To read part seven of day six, click here.

It was my fault we got stuck. I should have done the proper correctional stroke and turned us. But I saw us heading for a spot that looked shallow, panicked, and did the wrong stroke.

So instead of turning away from the rock, we ran right into it.

“Rock your hips, Brett! Let’s see if we can slide off to the left. Lean that way and rock your hips.”

I did what Bruce said to do, glad I had him in my canoe. There was a sickening groan as the canoe slid a little bit, coming to rest a couple of inches from where it had been.

We kept wiggling, trying to get the canoe off the rock. Seven minutes later, (I remember – I looked at my watch. LOL) we finally slid off the rock. We were free!

I can tell you this – I was a lot more careful after that. 😀

Despite getting stuck, Bruce and I were still the first crewmembers out of the rapids. We sat with Patrick and watched what was going on. It was pretty funny, actually. We had one canoe going backwards, one going sideways, and one stuck on a rock. Jen and Ben were coming straight for us, and the other canoe had flipped.

Glenn was going around the rapids telling people what to do. The canoe that was going backwards managed to turn around and start going forward, but then got stuck on a rock. The canoe that had been stuck on a rock got free and got to us about the same time Jen and Ben did.

We were all floating slowly down the river. Thankfully before we got too far, the other canoes caught up to us.

Everyone congratulated each other for getting through our first rapids. Then we picked up our paddles and headed down the river, heading straight for our next rapids.

I don’t remember how many rapids we did before lunch. I remember that while Bruce and I did get stuck on rocks one or two more times, we never flipped. Which was a good thing, because I was scared of flipping more than anything else.

All of the others flipped, and they acted like it was fun. They would catch up to us laughing, saying they couldn’t wait for the next rapids. But even hearing someone talking about flipping would make me panic.

I’m not proud of my fear of the water. It became a problem later on in my course. And my fear of the water led me to ask Jen a question that I regret asking. (Don’t worry, that was the next day.)

I almost didn’t put this in there. I didn’t really want to write about my fear and let the whole world see it. I didn’t want everyone to see just how scared I was on the river. But I said I was going to write about my trip, and my fear of the running water defined my trip.

Without my fear of the water, things would have been easier for me. I would have been able to enjoy the river like everyone else. I wouldn’t have been terrified every time we had to cross a river or a creek when we were hiking.

So I’m going to write about my fear of the water. It’s not easy to write this, but I want to write everything like it was. I’m not going to sugar coat it just because I want to put it on my blog. I want to write the truth, I just don’t really want everyone to see it. 🙂

After we had done a couple of rapids, Glenn yelled out “Who wants to take a break for lunch?”

Everyone yelled back, “YES!!!!!”

We were hungry. 😀

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*