Page 19 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

The Green Lakes gave way to a gentle flowing river for a few miles till I saw two buttes ahead
on the left and the right that I recognized must be a gorge.

But I didn’t have that recorded on the map; Nor saw it or read about it before hand. As I ap-

proached I could hear the sound of rapids. On my right a river joined and made a wide sand bar
with only a narrow traverse for a channel.

It was moving fast.

I had never been in a fast moving body of water yet so here was my baptism by fire.

I looked at it. I got out of the boat on the sand bar and evaluated it. I decided I could do it. So I
did.

Moving into the channel along the bank, though very narrow, the Inflatable Kayak accelerated

into the fast lane like any native Southern California Son driving on the 405 to the 605 in Or-
ange County.

It was fast.

I was excited, nervous, wired and happy. It was beyond me I am sure, but I didn’t know

what I was doing so I didn’t have clue what was happening. I simply enjoyed the ride.

The rapids noise I heard was still ahead of me and it became a roar.

To make a long story short, I was smashed sideways against a boulder that forced the
current to a 90 turn that my kayak hit and dumped me into hydraulics that had cut a
hole under the massive boulder.

I was underwater with my kayak pinned above me.

I was wearing my PFD, Personal Flotation Device, and the only thought I had was some
confusion over why I was not floating with a Life Jacket On.

One year later on May 1st I was on the Mississippi River using it to prepare me for the

much harder Green River that had nearly drown me a year before……...