As my body bounced against the rocks, my thoughts raced!  "Is this the way I will meet my demise?"

It was a beautiful summer day.  I was attending Brigham Young University in Provo Utah, recently returned back to school after teaching 7th and 8th grade science in Burns, Oregon.  The year would be about 1971.  Surely there was something more relaxing and interesting than staying on campus.  I decided that I would go tubing in Provo River.

Provo River near Bridal Veil Falls in Summer

I obtained an inner tube, filled it with air, and drove to what I thought would be a good spot.  This was just above Bridal Veil Falls.  This was my second poor decision.  The first was to even think of tubing down Provo River!  The third poor decision was to go alone.

As I got on the inner tube and started to float downstream, the current was swift, and the river was filled with rocks of considerable size. I carefully mounted the inner tube and tried to position myself in the middle.  My butt was hanging through the center and I hit a few large rocks, so I decided to try to reposition myself.  I almost immediately lost my balance and the inner tube was floating above me, rather than me being on the inner tube!  I was in the center of the fast-moving current and, although the river was only about 15-20 feet wide, it seemed like it was much wider than that. 

I clung to the tube as best as I could, but this only kept my body between it and the rocks as my head and torso slammed against them.  Finally, I let go of the tube and crashed between the rocks trying to find my way to the side of the river.  I remember that I told myself that I needed to grab on to the sticks and bushes that were bending into the river from the bank.  But the channel was deep enough that the sides of the riverbank were at least three feet above the water level.

I was able to get to the edge of the river, but how this happened I still don't comprehend.  I just know that I was cold, almost numb, and one very frightened young man!  But since the bank was so high, I still had to do the best that I could to cling to the shrubs and limbs along the bank that were helping me stay out of the middle of the river channel.  I had to negotiate the edge of the river in this manner for, perhaps, a third of a mile before finding a place that I could climb onto the bank, exhausted!

The thought I had at that time, and other times since was that I was not alone.  My guardian angel, or perhaps one or more of my forebears was there to assist me in surviving this very close call!