Part 2 - Hell Biking Revisited - Part 2

But paddling was safe and painless compared to wading some of the creeks too fast, narrow, or shallow to deploy the raft. Like Lime Creek on day four…Jon and I watched anxiously as Carl struggled midway across, the brown water piling up to his hips. Helpless, we saw him stumble, the wicked current snatching his front wheel as it dipped down, sucking the loaded bike off his shoulder and into the surge. To drop the bike was to lose it. Carl desperately clung on, struggling to wrench the bike free of the current. The torrent relinquished nothing. Instead, it sucked Carl down as well. Tripping and staggering to regain control of the bike, Carl dropped out of sight. The waters washed and tumbled him downstream. –Dial, 1989, p. 36