old wood in UNSV + long story

[ohcee-1]

Probably old news - but there is a riverwide downed tree at the beginning of the Bright Trail Campground. It's right after you come around the left turn into the campground - theres a big eddy on river left. Looks like most of the underwater branches have been broken off.

Now the story:

Went hiking on the Bright trail with my wife, my sister, bro-in-law and their dog, a golder retriever named Earl who really likes to swim. The river was running about 200 cfs - not huge water but definitely running high enough to keep your attention. We kept Earl on a leash when we were down near the river knowing his tendencies to jump in. While we were trying to climb down this steep rock wall we let him offleash for just a minute and of course he made a beeline for the river - our yells of "stay" and "come" fell on deaf ears.

I watched horrified as the dog flushed through the strainer underwater and then went over a pourover and was underwater again for a few seconds. By this time I was running downstream trying to find the next big eddy and I realized my bro-in-law was about to jump in the river and possibly make a bad situation much worse (he isn't a boater). I screamed at him to stay on shore but he went in anyway and missed grabbing the dogs collar a few inches. Luckily he didn't get swept downstream although he did fall and cut and bruised the sh*t out of his leg. I asked him later if he knew what the river was doing where he went out after the dog but he said that he had no concept of what the river was doing at the point where he jumped in - he was going in to get his dog no matter what.

I followed the dog downstream and watched him get flushed into a few more small holes - one which almost recirculated him but he power stroked out the side. My wife (who is a boater) was already downstream standing in a big eddy and between the two of us we managed to get the dog to swim into shore -- which wasn't too hard because I think at this point Earl realized class III creek swimming wasn't as fun as it looked like from shore. He was bruised on his stomach and had some small cuts but was fine otherwise.

Anyway, everyone was safe and sound and my wife and bro got to hike out of the canyon with sopping wet boots and clothes and a cut up leg. I gave my bro a little shit about jumping in after his dog, although if it was my dog who knows - I might have done the same. Good thing my dog hates swimming.