Note: This event took place four, maybe five years ago.
It used to be every year my dad, brother, step mom and I would go down to the Frio River in Leakey, Texas (down in the Hill County; it's beautiful down there) and float the river for 3-4 days. One year my dad, brother, a family friend – Joey – and I decided that we were going to go float the more "rough, fast-paced" part of the river, which turned out to be pretty awesome. But we ran into a few adventures along the way.
We always take an ice chest when we go to store lunch, beer, water, etc. etc. Well Dad usually ties it to his tube when we float (the ice chest sits in another tube). Well on Concan, the crazy stretch, it moves really fast with lots of rapids and having an ice chest isn't the best idea. Well first off we're maybe 30 minutes into the float enjoying ourselves when Dad hits a rock, flips his tube and he bashes his head during the flip. So he's bleeding a bit, nothing too severe, and we keep floating. It was funny at first cause I saw the whole thing and seeing Dad do a complete back flip out of his tube was pretty funny.
We're floating down a little more and hit some rapids. Well I get thrown out of the current and head straight for some trees and it's either try to push off the trees in my tube or get stuck. I missed the push with my legs and get caught up in this little tree area with the water running pretty quick. I realize I can't hold myself up in the water cause of how fast it's running. I'm trying to hold on to my tube and get it into a position where I can throw myself back in it and float down the river. I realize that the water is starting to push my swimsuit down and if I lift my legs at all I'm going to lose my suit, but then again I'll have my tube. So I'm in a bit of a pickle, ulitmately decide to let my tube go. Well the water sweeps me off my feet and I grab on to two tree branches, holding on to one with my left hand and one with my right, and I'm pretty much holding on for dear life on top of the water. Now the water has pushed my swimsuit past my hips and it's starting to work its way down my legs. If I held on too much longer, it's gone, and probably for good. Freaking out, I let go of each branch and fly down the river, hoping, praying that I'm not going to run into a huge rock or something under the water.
I only hit just a few minor rocks and scrape my chins up a bit, nothing big, but still kind of painful. By the time I get to where the water slows down, Joey is holding my tube, Dad is laughing, and Ethan was one of the first to go down the rapids so he didn't really have any idea of what happened. And what's funny is that as I was trying to decide between my tube and my suit, Dad came down the rapids and kind of grinded the tree I was holding on to, but didn't get caught like I did.
Well I get down there and Dad is laughing his ass off. I fill both Ethan and Joey in and they get a good laugh. So we grab a quick lunch, make sure we are all OK and all the tubes are accounted for and head off again.
We float about an hour before the next mishap. Again, we're approaching some rapids, me and my brother are floating near each other, and I brace myself this time; I'm going to be extra careful.
Well there's a rock that separates this little waterfall. The waterfall maybe drops two feet, but because of the rock the water is gushing on through. And there's a little narrow passageway that only one tube can fit through at a time; Ethan and I didn't know that. Because the current started moving faster in the rapids, our tubes hit and we started to enter the little passageway at the same time. Luckily, at least for me, I was in the position to go first, so as I go down, Ethan's tube hits mine, he flies out up on the rock and his tube goes shooting through the rapids and down the waterfall.
Picture that for a second. A, what was he, 12-, 13-year-old kid stuck on a rock in the middle of a river in some rapids with no tube and no way to get down. And the water in front of the rapids is moving way too fast to get close enough to throw his tube back at him.
I had to jump out of my tube cause I was laughing so hard. That is the hardest I have ever laughed in my life. I had tears streaming down my face, I don't think I've cried like that even when I was sad.
He was freaking out, of course. And Dad had passed him on the rapids going down. I think he wanted Ethan to jump on him and his tube as he went down but the water shot him away too fast.
Dad comes down to me asks me to hold his tube as he goes back to save Ethan. He tries to talk Ethan into just jumping off the rock and into the water and Dad will catch him right away. Ethan, being freaked out and terrified is like, No way! But he eventually does.
They come down to where Joey and I are waiting and Ethan is a little shaken up, and I, like an asshole of a brother, am still laughing hysterically about the whole thing. Dad would later tell us that he had no idea how he planned to get Ethan off the rock if he wouldn't jump in the water.
So, once again, we recoup and float on. At this point we are in the last leg of the float, the sun is going down and we're all pretty worn out ready to get back to the cabin.
But the river gets one last laugh, her revenge on me for leaving Ethan on the rock.
We go down maybe 200 yards and I'm floating with my back turned down river. Joey, at this point, is way ahead of us, almost out of sight. But that was nothing new, he'd been with us and then floating out doing his own thing all day.
I'm floating in front, Dad and Ethan are casually behind and we're all talking – probably about the events that have happened throughout the day – when I start to hear more gushing water, like more rapids. I look behind me and there's nothing there except for people playing on the shore, other river floaters, but no rapids.
I turn back around and we keep talking but I continue to hear it, and I know I'm not crazy cause when I turn back around I hear it, but once again, nothing.
Finally it's getting louder, I ignore it at first cause based on my last few turnarounds, there's been nothing. But it keeps getting louder, the water seems to be moving faster, and I turn around and I'm at the top of a 15-foot hidden waterfall about to make the drop.
I freak.
There's a tree hanging overhead and I make a split-second decision to jump out of my tube and try my luck jumping in the tree – in hindsight, probably not the best decision.
I reach for where I think the branch might be, only to miss and end up getting slapped in the face by much smaller branches, and I still end up making the plunge down the waterfall, only this time with scratches on my face and the pain of getting slapped.
I come out of the water a bit stunned, try to figure out where I am, where my tube is, when here comes Ethan making his plunge down the fall – he, luckily, saw what happened to me and braced himself for the fall. I duck, as he falls and floats by, and realize my tube is stuck under the waterfall getting pushed down by the falling water and getting sucked in by the undertow. So I struggle to get it dislodged and get back on with the float. I don't remember if Dad had made the fall as I was working to get my tube unstuck, but when I finally did and floated down he, Ethan and Joey were there waiting for me.
Right after the waterfall was the pick-up point and the end of the leg. I couldn't have been happier to see it.
As we sat in the back of the truck that would take us back to our cabin, looping between the hills as the sun fell behind, I realized I just had the most stressful day on the river and I was pretty beat up, but it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
And what's probably the most odd thing about the entire day, Joey didn't biff it once. Through all the rapids and waterfalls, he never flipped and landed every trip down the falls.
Obviously Mother Nature didn't have any beef with him that day. For the rest of us, we were pretty beat, battered and bruised.
