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Stand Up and Die
The River’s Out to Get Me
Story and Photos by John O’Bryan
What Allison said was, “I didn’t ask you to go at first, because I didn’t think you’d be able to do it.”
What I heard was, “You’re too weak and feeble to do anything like float down a river with me, old man.”
“I want to go,” I said, and the click I heard was the sword of Damocles breaking free from its precarious position overhead. Had I really just committed to floating fifty miles of the most remote river in the Lower 48, the Owyhee, with my daughter? Yes, I had.
I was terrified even before I learned that someone had died on the river that spring, even before I envisioned the flotsam and jetsam of a shattered boat held by the pressure of what amounted to two full-grown cows pressing it against a rock wall.
At the moment, all I knew was what Allison had told me, that there are no roads in or out and you must leave nothing but footprints and take out nothing but your bodily fluids. I was worried (and a little grossed out) by this statement, but the event was still months away and a lot could happen between then and now.
Nothing did.
A bunch of others would be on this father-daughter trip, for which my daughter was a third-year guide, but clearly I was the one who would die on the river. It would be hard on Allison to have to pull her dad’s lifeless body out of a rapid but I didn’t care. She had asked me to go and it would serve her right for goading me into coming.
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2 Responses to Stand Up and Die
DeAnn Isenberg -
at
Awesome story. Great father/daughter, we can all relate story!
Paul Spence -
at
As a guide, I always find it educational to hear a participants view of events that had recently transpired. Very funny indeed, I had a good laugh. But John our guides never use the word died or dead that’s a no no. For editorial sake, I believe the rapid you were describing was Bulls Eye, hard to say but Read it and Weep is on day 3 and down stream of the Weeping Wall. Read it and Weep is a more intimidating name, I’ll give you that. Really enjoyed the article and will share it with many others who’ve struggled in the beginning of the trip.