
I said, "I have incurable cancer and I don't know when I can be back on the water, I want to do the big rapids!" This meant that our Saturday would be spent in Maryland on the beautiful Upper Yough on the Youghiogheny River. Jam worked miracles and found a paddler who would be crazy enough to man the raft and another friend to add an additional safety kayak on the side. We started out in our raft on some calm water on the Upper Yough and worked on paddling. JR had never even been on white water and I had only kayaked with the FD group on the New. I had never been inside a raft before. It was a great start the the epic adventure I was seeking. I will tell you that I swam the first "named rapid" on the Upper Yough, Bastard. I am not even 100% sure how I ended up out of the boat but I swam a pretty intense class IV rapid from top to bottom. I will say that our amazing guide said that I was smiling more than any person he'd ever seen swim like that and that it was the longest swim he'd ever seen. I can assure you that he took some pretty epic adventure stories from our day on the river. That was the last rapid I fell out on, although JR did take a few spills into the Yough himself.
Saturday night we had an amazing dinner and everyone headed off to bed early. JR said that the day was the most physically demanding day he thinks he had ever had. He had no idea how much work it would take for a day rafting on the river. I was equally (or more) sore and tired but I was also energized and empowered. It is hard to think about cancer when you are focusing so hard on getting through the river! Jam out did himself with the amazing Saturday adventure he put together for us.
