We put in above Barrell Springs on a rapid called Life After Death. This rapid is right below upper death and lower death. We could have put in on lower death, but you have to lift the raft over a railing, which sucks! And Upper Death has yet to be done in a Creature Craft. Darren said it looked do-able at 45oo cfs, but he wasn’t equipped for it. Upper Death is scary! Just standing on the bike path next to it, freaks me out. That water is super violent. Life After Death was a lot of fun. There were a lot of big hits. We had no problems. The water between Life After Death and Barrell Springs is super mellow. I’m glad, because it gave me a little time to warm up and talk to Darren about what I was about to do.

Before doing Barrell Springs, we scouted it. Wow! It was a lot bigger standing next to it, than looking at it from the road. Darren and I got into the raft and took charge. As we paddled toward the top of Barrell Springs, we were hit by a huge wind gust. We had to wait a little bit, before the wind calmed down. It’s amazing on how the wind affects the Creature Craft. We barely could gain any ground paddling because it was so strong. After it calmed down, it was game time. The top of Barrell Springs was a blast. There were huge holes, and the raft plowed through it. About halfway through the rapid, one of the holes rolled us. As you can see from the video, it rolled the raft completely upside down. What a rush! I actually didn’t realize we were upside down until Darren said we were. We were only that way for about 3 seconds before we rolled over on the side, with me in the water. This is when things got a little scary. There’s a trick about the Creature Craft. When there are two people in the raft and it’s rolled on its side, the person on the up-side has to use their body weight to try and flip it upright. But the only way that can be done, is if the person in the water completely goes limp and keeps as much of their body in the water. Here’s where I messed up. I tried to relax and keep my body in the water, but I quickly ran out of breath. I also kept hitting rocks. So instead of relaxing, I kind of panicked a little bit and kept pulling my head above the water. Bad news. This prevented Darren from being able to flip the raft upright. I was in the water for about 32 seconds.