Part 3
Saturday came quick, could we really be on our third day of this trip already? We were enjoying the mountain landscape and surrounding so much. Pete suggested we go for a hike on the mountain where the house was located. So we shimmied on our hiking shoes, and out the door we went. The mountain air that morning was cool and dry, I was able to keep my hair down and my jacket on for most of the hike. Pete and Ryan enjoyed some good conversation as I tagged along in the back listening to nature sounds, or lack thereof. We hiked for a while until we reached a clearing that showed us a view of the mountain's summit. It was breathtaking. The hike back to the house seemed to go twice as fast, and then we heard a crack in the distance, and saw movement in the trees. I may have panicked a little bit, as I thought it was a bear, but Pete was the first to investigate and said it was a moose. The moose moved fast, and we did too...back to the house we went!
After lounging for just a moment, Pete said it was time to head into town and meet Dustin and Rachel, the couple that would be taking us on our float on a raft down the Yellowstone River. Rachel is Canadian, and she had the accent to prove it. As Dustin prepared the raft for our adventure, we made sure that we had the necessities- popcorn, beverages, and chips. We were good to go! However, there were only 4 life vests instead of 5. Dustin decided we'd bring the 4 they had, but we could ditch the Canadian if needed- Rachel rolled her eyes.
We piled into our vehicles and headed down to the Yellowstone River. A lot of people were loading rafts and boats into one of the starting areas- surprised that snow hadn't yet fallen in Montana being that it was October 2nd, the Montanans were taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Ryan and I helped push the raft into the water and shivered as our feet hit the water. We were definitely in the mountains, the water was ice cold. Our rafting adventure had begun. We floated along the Yellowstone lazily as the rushing water of April snow melt wasn't a concern for another 6 months. Enjoying a few beverages and the mountain views, I felt like I was in a movie or at least another world. I smiled at Ryan and he suggested we take a few pictures. Out came the "dry bag", which Dustin, Rachel and Pete informed us would survive if it happened to be floating down the river, a good place for a camera for sure. The water was so clear you could see the rocks and fish pass beneath us. We changed hands at the oars and Pete was going to steer us for a while, however when Dustin stood up, one of the oars decided to take a dip itself. Pete lunged himself out into the water and grabbed the oar as we all hooted and hollered. Pete really did a belly flop into the water and was soaking wet. It was the highlight of our trip.
About 3 miles into our 5 (ish) mile float, we had discussed almost every topic under the sun. Dustin decided it was perfect time to fish and grabbed his reel and let Rachel take the oars. Life was good and we were enjoying every bit of this lazy Saturday. The water started to pick up coming towards a bend in the river, and we could see white water rushing against the rocks. Our raft was cruising at about 15 maybe 20 miles per hour it was hard to tell. Then, we spotted it- a down tree in the middle of the bend straight ahead. Before I could yell "Iceberg straight ahead" we had flipped.
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