River Thunder by Will Hobbs

Author:Will Hobbs [Hobbs, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-54433-9
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 1997-08-20T04:00:00+00:00

We were scouting when Canyon Magic tied up and joined us. Granite was steep, fast, explosive. I was thinking that a run down the tongue and close to the wall looked too dicey. I was trying to picture a far-left run. If I could use the Scoot and drop the raft just downstream of a certain boulder, high left in the rapid … That first drop would be steep and sudden, but after that …

It gave me a big boost of confidence when Kit started describing the same run to one of their other boatmen. This time we learned all of their names. Troy and I shook hands with Ray, who turned out to be Navajo; Pack, with the powerful chest and thick mustache; Gail, the willowy lady with the yellow scarf; Tom, with the full beard; and Juke the swamper, in training on the gear boat. Ray asked, “You hear about the speed run?”

We wagged our heads.

“Three professional boatmen are on the river right now doing a solo trip in a dory. They’re out to set a speed record. They left Lee’s Ferry about eleven last night.”

Troy’s jaw dropped. “Wait a minute—at night?”

“Marble Canyon in the moonlight,” Tom put in. “These guys know the Canyon so well, they could almost do it blindfolded.”

Pack laughed. “They know the Canyon, all right, but the rapids are all different at these levels. Those guys are really hanging it out there.”

“Which ones will they scout?” I asked.

Ray had a glint in his eye. “Word is they aren’t scouting anything.”

“For real?”

“This is for real. They want to shave off every minute possible. The radio said a helicopter spotted ’em at eight this morning at Mile 61 already, the Little Colorado. They’re gonna set a record if they don’t hit a rock or something. The radio said to keep an eye out for them today.”

“What’s the red in the river?” Troy asked.

Pack pulled on his mustache. “Weird deal. They say the river’s been chewing through the concrete lining of the spillway tunnels that run through the cliffs around the sides of the dam. Now the river’s starting to chew on the sandstone. That’s what’s making the red.”

“Spooky,” I said.

“Exactly,” Kit agreed, motioning her people back to the boats.

Everybody ran Granite a little differently. Fighting off the waves close to the wall, Troy had the most excitement. One wave hit him from the side and washed him clean overboard. Rita told me about it afterward. At the time, she didn’t even know he wasn’t rowing. In the heat of the action, she turned around to check on him and found he wasn’t there. A second later he hauled himself aboard with a combination of his tremendous upper-body strength and a wave lifting him up. He grabbed hold of the oars and met the worst of the waves just in time.

Next came Hermit Rapid, and it came up quick. At the scout, all the boatmen, including Juke the swamper, decided they wanted no part of the wave train.

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