A river guide met her match on the Salmon River this rafting season.
Shannon McDougal, a seasoned guide with a deep love for the outdoors, has spent the past four summers leading rafting trips down rivers in eastern Idaho. This summer, she worked for the BYU-Idaho Outdoor Activities Department, guiding trips on the Salmon River’s daily section.
Though she was familiar with the route, the river had something new to offer: a Class IV rapid.
“It was at 6,000 CFS. And CFS is cubic feet per second. So basically, that means there's 6,000 basketball size things of water passing one spot per second,” McDougal said.
Faced with the rapid, McDougal was given two options: run the left side, the recommended route, or follow the raft ahead, which had taken the right.
Relying on her experience, McDougal chose the left.
“We have 6,000 CFS water, you know, pushing us and giving us that momentum,” she said. “We're rowing and paddling with everything we got and we dropped down into this hole and the wave just kind of stops that momentum.”
With the momentum stopped, the raft’s movement also stopped.
“But I got launched like six feet in the air and came down on my shoulder on the raft,” McDougal said.
She landed back inside the boat as the current began pushing them forward again. But something felt wrong.
“I stand up in my boat to get back on the oars, and my shoulder is dangling. Oh, my arm is just dangling, and I could not move it at all. My hand was like cramped up. I was in so much pain,” McDougal said.
The group in the raft soon realized their guide had stopped giving them commands. McDougal told them she no longer could move her arm but urged them to keep paddling.
Another guide from BYU-Idaho Outdoors Activities was onboard and took over rowing the right oar while McDougal handled the left. Once they reached a safe spot to pull ashore, her condition worsened.
“I remember the very distinct feeling of immense pain and looking up and all I saw was the mountains that I loved so much,” McDougal said. “I knew that I was so far away from any medical attention.”
They fashioned a makeshift splint using a lifejacket to immobilize her arm. McDougal lay on the raft floor for the two-hour float back to the vehicles. From there, she faced a three-and-a-half-hour drive to receive medical care.
Her injury, a labral tear in her shoulder, will take months to heal. Still, McDougal said she misses the river and hopes to return next year.
“Number one rule of the river is respect the river,” McDougal said. “If the river doesn't intimidate you, it should. We're all just passengers. People like to say that they conquered a river, but the river allowed them to pass.”
For more information on river rafting and McDougal’s story, listen to the full interview on BYU-Idaho Radio’s podcast on Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.