The Last of the Glory Days

The sun broke through the trees and streamed bands of gold in through the tent window and into Jay’s eyes. He tried to turn over but the direct sunlight was making his head hot. ‘I just need to get up and get going’ he thought as he tried to find a way to get comfortable on his old Army cot. He hated that cot, because it always smelled of mildew from years of storage up in the rafters of his garage, but he hated sleeping on the ground even more.

As Jay sat up he felt the blood rush from his head, making him a little dizzy. “I drank too much last night,” he said aloud “I’m never doing that again”. This was a common pledge whenever he woke up hung over, but that sentiment usually faded at the next opportunity he got to spend time with his brother Stan. He loved hanging out with his brother. Jay was three years older than Stan and when they were children, they didn’t have much in common so they didn’t spend a lot of time together but as adults, Jay had grown to love his brother’s spirit and sense of adventure.

Stan owned a number of businesses now, but in his twenties and thirties he had been a rafting guide in Northern Maine, rafting on the Kennebec, Dead and Penobscott Rivers with a local rafting company. As guides often do, he discovered alternative rivers and falls to raft where they wouldn’t take a boat full of tourists because of the likelihood of a mishap.

The Seboomook River above Moosehead Lake was not typically one of those rivers unless it had a big dam release, but because of its remoteness, the commercial companies didn’t use it which made it a haven for raft guides and former raft guides. That was where he was taking us today.

Coming to the campground with Stan was like coming with the Mayor. He was legendary as a good guide, but even more so for his personality and antics among the guides. When they pulled into the campsite people started yelling “Stan the man!” and “Stanimal!”. It made Jay proud to see how well loved his brother was.

His wife Colleen had come with them and she was his perfect match. She was funny and gregarious in a way that might make you think that they were some comedy team. When Jay, Stan and their cousins started having families, all of the male cousins had started referring to each other as Uncle with their kids and this turned into all of the cousins calling each other Uncle as well. Jay and Stan called each other Uncle Jay and Uncle Stan, so Colleen would always use that term as well. Whenever Jay would show up at a function, she would loudly announce, “Uncle Jay is in the house!” and give him a big hug. It was fun and it was her way of being part of the family.

When they had arrived the night before, the campsite was loud and the party had already started. Beers were flowing and they had three grills fired up and loaded with all types of meats and vegetables. Jay had a burger and some grilled veggies to get something into his stomach. He knew by now that drinking on an empty stomach would be bad news on the river.

He watched the guides laugh and swap embarrassing stories about their days on the rivers and it made him a little envious and sad. In his thirties, he had discovered scuba diving while vacationing in Mexico and from that point on it became an obsession. He earned a basic certification and then an advanced which allowed him to go to deeper waters. As he took the courses, he really enjoyed the instructors and Dive Masters that trained him. They were like a quirky club of misfits that fit perfectly together. So when they were offering opportunities for Dive Master Candidates, he jumped at it. He spent nearly every Sunday during the winter months in the pool and every other weekend during the summers in a quarry in Pennsylvania helping to train new divers. They went on dive trips together and always had a great time. He could see that connection with the river guides, they shared a love of the water, just on top of it, not beneath it.

As the night wore on one beer became two, then two became four, then he lost count and a bottle of Fireball made its rounds and he was well past ready for bed. That left him in the state he awoke in this morning. He really didn’t have a headache, but his stomach felt shredded which was never good for a boat trip. But there was no use whining about it, it was best to try to eat something and get moving.

The morning was a slow moving flurry of activity, but Stan was fired up and pulling gear from the truck. “We’ll blow the boat up here and the three of use will haul it to the water, it’s just a couple hundred feet”. It was hot already and Jay could feel the sweat running down the sides of his face.

“Jeez Uncle Jay, you looked wiped already,” chuckled Stan.

“No kidding. Too much desk sitting. I spend six hours a day in meetings and I eat too much!” Jay wiped the sweat away with the front of his shirt.

“Well this is a big release, but it should be a fun, easy float down the river”.

When they had the boat inflated, Stan handed Jay a life jacket and he put it on and snugged it up a little. This made him even hotter, but they would be in the boat soon.

Stan tossed the oars into the boat, “are we ready”?

