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We could hear the low rumbling of the Chattooga River rapids minutes before we reached them. It was just after first light on a summer Saturday morning and we appeared to be the only rafters this early in the day. The current was swift and lethal. Giant boulders seemed to rear themselves above the Chattooga’s Class 4 rapids. The waters’ roar grew ever louder.

When we plunged down into 7 Foot Falls, they grabbed what guide Adam Morgan called “the Red Raft of Courage” and spun it 360 degrees, flinging me out and into the icy mountain water. I held my breath and my life vest quickly pulled me to the surface. Glad I was wearing a helmet, I grabbed the side of the raft and hung on until my companions pulled me back on board. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in “Twilight of the Idols.” I had survived an unexpected plunge into surging water between boulders that could have killed me. Knowing I could survive this gave me renewed faith all of us would live to see another day.

Our adventure started hours before dawn. 4 of us piled into my car for the long drive from Lexington to the Chattooga on the SC-Georgia state line. We had read “Deliverance,” James Dickey’s vivid but imaginary account of an adventure on this wild river, later made into a popular movie with Burt Reynolds. We knew it would be a test. We just did not know that Adam’s Red Raft of Courage was only about half as large as the rafts used on these waters. With 5 of us on board, the raft provided tight quarters. My son Mark had arranged with his friend Adam, a Class 4 guide, to take us down the river with Michael Ball and Michael Zimmer who worked with us. I was the only fool older than 40.

People do insane things like this for their own reasons. The 4 of us are adventurers at heart. We are the kind who are dissatisfied with mundane tasks and welcome opportunities to test ourselves. The Chattooga’s headwaters are in the Whiteside Mountains in the Blue Ridge near Cashiers, NC. It stretches 57 miles to where it flows into Class 4 rapids at Sock ’Em Dog Falls and joins Lake Tugalo. Southern Living magazine called rafting the Chattooga “The #1 Thing Every Southerner Ought to Do.” It was federally protected in 1974 by the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to preserve it from development.

To fully appreciate the Chattooga’s breathtaking scenery and experience its whitewater, you have to take the plunge. It is not for the faint of heart. For us, its grand finale came at infamous Five Falls’ adrenaline-pumping rapids. Michael Ball and Michael Zimmer were thrown out and came up under the raft. Trapped there, they could have drowned. Mark, Adam and I paddled hard and fast to free them. How close we came to a fatal accident didn’t fully sink in until we were celebrating survival with long neck PBRs. That was more than a dozen years ago. Would I do it again? Probably. Some of us are too stubborn for our own good.

Next: What’s your calling?

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