Croc in the Wenatchee River gets me!

---

Hey guys,

Yesterday I was on the river with the owner of the company's daughter, brie, and her boyfriend, matt, and went for a float which had a rather rude interruption - a BLOODY CROCODILE ATTACKED ME. Probably the scariest and most shocking 45 seconds of my life. The croc was trying to pull me under and had a grip like a bloody vice on my hip and chest. Fortunately, the combined padding and buoyancy of my PFD and thick neoprene wet suit was enough to keep me mostly protected from the crocs teeth and above surface long enough for brie and matt to paddle over and give the croc a few solid whacks with the paddles, scaring him off. However, the angle of his bite included my hip and that was bleeding profusely by the time the croc sauntered off. We were in the decently deep water right before Gorilla rapids, so after wrapping my bleeding hip in some gauze (we didn't have bob- our rescue kit that includes the major first aid kit as it was a private trip, so the gauze was very tiny amount) and then tieing it off with a fleece jacket, they paddled down near the start of a rapid named Gorilla to get to highway 2 where matt flagged down a passing car and called an ambulance.

I think the combined effect of the adrenaline draining out of me plus the loss of blood made me pass out at that point, but I woke up in Cashmere Medical Center all stitched up with an IV in, but in pretty decent shape near death experience considered. After all that bleeding, I ended up only needing 17 stitches, which is odd as 17 is my lucky number. I think it is going to be a pretty wicked scar though. The artery that got punctured that made it such a bloody mess was my medial circumflex femoral, which apparently is a bad one to have punctured, but the pressure me and brie kept on the gauze/fleece stopped the bleeding from being what it could have been- truly deadly.

As for the croc- Brad, the owner of the company, came down to Wenatchee and called animal control. Apparently a trailer carrying the crocs from the Seattle Sea Port to a crocodile farm in eastern Colorado had rolled on its voyage over Stevens pass this winter in early February. Only one croc had gotten away, but animal control figured it would die in this climate - apparently they were wrong, and are now attributing the littering of so many animal bones along the banks of the Wenatchee this spring to the crocs feeding activities. As for catching it, they are sending boats down the river now to try and find the resilient and elusive beast.

As for myself and training - the doc doesn't want my blood pumping hard again for a few weeks, and so I'll have to stay off the river and avoid rigorous activity. I am getting released from the medical center today though and plan to attend the cpr/first aid class this weekend. Fortunately for me, my job in Alaska has it's own training period so even if I don't get the time needed to be certifiable in Washington, I have backup and paid training up in Alaska to look forward to before I start taking tourists down the river up there. If a bloody croc is lurking up there waiting for me though, I'll take it as a sign and write off river rafting for good.

Mmmm, hospital food, not the greatest, but sure beats ramen!

BG

---