Lewis mentally mapped out the route he would take if he were kayaking the rapid. Captain Bob followed Lewis’s gaze as he examined the water’s flow, noting, “It’s a class IV at this flow. Not extremely technical, but definitely big water.”
Lewis scratched his chin then replied, “I get the feeling the surface is easy compared with our planned scuba approach.”
Stonewood was visibly excited as he quickly glanced from his GPS to the paper maps he had, and back to the river. “The entrance is right over there on the upriver side of those two boulders,” he said as he waved his fingers in the direction of two house-sized rocks just to the left of the main rapid.
Stonewood’s enthusiasm was a little contagious, but Lewis worked to keep a level head. He waved Gonzalez over, relaying what Stonewood had just told them. “He says the mouth of the cave is upriver of those boulders, along the fault line.” Lewis pointed to an area snaking down the canyon wall that appeared to be lifted four or five feet higher on the downriver side than it was on the upriver side.
Gonzalez looked a little worried and immediately voiced her concern. “This current is ridiculous. The flow is way more than I was expecting.”
Lewis was growing apprehensive about tomorrow’s dive as well. He turned to Captain Bob and asked, “Do you happen to have sonar on your boat?”
“Just the fish finder,” the captain responded as he gestured towards the screen on the dash. “The transponder is mounted on the stern. The good news is my brother has customized it. He’s an electrical engineer who builds nuclear submarines for the Navy, and this is the best fish finder you’ll ever see.”
“Do you think you can get the stern positioned just up from those rocks?” Lewis asked, already knowing the answer, based upon the captain’s excellent handling of the jet boat thus far.
Captain Bob gently increased the throttles and eased the boat into the center of the rapids. He moved up until he was roughly parallel to the rocks then began edging towards them. At this particular part of the rapids, the waves were larger than the 32-foot boat. As the boat worked its way through the troughs, the passengers had to look up at a steep angle in order to see anything other than frothy green water. Captain Bob worked the throttles as the boat climbed back up on top, where the view was more like that from atop a sky scraper. Repeating this multiple times, the boat was finally positioned perfectly, less than a yard in front of where the current pounded into the boulders.
Checking the fish finder, Lewis could see where the boulders were jammed against the jagged fault line. The jostling of the boat made it tough to make out the details, but Lewis felt a surge of adrenaline when he saw the outline of a 4-foot hole dropping under the raised rock of the fault. There was a problem though. Grabbing one of the aluminum supports that ran across the top of the cabin, Lewis steadied himself then pointed at the screen and said, “There’s our entry. The problem is that.” Lewis pointed to the grayish smudge in the center of the hole. “I believe that’s a tree trunk blocking our door.”
The others stared at the screen, trying not to become seasick as they bounced around in the raging current. “I think it’s just interference,” Gonzalez said hopefully, rubbing her eyes after squinting at the screen.
Captain Bob was working hard to keep the boat in position, and couldn’t spend much time focusing on the fish finder’s screen. After a dozen quick glances, he gave Lewis and Gonzalez each a grim look before turning to Stonewood. “I’m afraid Mr. Lewis is correct. I believe we are looking at the gnawed end of a western red cedar.”
Stonewood looked heartbroken. “Can we pull it out with the boat?” he asked hopefully.
Sweat was pouring down the captain’s face from fighting the controls in the heavy current. “I doubt it. Even if we could somehow lasso it, I suspect it would get wedged in there when we started pulling.” Stonewood hung his head in defeat then motioned the boat up the river. Captain Bob pushed the throttles to their stops, which rocketed the boat through the leading edge of the rapid and across the relatively smooth water to a small beach. He pulled onto the sand and killed the engines, just as two more of Stonewood’s men jogged across the sand to secure the boat.
It looked like the adventure may be over before it started. Everyone stood staring at the defeated Stonewood. Everyone except Lewis; he had leapt from the boat the minute it reached shore, and was now examining the supplies brought up by Captain Bob and the two men. He found a nice selection of climbing gear laid out in the main supply tent.
Lewis was far from an expert climber but he occasionally climbed with friends, making him familiar with the equipment involved. The first item he selected was a spring-loaded camming device, or cam, which used pivoting metal teeth to grab hold when inserted into a crack. Cams were indispensable when you needed to anchor yourself to a rock wall. Lewis also grabbed a locking carabineer and a coil of 9mm climbing rope before heading back to the boat.
Pierre jumped from the boat to the shallows next to the beach when he spotted the familiar gear in Lewis’s hands, exclaiming, “I’m always up for a climb. You’re missing a few important things though.”
Lewis shook his head. “No climbing just yet, Pierre. I was thinking we should fish that log out of the hole.”
Stonewood perked up at the thought. He looked to Captain Bob then back to Lewis. There was a renewed sparkle in his eye when he asked, “You really think you can do it? How?”
Ignoring the questions, Lewis threw the gear into the back of the boat and jogged to the tent one more time, heading further back to where the dive gear was laid out. An 80-cubic foot tank, already fitted with a diving harness, along with a Dive Rite regulator and mask, were all he needed. Lewis leapt back into the boat, grinning at Stonewood. He patted Captain Bob on the back, saying, “If I can borrow your speargun, I think I can spear the log and then you can yank it out.”
Gonzalez, who had done her share of spear fishing, spoke up. “The line on there is nowhere near strong enough to pull that log out.”
“That’s where this climbing gear comes in,” Lewis said, pointing at the first pile he had loaded onboard. He then cut the standard line from the spear, temporarily re-attaching it by simply doubling it up through the eye on the end. Lewis continued. “The gun’s elastic sling isn’t powerful enough to sufficiently propel the spear with the rope attached; instead, we’ll shoot it into the log with the doubled line, then use the line to pull the climbing rope through.” Lewis used a series of gestures as he acted through his plan, even recoiling when he pretended to shoot the spear. Gonzalez giggled when Lewis held his breath as he demonstrated his swim, despite the fact he would be using scuba equipment. Lewis held up the cam, saying, “I don’t think we can pull the log out by just tugging it up the river; we need to use this to establish an anchor point near the top of the rocks. Hopefully, this will allow the boat to pull the log up instead of sideways.”
Captain Bob nodded in approval, telling the men to untie the bow and shove the boat back out. Miller and Samantha jumped to the beach, joining Pierre as the engines came to life and the boat eased back into the water. Powering back down the river, they bounced through Granite Rapids before making a sharp U-turn to work back up into position.
Lewis had the speargun ready and the dive gear assembled by the time the boat was in the right spot — a little further up river than before, giving Lewis room to work. It was only 15 feet down to the opening, but the current was going to make this a rough ride. Lewis placed the scuba regulator in his mouth then jumped from the back of the boat, aiming a little to his right to avoid the wash from the jet. He was immediately tumbled as the current spun him around towards the boulders. He fended off a large rock before being turned upside down and shoved against the bottom. Lewis felt first his foot then his head hit a rock, making him see stars. He fought hard to stay alert, trying to grab on to something to stabilize his spinning body. After a couple more hard thumps and a wild flip, the tank on Lewis’s back banged hard into the rocky wall, the strong current keeping him pinned there. Lewis realized he was nearly vertical in the water, upside down, staring straight at the butt end of the tree. “Finally some good luck,” he thought, smiling around the regulator in his mouth.