Our Lilburn Ward YM spent a morning on the middle Ocoee river in let September. It was a super outing. We had about 20 young men (over 14) and 5 s. Friday night we held a campfire and a few stories from the Bishop. It was one of those events they will remember for years to come. There are about 20 rapids on this stretch with 5 or 6 of them class 4 rapids and multiple class 3. On one we went sideways over a 4 foot shelf, nice. At the bottom of the shelf was a protruding rock. Our raft was wedged between the rock on the bottom and the top. Then the boat began to slip slowly under water. Within minutes water began to fill up the boat, we're still sitting. Then the boat is full, we're still sitting. I could see it was about over so I stood up and began to fend for myself . I was told to stay in the boat and sit down. The boat has now settled nicely down under the flow of water and we are sitting in the boat with water flowing past us up to our armpits. The river is full of other boats. We are now the main attraction. Boats are coming right over the bow of our boat. In fact, I can reach out and touch them as they pass, over my boat and over my legs as I am in the front of the boat. This is very nice. 'Stay in the boat!', right....Miraculously, the boat is dislodged and we are lifted out of the current and back on top of the water. It was awesome. I was especially grateful to have Jono and Mark in the boat with me. Aight this is Mark. And this is the funny part. We got lodged under the waterfall and good ol' Dad tries to take charge and starts to get out of the boat. Our guide was like, "sit down, hit the deck!" It was hilarious, because Dad was headed for shore, and it took a lot to stop him. The ship was down and he was out. Aight dad writes the next part.We had a youth fireside in our home again tonight, Sunday October 19th, 2008. We hold them once each month. We had 46 youth and 10 leaders in our house with two elders speaking. One of the elders is from Ghana, South Africa. He gave a wonderful talk. I just love working with these great youth.
