First Descents, Day 6

It’s Friday evening and I’m sitting in the Otter Bar living room. It has been an absolutely wonderful day.

We started the day with Peter, the lead trainer explaining the various levels of risk, and how they move us from ho-hum to adventure to peak adventure to disaster. We ran down a category 2+ section of rapids yesterday. I dumped out of the boat twice. One of our campers, a sarcoma survivor that had to have is leg amputated flipped over in a rapid yesterday. He got hurt and couldn’t get in a Kayak today. It was a huge bummer because he is such a go-getter the whole time, despite a very challenging situation.
Maneuvering a Kayak is pretty much a two-leg gig. You have to use you knees to bank and turn. Anyway, when he was hurt and couldn’t paddle. The lead trainer was very affected by this, and he decided that for today we would run the same rapids, but with less supervision. This was a way to bring up the level of risk and adventure.

I felt pretty tense by the time this talk was over. I didn’t want to miss the two rapids that I couldn’t handle today. So I began preparing my mind with positive focus on the way out. I saw myself coming through the rapids o.k.

We put out, and soon enough it was time to run the rapid that kicked my ass the last time. I spend most of the ride over focusing on how great it would feel to get through it. So I entered it, followed the tongue down through some pretty big tossing rapids, and then I was o.k. I got into a relatively safe zone and raised my paddle in the air with both hands. It was awesome. And such was the case for the rest of the day. I ran all of the rapids without falling. I kept balanced and focused and was totally in it. And after getting through the second rapid that I rolled on yesterday, I was so happy. Before we knew it, we were above the last rapid, and it was almost over.
Everyone got through it. And that was then end of our time on the river.

I wish I could do it again tomorrow. Today I really felt I needed the trainer to go through before I did so I could see the way. Now I think it would be o.k.
For me to go on my own, which was what the trainer wanted us to do, but I felt with my memory, it would be better to go that way. Really once I got into each rapid it was me doing what I needed to get my boat down to then next eddy.

I organized several of the staff and campers to set up Peter, the main trainer, and pour a jug of water over his head. That was lots of fun.

The rest of the day was cool. We listened to Let It Be on the way home. It was so nice.

So tonight has been cool. Sat in the Jacuzzi when we first got back. I took a bunch of pictures and filled out a couple of surveys.

We filled out thank you cards for the staff and trainers and ate dinner. We went back to the training pond and exchanged ribbons. Linda, the nurse gave me hers and said that I had really learned a lot from me.
She felt like if she ever got cancer, she knew how she would respond to the situation. She would take what she learned from what I have done and apply it to her life.

Also, a couple of other people said that my story and poetry and story really moved them. It was awesome knowing that I had affected people pretty deeply. We lit candles for the missing camper. It was a wonderful end to the most awesome day I’ve had in a long time.