The Klamath Challenge

You had to time each breath as the raft cascaded through the big water. If there was too much water to see, you didn't breathe. We plowed through a big flip hole, and then a diagonal wave hit us from the right, raising up the side of the raft.

An instant later, another wave rammed us. It picked up the boat and dumped us out like a monster shaking a new bottle of ketchup. We were suddenly in the river, enveloped in a remarkable surge of cold, bubbling water.

There's no time to think or react; your body goes on automatic pilot. When I popped up, I was under the overturned raft with the sound of crashing water echoing inside it. I grabbed a quick breath of air. You don't think, you just do. I ducked down and swam around the boat, popped up and grabbed another breath. The river claws at you, pulls you under, then spits you out. An eddy was on our right, and my partner and I used its crosscurrents like a conveyer belt to take us to the shoreline.

We both looked upriver, and just like that, there was another raft upside down. Moments later, Rich Cottrell appeared near us, waist deep in the water, water gushing from him, a look of terror, shock and"I'm going to live after all" in his eyes.

"It happened so fast I only had time to get one yell out," Cottrell said. "We flipped and had to float through 600 yards of rapids, going up and down the chutes. I sucked some water."

His partner, Greg Talamini, emerged on the other side of the river with the overturned raft. The third raft, we later learned, was wrapped around a rock. The rafters were wet, cold and shook up, but nobody was hurt.

At camp that night, Munroe kicked the campfire and thought of the big water we had crossed, and what lay ahead. "Yes," he said, "Hell's Corner Gorge deserves its name. There's some serious stuff ahead and the worst of it is the Ikes. We'll be hitting those. I like making history, like to feel the hair raising up on my neck."

He kicked the fire again and little sparks went shooting into the night sky. They disappeared, like the dreams of those who have lost their lives on the Klamath.