Jamin mentioned, on June 30th, he would like to spend the morning of the 4th of July rafting. This sounded fun to all of us.
Michael grew up with the Smith River as his backyard. The kids have grown up learning to swim in the river, canoe and raft in the river, judge river danger, swim up and down rapids etc. As Michael says, our river danger is skewed by familiarity with the Smith River.
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| Smith River as seen from the living room window of Michael's familial home |
Jamin agreed to go out before the 4th and check to be sure the spot he was considering would be safe for all.
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| Photo via Google Photos |
The 3rd of July arrived and Jamin suggested he (28), Krista (32), Alex (17) and Nolan (20) venture out to check out the spot. It looked a bit dicey to some. Others thought it was fine. It seemed good to stay together so they decided to give it a try. They were just putting their rafts in when an off-duty officer, in a kilt, stopped to chat with them. His input affected their group decision. He said he couldn't tell them NOT to raft here. He did tell them, however, every year he has to drag bodies out of this river. He said the glacial silt makes it impossible to see what is under the water and the under-current is strong.... locals have said it's like swimming in quick sand. The blunt assessment is the life vests aren't to help you float, they are to help find the bodies after one swims here. ugh.
This kind officer did NOT have to stop on his off duty hours. He was obviously on his way somewhere...yet he stopped. I think the fact the licence plates were VA convinced him we didn't know the danger. After hearing from several locals who have heard the story - I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he may well have changed the trajectory of our family history by simply stopping. (That'll preach). We believe the officer was God's provision in a kilt for our family.
When we were here before we lived in the Anchorage area. We went rafting in rivers all the time. We've now been told the valley rivers are not safe to swim in - which would explain why we see so few swimming in them. We have wondered why more didn't get out and swim locally. Michael and I were slow, slow, slow on the uptake. We should have checked it out ourselves....We have now been warned not to raft in the Matanuska or Knik rivers.
The officer told the kids about a man-made lake where they could get into the water. They checked that out...and we planned to meet there today to play and swim.
Michael and I believe, the officer in a kilt - was God's protecting provision and grace in this situation. He covered for us, when we weren't as engaged as we should have been in what our adult children were about to get into. We were even more aware of the blessing of family this 4th of July.
Unfortunately, communication got mixed and some of us showed up at the "man made lagoon" - we don't know it's name, others of us showed up at the Eklutna Tailrace. It's just the type of family we are. ::snort:: You just have to flex with it. We all had fun on a hot day. LOL
The three agree to dive into the cold, cold water. I can see Alex had other plans...they didn't see that from their perspective.
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| Alex, Jamin, Stacia - Photo by Krista |
Yep - he had no intention of getting deeper in this water.
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| Photo by Krista |
Alex is just out of the left frame in this one....
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| Photo by Krista |
Josiah flat out told them he doesn't go into cold water unless there is a fish to be had at the end of the experience. ::snort::
Here - Krista and Alex go in for the first time
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| Photo by Krista |
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| Photo by Krista |
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| Photo by Krista |
