Top 5 scary moments

I just had a crazy weekend of whitewater rafting in Maine, which prompted me to come up with this list. These are the 5 scariest moments of my adult life. To be considered, these events must have happened to me after my 18th birthday (i don't have a good enough memory to remember stuff before then). Since I don't like writing long posts, I'm splitting this into 5 different posts starting number 5, which just so happens to be the most recent.

5. Almost drowning in the Kennebec River

Ever been rafting on the Kennebec River in Maine? Well, in case you haven't, it's a class 4+ river, which can be pretty intense in places. At a certain point, it's safe to jump off the raft and float through a couple of class 2 rapids with just your lifejacket to keep you up.

Well, I did this. Little did I know I float at lightning speed. I somehow got caught in the current and went about 100 yards ahead of my raft. Let me tell you, a class 2 wave looks huge when you are about to get hit in the face with it. It's fun for a while, but after about 30 minutes of this I started having trouble breathing and my raft was getting further and further away from me. I don't think I've ever swallowed so much water in my life. I kept running into rocks and getting pulled under the water by strong currents... and yes, I was fearing for my life. Some of those rocks can do some real damage and I didn't know if my raft was ever going to catch up to me.

Anyway, I eventually swam out of the current and my raft caught up to me and pulled me in. Not a real climatic story, but I definitely had visions of broken bones and hospital visits. Not cool since the nearest hospital was probably 4 hours away. Luckily I walked away with just a few scrapes, bruises and sore swimming muscles.

...of course I went rafting again the next day... this time I stayed in the boat.