So here's a bit of a long, crazy rafting story to add to the mix :
My wife and I rafted the lower Bow today from Cushing Bridge/Blackfoot Trail (just below the wier, down to McKinnon Flats (about 35km south-east of the city limits). We've got a good white-water capable raft and have been rafting for years. We've seen lots of sights, but nothing like tonight
.
At about 9:00pm (and about an hour before the end of today's trip) we came upon a 'small walmart style' raft with four people in it -- mom, two adult sons in their late 20's and one of their girlfriends (with not a single life jacket to be seen). They were going a fair bit slower as out of the main current, weren't rowing or paddling, and frankly looked a bit lost. As we neared, they asked us if cell coverage was available there. We said "no, we're well out of range here". They then asked to catch a ride back to Calgary with us; which we couldn't do, as were were being met by my parents who only have a small vehicle -- just barely enough room for all of us and the gear. What we did offer was to get them up to highway 22x where they would be back in range and could call for a ride on their cell. They said thank-you and all seemed well.
We continued on, paddling gently as we had been the whole trip and got about 20 feet ahead of them within a couple of minutes. The girlfriend on their boat suggested to the rest that they should paddle too to keep up. A few snippy comments went back and forth and then all hell broke loose. The mom started cursing and berating the girl and her sons "I ****in' hate you all; I took you out for fun, and for three hours all you do is ***** **** **** and **** **** ****, if you don't like it get the **** out of my boat, etc. This went on back and forth for a good 15 min!!, as my wife and I kept looking at each other in shear amazement.
We agreed to keep moving ahead to try and get out of earshot at the very least...
As we got to about 200 feet ahead it finally got really stupid.
No idea exactly what got said that hadn't already, but the mom finally looses it completely -- leaping accross the raft, she appears to hit the girl hard her with a paddle which goes flying, then starts throwing punches and screaming even louder, pulling her hair, trying to dump her in the water and such. The guys were now yelling too, in the mix trying to separate them; and not doing a good job of it. By now, it's close to 10:00, getting dark, these guys had no idea exactly where they were, and they're trying to kill each other (possibly litrerally)...
Finally out of earshot it seemed, we got to our take-out about another 15 min later, pulled in, told the story to my parents, and began to pack up.
We weren't very eager to see them again at this point, but figured we'd honour our word to get at least *one* of them to the main road... but... we never did see them in the 25 min it took us to collapse and load everything in. Got finished and waited another 20-25 min and no sign of them.
I seriously wonder what happened to them as it was now very dark, well after 11:00, we were a long way from town and were the only other one's out there...
I can only guess they must have pulled in somewhere ahead of us. Hope cooler heads prevailed...