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Fry-o-later strikes fear in the hearts of trainees and old-schoolers alike. It has broken bones, surfed those not paying attention, chewed up plenty a soul, and some claim to have seen God there.
Goodness me.
No shit, there I was…I cannot even remember what year it was- 1990- something, regardless; it was a typical Dead River release day- gray and overcast. I was introduced to my crew, there were 6 or 8. We took off down the hilI without much chatter. I was piloting a Riken Frontier (the bailing variety). We had
finally made it to the "eddy" above Poplar. I was a boat at
the end of the line-up. Stephanie was onshore, on river left, taking
photos from a rock right by the big hole. Hind sight being 20/20, I wish that I had seen her waving me off the hole before I decided to get more momentum to crash through to the other side.
As we dropped down into the trough the front of the boat began to bend then turn up to the sky. Next it quickly spun, flinging several people out. The boat completed a textbook version of a "dumptruck". Everyone but 2 were suddenly swimming (including me) in the frothy, shallow water. The two left in the boat did a good job of rescuing a few of the others. One of the rescuers lost his glasses,(they were tied on-but hanging precariously off his ears, on his cheek and chin).
Ok, so this is when I'm thinking… “I totally do not want to be here…What the hell just happened?” One passenger was near me when I came up. He immediately took hold of my life jacket. My boat was far away, but Steve was coming right up on us. He was sweep boat for this trip…he floated by me pitching his throw-bag at me- it landed about 10 feet too short. Remember that passenger holding on to my life jacket? It was at this point he decided that holding on to my life jacket would be helpful to his life. He hand was near my left ear, and knife, holding on for dear life. I suddenly remembered my lifeguard training and peeled his fingers off my jacket one by one, for fear that if he panicked he'd drown me. After relieving him of my life jacket I stayed in the “swimmer” position for a few waves, then decided that was a huge waste of time and rolled over making my way to a little eddy near a rock outcropping. I figured that I could rest here then take to swimming again.
Suddenly I realized that I still had my paddle and, of course, whistle attached to my life jacket. I had the thought that I could get an assist from someone upstream. At that point I did not want to get back in the maelstrom and swim anymore. I glanced up stream. Lo and behold, a single, open boater picking a careful line, was coming downstream. I began waving my paddle, and blowing my whistle. He noticed me and came to me. We exchanged pleasantries. He moved his saddle. I got in. We went down stream. As we got past the remains of the trestle, I saw the Unicorn boats waiting for me. Amy Doss was very pale; Bruce Mercure also showing concern, was shaking his head. They thought they had lost a guide. With all except one aboard, Amy yelled as I got back to my boat, “Christie Fry, If you do that again I’ll cut off your hair”.
It was then that a caucophony of conversation began. “We almost died.” “Have you ever done that before?” “Were we bad paddlers?” One rafter was telling me that it was the most exciting church group trip ever. Another was telling me, sarcastically, that this was a good thing to happen to a hydrophobe. Yeah, really. Church group with 2 people who were/are hydrophobic (What were they thinking?)
The person who did not get in the raft (the one clinging to my life jacket who also happened to be a hydrophobe) was literally GREEN when I saw him. He refused to get back into my raft. The trip ended unceremoniously.
Weeks later back at Unicorn we were talking about the rapids, the huge hole in Poplar , and why it was not named…it was then that someone made the connection of my last name, Fry, the frothing hole, and how when you drop people into that hole it looks like French fries in a FRY-O-LATOR.
Email nick [at] noumbrella [dot] com with your questions, comments and concerns.
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