In the late 1960s Jim Burnham and I built a raft using four 55-gallon drums and took a 35-mile journey down the Sultan and Skykomish and Snohomish Rivers from Sultan, Washington, to Everett, Washington.
Leaving with a wooden box of supplies and two poles for maneuvering, we got caught in a large whirlpool where we spun around several times until finally being let go and pulled into the larger river, where we lost the poles right off and gave our fate over to the river's currents for the whole journey.
In Snohomish we had a dock mishap and lost our box of supplies, including my rucksack and favorite jackknife. The journey lasted all night, through the cold darkness.
By the time we got to Lowell, at the edge of Everett, one of our metal drums had leaked so badly, probably from damage in one of the shallow rapids, that the raft was leaning. In Lowell we happened to pass beneath a tree where both of us jumped up and grabbed onto the branches and climbed down to earth, leaving the raft to continue on its own journey.
Nothing to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Would love to here from you.
No spam or links, please.