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me.
    The rocks were a little rough on my hands, but sooner than I expected, I could feel hands touch my legs and help me to the small trail running alongside the water. Spray from the water soaked the trail, making it slick.
    I untied the rope. My weight on the knot made it a little tight and difficult to untie, but it was off in short order and Bernie called up for Yash and Josh to drop the rope while we gathered to catch it. Nothing happened for a moment, and then, instead of the rope coming down, it started back up. We wondered what was happening.
    All of us were stretched along the narrow trail on the edge of the water. The same spray that was making the trail slick was covering us, too. While the air temperature was at the normal, comfortable level, Ratt was shivering and being held by Alfhid. Ratt was probably too small to conserve much body heat while wet, but the sight still looked a little humorous to me. Alfhid was tall, almost 2 meters, and a very voluptuous 65 kilos or so. Ratt couldn’t have been more than 150 cm tall. Alfhid enveloped Ratt rather than just embracing her.
    “Here he comes,” murmured Hamlin.
    I looked up to see Yash, tied to the rope, start to get lowered over the side. I guess he had second thoughts about climbing down freehand. Josh was taking the strain, but Yash came down in a series of bounces. His feet finally touched the rock face, and he scrambled to get a hold of it. Then slowly, make that very slowly, he began to inch his way down.
    “Anytime now, Yash,” Mike said under his breath, obviously agreeing with me that perhaps Yash was being a little too cautious.
    It took awhile, but Yash made it down without mishap. He was all smiles.
    “Josh thought he could support me, so discretion being the better part of valor and all….”
    I didn’t really blame him. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to do those first fifteen feet free climbing. Josh hauled up the rope, and a few minutes later, it came tumbling down the cliff. I reached out to grab part of it, and a hunk of the rope smacked me up against the side of my face, almost knocking me down. Uh, gravity and a heavy object equals pain. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure that out!
    We all craned our necks to watch for Josh, and shortly, his legs swung over the side. They edged down, followed by the rest of him. With a swing, he came to full extension, holding on with only his hands on the cliff edge. He swung his legs in until his feet reached the cliff wall. This was the tricky part. He had his feet touching the wall, and his hands on the cliff edge. His body was canted, his back facing us on the ground. If he couldn’t get his hands over to the cliff face, he was going to fall, and athlete or not, he couldn’t hang there forever. We could see him rock back and forth, and accompanied by gasps from us below him, he gave his body a pull, basically throwing his body a foot or so towards the wall. The force of the thrust knocked his feet loose, but as he started to fall, his hands caught on a small protuberance. Feet flailing for a moment, he was able to gain purchase and gather himself.
    From there, it was a little anticlimactic. His climb down the face was easily accomplished, and before we knew it, he stepped off on the trail to join us. His smile was huge, and those of next to him clapped him on the shoulder. I had to admit, that was pretty impressive.
    Mike had done an analysis of previous shows, and according to him, 80% of previous river challenges occurred downstream, so we had already decided that that was the direction we would go. It was a smart choice. After our slow conga line made its way less than 500 meters downstream, we came to a small cove, sheltered from the rushing water in the main current. And in the cove were shadowy torpedo shapes of trout.
    I have seen nature documentaries on Earther wildlife, and I saw The River’s Gift when it came out ten or so years ago, so I knew what a trout was. But these were huge!