Colleen grabbed her handle and yelled “Yeah Uncle Jay, let’s do this!” and they lifted the boat in unison and walked to the put-in.

The boat splashed down in the water and Jay welcomed the cool relief as it washed across his legs.

“Here this is for you,” Stan held out a hard black helmet.

Jay looked it over ,“Do I need one?”

“No. But just in case. It should be an easy ride but you never know when things might go south unexpected”.

Jay nodded and strapped the helmet on.

Stan pushed the boat fully into the water and settled himself at the back to steer. “Okay pull together, forward”. Colleen and Jay started paddling down the river, it looked flat and the current was a nice easy flow. Each stroke propelled the boat forward in a nice even motion.

As he looked down river, Jay could see the beginning of a little white water, but nothing particularly alarming. The last time he had rafted was twenty years ago when he was 36. they had rafted the Kennebec River on a pretty decent dam release. But now he was 56 and about thirty pounds heavier. He had tried to spend some time on the treadmill at home prior to the trip, but six hours of sitting per day would never be canceled out by a couple hours on the treadmill.

He could feel the current starting to increase the speed of the boat and felt a flutter of anxiety in his stomach. Was it anxiety or hang over, he couldn’t be sure.

Stan broke his thoughts “All ahead hard!” and they started paddling “Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!” he bellowed "get ready!"… “Now pull through it!”

Jay and Colleen drove into their paddles and the nose of the boat rocketed over the small fall and water poured over the nose. When Jay went to drive his paddle again the hydraulics of the water flow shot the boat upwards and flipped him out of the boat backwards. He was under water and his head struck on a rock. He kicked to surface but was being tossed around in the current. He kicked harder and finally broke the surface coughing and gasping as another wave of water slammed him in the face. It was like drinking from a fire hose. He tried to keep his head above water but he was sliding down in the life jacket so that his face was at the water level as he went careening down the river out of control and completely caught up in the current. As he surfaced again he tried to get his head above water and breathe, but it poured into his face allowing only a half breath. He kicked hard and broke the surface again to get his face up and took a deep breath.

“Swim to your right!” he heard a voice call.

Jay was panicking and he heard a voice in his head say ‘calm down, breathe, get your bearings’. It was dive training coming back to him. He turned his body so that he would stop getting water in his face and panted deeply trying to exhale the water and inhale some air. Now he realized how out of shape he was, he had only been in the water for about 45 seconds and he was already beginning to tire.

Just swim. He thought to himself and started to extricate himself from the current. When he finally relocated the boat he saw Stan standing on the edge with a throw bag in his hand “Catch the rope!” He looked like some action hero in a war film heaving a grenade for all he was worth.

The rope uncoiled from the bag in the air and it landed about 20 feet upstream from him so Jay started swimming against the current to close the gap. As he approached the bag floating on the surface, he realized that he still has his paddle in his left hand and he reached out and snagged the bag with the t-grip and pulled it to him. He wrapped the rope around his arm and Stan pulled the boat to Jay rather than having Jay swim to them. Stan and Colleen pulled Jay onto the boat and he laid there trying to catch his breath.

“Oh shit,” he heard Stan say “Colleen dig in hard we’re going through the next hole!”

The boat plunged down again and water washed into the boat. Jay held his head up and the water passed under his face. When the boat came back to an easy ride and Jay caught his breath.

Stan sat him up, “are you okay?”

Jay shook his head and flexed his neck. “Yeah I think so. I hit my head on something and my neck feels a little wonky but I think I’m fine”.

Colleen laughed, “Uncle Jay if you wanted to go swimming we could have pulled into a calmer spot!”

Stan was recoiling the throw rope, “That’s the first time I’ve thrown that in ten years, I wasn’t sure if I’d reach you”.

Jay was still trying to get reoriented in his head “well I’m glad you did because I was about done and as close to drowning as I’ve ever come and I have over 100 dives under my belt”.

Stan smiled. “Well, you look cool in that helmet brother”.

“Better than I’d look without it” Jay chuckled.

The rest of the trip went off without incident and Jay would have been lying if he said he wasn’t a little anxious at each hole. But they pushed through each one and the trip became more fun as he let go of his anxiety.

At the end of the trip Jay thought, 56 is definitely not the new 36, my glory days are done.