Below that I scouted every Class III in the FS guide. My only real mishap was at Punk Rock. The photos of Punk Rock Rapid in Jim Slingluff’s Verde River Recreation Guide look much more open than the rapid looks now. Maybe the drought years let vegetation fill in, then the recent flooding pushed a lot of rocks into the rapid. It looked pretty gnarly to me, a heavy if short III.

After looking it over I decided to go for it, although the only clean entry was far right and I had to get left of the Rock to make it. The other entries looked sketchy – rocks, holes, laterals. The Punk Rock sat directly in mid-current, with a big pillow wave pushing up and around it. On the right was… don’t want to think about it. Pin from hell. To the left, though (after the entry on far right) all clean, with an easy eddy at the bottom and a mile until the next hazard, so what the heck!

In writing class they call that foreshadowing. By now I should know that whenever I think about the swim at the bottom, it’s because that’s what I’m doing. In hindsight, I should have lined on the left through the gravel bar and brush.

The current was more pushy than I was. I blew the crux ferry, and ended up sideways on the Rock. Luckily I had made it far enough left that I didn’t get pinned in the right channel, which would have been a supreme bitch. I almost managed to highside and spin off, but no. As I spun free, I rolled over and in I went.

Lesson two, if you think you might swim, wear the rubber no matter how sunny it is. I had opted out of the neoprene due to the lovely weather. Swimming, I was fine but worried about the cool water, and I was going to be in it for a while because I wasn’t able to tow the heavily loaded boat to a beach and couldn’t get a flip line set. First, I dropped the paddle to add an arm to the swim/tow. No luck. Finally I dropped the boat, swam to river right, scrambled up the bank, and watched the boat drift slowly on, knowing full well I was now boatless in a wilderness with nothing but a knife, mylar survival blanket, and magnesium fire starter in my PFD.