There was so much volume, however, the waves rose up the sides of the canyon walls, and each time he’d get near the side, the massive waves would collapse over him and shove him back toward the center of the river. The power of the water was so strong, at one point Rob had to yell for John to let go. He was about to flip himself and, with his injury, didn’t want to have two swimmers in jeopardy.

As John let go, a massive haystack hit Rob sideways, and he had to test his theory. It knocked him over, but after three tries, he was up again, looking for John’s head bobbing somewhere below. It was a shock when he saw John appear, resurfacing some two hundred feet down the canyon, a very long time to be underwater. Rob raced downstream and got to John again, and the two rode the furious energy, Rob using all he had to avoid the huge whirlpools that were materializing all around him.

Out of breath and totally spent, John yelled desperately, “Don’t leave me, Rob! I don’t have much left! I’m done!” He was gurgling, his mouth getting filled with water. After another two miles, the canyon finally widened a bit, and Rob found some rocks where he deposited John, who lay on his belly, gasping, moaning, and spitting out great gobs of brown water. Finally, John pulled himself up to his knees, then his feet. He wrapped his arms around Rob.

“Not so tight.” Rob winced with pain.

“You saved my life,” John said, and he sank down again, hanging his head in exhaustion.

While all of this was going on, Eddi and I were having plenty of drama of our own in the double-ducky inflatable. As hard as we paddled, the energy of the river was taking us where it wanted us to go. Several times we rode up one of those crashing waves against the canyon walls, got upended, and spilled into the river with whirlpools forming right below us.

A ducky has a lot of buoyancy, so I latched onto the upside-down handle, while the monstrous spin cycle grabbed my feet. If my shoes hadn’t been tied tightly, they would have been sucked right off, and if I hadn’t been holding on with all my strength, my body would have been pulled down with them.

When there was finally a break in the action, we took a rest on shore, and I approached Rob, who was sitting quietly on his kayak, taking a drink from his water bottle.

“I heard you finally got some exercise on this trip,” I said.

“Exactly, Big E. It was the beginning of my new Gypsy fitness plan. A Gypsy a day keeps the doctor away.”

“Even with a little kryptonite,” I said, putting my hand gently on his shoulder, “I want you to know, you’re still pretty awesome.”