We didn't have water and it was 110 degrees in the middle of the afternoon in the desert.
We said a prayer (our third of the day), and then I said, "I think we should try to flag someone down. Even just to ask to use their phone, find out what road we're on, how far away the car is that we parked at the entrance of the river." We were nervous but we felt like it as the best chance we had. We had put life jackets on the edge of the road railing to alert someone we were there. We got up and went to the other side of the road where there was a pullout for a car. Within a minute, I saw a man on a motorcycle. I waved my hands in the air and to my relief and worry, he immediately turned around. He came back our way and parked his bike in the dirt by us on the pullout. He introduced himself as "Rick", an ex marine and ex cop. He said he doesn't usually stop, and most people do not stop. So we were lucky. We told him our predicament and he said he'd let us go on his motorcycle but our legs would get burned ( we wouldn't have anyway...). He said we could use his phone but there was no service. He was kind enough to offer to drive to town, 6 miles away (glad we didn't walk it!), call the police for a ride and come back. We weren't sure if he would return but he did. Much to our relief, he did come back! But we still ended up waiting for the police for 40 minutes more. At this point, we were getting dehydrated and on the brink of heat exhaustion. Rick stayed with us and talked with us.
We heard a female voice yell! We crossed the road and ran toward it yelling feverishly back up at the voice. Finally, we saw Tessa and Bryan! We were close! The only problem was, they were up high on the rock wall surrounded the road and we were down below. We asked if they could come down and they said no it was too steep. We told them to go back down toward the river, walk across the river bank THEN come back up to where we had found the road .They said ok, but before heading down, told us the police was here, they saw it stopped, and with Dad!
Mom decided to go down to the river bank, back across the fence, down the scraggly branch infested hill and to guide Bryan and Tessa. She said she wouldn't leave my sight. I saw her call after them, a voice getting wearier by the second. Finally, with no response from them, she defeatedly made her way back up the hill and looked like she might collapse.
We ran to find Dad and he walked towards me. I ran toward him giving him a big hug and crying at being reunited with him! The police pulled in, immediately gave us water and we cried with relief. We told them what happened, where we think everyone else might be. They used their siren to call down to Bryan and Tessa.
Mom and I waited in the police car, clutching each other hands, and finding relief in the air conditioned car. Unfortunately, we forgot you can't open a police car from inside the backseat. So the police officer had left us there and gone down to find Bryan and Tessa. We waited. Another police car showed up and we pounded furiously for him to know we were right next to him in the car but he didn't hear us.
After what seemed like a long time, Bryan and Tessa made it up the hill and we cried out to them , banging our water bottles against the side window. Tessa saw us, opened the door and climbed in, and we all embraced with more tears. We were safe! We had water. We were cool. Bryan went in the front, my dad climbed in with the other police officer and I think Mark and Liz and we all made our way back to the car. We finally got back to the truck, got our food and more water. Then, made it to the gas station close by, where we had started off our journey.
My dad went back with the police officer to look for the kayaks and other equipment like go pro, Mark's keys, phones, all had gone down the river. We all waited in the car, realized none of us had money or masks so we couldn't go into the gas station to get a much desired slushie. We shared stories of what had happened to each of us when we got separated.
Finally, Mark ,Liz, my dad and everyone else was crammed into my dad's truck. We thanked the police offers profusely and they left. We used my phone which had made it in a dry bag, and I called Josh to update him, very grateful to hear his voice. Mark and Liz called their daughter to come get them! But it was an hour and a half drive so we all waited in the car. I had half my butt on the seat so it did go numb, haha. We did eventually get that slushie, my dad's wallet appeared when he did. :) We had snacks, and good conversation while we waited for Chelsea.
Finally, she came and Mark and Liz went with her. We took a picture, then we started home as well. Josh gathered up the kids, got some pizzas and met us at my parent's house. We got home and I immediately went over to their pool to drown myself in cool, clear (non moving) water with my kids and was overjoyed to play with them. Other people took showers, and caught their breath.
It was quite the experience. But we did feel like our prayers were answered, our bonds were strengthened and we certainly learned a lot about being more prepared. I will be attaching a dry bag of phones and keys and water to my life jacket next time plus a whistle. :) And we will probably avoid rivers with overgrown trees and fast moving currents and unexpected rapids any time soon.
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