The flow down a wild river doesn’t move at one consistent pace, so with Rob right behind me, trying to kayak in symmetry with me, it was tricky to begin with. But at Tombstone, I hit the line a little to the right, bounced over a rock, and hit the hole sideways. It stopped me flat and flipped me instantly. I rolled up with just enough time to miss the Tombstone, brushing it with my elbow, but at the next eddy, Rob told me he’d almost T-boned me—or, to put it another way, almost hammered me with the pointed bow of his boat! That could easily break ribs, or worse. So to avoid me, Rob had purposely flipped his own boat, which stopped him in the very same hole.

Floating in an eddy above the last rapid, Man-Eater, Rob said, “Don’t be intimidated by the name. As long as we stay center or right, it’s pretty straightforward.”

“What if I don’t?” I asked tentatively.

Rob looked downriver and said, “That’s where the name ‘Man-Eater’ comes in. So just make sure to angle right and you won’t have to worry about it.”

As we entered the rapid, however, I got pulled too far left and into a circulating eddy. Rob shot by and, within a few seconds, was somewhere downriver.

I was stuck, spinning around, totally disoriented. A moment later, I felt myself dropping backward out of the bottom of the eddy and directly into the Man-Eater. Fortunately for me, the river flow was lower than normal, and the Man-Eater turned out to be a jumble of boulders, some just under the surface and others protruding. I scraped and bounced through them, somehow managing to stay upright. My adrenaline surged, and I was hyperventilating as I finally slammed into a boulder that flipped me instantly. I’d had enough. I pulled my skirt and swam.

As Rob towed me to the shore, he said, “That was impressive, Big E. You managed to ride it through … until that very last rock.” And later, sitting on the beach together, he said, “This speaks loudly to the fact that we need radios. As the rapids get bigger, it’s going to be impossible for me to stay next to you. It’s going to get harder to hear. We may be separated by a wall of white water, or you might get pulled into an eddy.”