Reminds me of a similar story. One friend and I set off on a 3 day trip down the Snake river here in MN. It was also spring and the river was very high. We had only seen the river during low water before. At the landing the river looked fine so off we went. There was a couple in an aluminum canoe who started out behind us from the same landing. After about a mile we hit an area known as Hell's gate. Always wondered why they called it that. The river narrows down and shoots through a solid rock crevice that is only 30 feet wide in some places, usually only 3 feet deep. Well, our first glimpse of hell's gate was from the top of the first rapids which was so steep you couldn't even see the rest of the river below. Too late, couldn't turn back. We shot that rapids and were promptly swamped. We learned later that the water through this section was 10 to 20 feet deep with a class 5 rating. No way out of the river once you enter the gate since the sides are straight cliffs. We say lots of canoe parts and broken paddles stuck in the rocks. We spent the rest of the day shooting rapids after rapids, getting swamped, dragging the canoe onto a rock to empty it, and trying again. I think we swamped at least 10 times and lost all our camping gear. We made 2 miles of our planned 20 mile trip. We got out of that river as soon as we could and thumbed a ride back to the car. And the couple that started after us? We found them floating down the rapids hanging on to what was left of a canoe. We paddled out and rescued them near the exit landing. Went back later that summer when the water level was lower and found our food pack and other debris in the rocks.
