Kayaking

Yesterday myself, my brother and 7 other guys decided to go kayaking down the Scantic River.  We had just gotten a good 10 inches of rain in the last week or two so the river was really flowing.  Things were all good at the beginning, hit some nice rapids that tipped all but 2 or 3 of us over, but other than that, nothing major.  However, at one point we came up to a tree branch that was laying across the river.  We had to hop it to get over it which some of us did successfully (yes, believe it or not, I did it successfully!).  However, just after that branch the water became very restless and all 9 of us were flipped out of our kayaks and left scrambling.  The water was really rough, and when I flipped over, I had a hard time keeping my head above water for a bit despite my life jacket I had on.  When I finally gained footing on a rock, the water coming up behind me was extremely forceful and began pushing me towards more unfriendly rapids.  It was at this point that I was legitimately scared.  I finally dove towards shore, hoping that I would make it, otherwise I was going for a bumpy, not-very-fun ride.  Luckily I was able to grasp some plants right on the edge of the bank and pull myself onto the bank.  My brother and another guy were there on the bank near me having made it safely before I did.  My brother said, "Hey there's Tim."  By the time I looked all I could see was Tim's paddle out in the middle of the river.  Finally he popped up again and was whisked down the river a little ways. He was able to reach shore further downstream. With that we heard a cry for help, so we went running (side note: I lost my glasses during this bit of action and am now running around with my near-sightedness not exactly making me the most useful guy around.). Luckily, when we got to where the cry came from, our buddy who had been pinned against a log had gotten unpinned and they were both fine.  Upon regrouping, we realized that we only had 7 and had no idea where the other 2 were.  Well, we finally found them way downstream as they were unable to make it to shore earlier, they just floated/sputtered down the river through some more rapids until they could get to shore.  This was when it was decided that we were going to carry the kayaks the rest of the way, that we were no longer going to kayak.  It was a good thing too, cuz near the end the water was very rocky again.  We were all quite thankful to be safe and sound and only missing one kayak (mine) and a paddle and a half.  I think we learned our lesson, don't go kayaking when there has been 10 inches of rain recently added to the river!