Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-29
BY A. G. BIRCH.

American Newspaper Alliance.
DENVER. Colo, September 29.-Never
Evil any of us who were on the Yampa
kT7iver expedition forget Friday. Au-
.sgust "a.
Al We got a 7 o'clock start. For short
Fdistance the river was quite wide-over
$500 feet Then the walls suddenly
closed in, high and sheer, and the
fstream narrowed to less than half It's
former size.
s Soon we sighted rapids, but they did
mot seem very bad. slopng rock
sw.ith a sharp edge pointing upstream
Elike the blade of an AK, rose ABOUT llVe
Fleet above the water midway between
sthe banks but on either side OF TINS
sthere appeared to be deep cnanneI.
:, Burt NORTH. who nag oepelopeu
Greater facility than any of us IN nam
@GIinp the boats. was steering the craft
Ain which he and 1 rode. Choosing
fcourse 10 the right of the big rock, we
.Uere carried through with ease.
THE rough water was fully mile
ssono and the photographers were Just
Trntering the rapids when we finished.
sibev chose the left-handed channd.
IS Disaster.
. Their boat was bobbing along with
great speed when, almost abreast OF VIZ
thip rock, its Dow struck a stone three
sinches under the surface. There was a
'sCrash as the wooden bottom stove IN
sand the craft came to dead stop.
second later the current grlpped us
kstern and banged it upon the big rock
aTrhe sharp edge of the boulder hit the
tIoat amidship, crushing it as II 1t mad
been cardboard.
- Both photographers were pltched out
,of the boat. Durham landeo on ms
.head on the rock. The shock stunned
!-i1im. Fortunately he lay there, out OF
sihe water, and was not swept on
Through the rapids Mace fell directly
Einto the swiftest and deepest part OF
&the current and was Whlrled away,
dumping against rocks every few feet.
The boat tilted sharply sidewlse up
.,ihe big rock. The ropes which held all
sthe equipment in the bottom slackened
,sand the supplies rolled to the low side,
Ewhere they were caught in the FURIOUS
current and washed away.
The sleeping bags. being chiefly OF
Rider-down, went bobbing downstream.
Canvas sacks containing our cooking
utensils and all our remaining food
supply sank The big roll of manila
srope. weighing over 100 pounds. which
eve had meant to use in reaching pos
g.sible cliff dwellings, also vanished:
Seven the ak and Ratchet were washed
HOut of the boat.
Less than a minute later the craft.
nov filled with a couple of tons of
.Mater slid down the rock and settled,
almost entirely submerged. into pock-
let in the rocks. The hatch of the
.metal compartment in the stern, which
scontained all our cameras except my
Kodak, and all the films, was several
inches under water.
lEE Durham Stunned.
~ Meanwhile, Moritz and myself, hav-
ing beached our boat, were running
back over the slippery boulders.
Durham still lay on the rock beside
the wreck. completely 'out." Mace
had been swept 200 yards down the
river before he was able to clutch a
rock that offered a handhold. He
was too exhausted to do more than
cling there and wait for help.
It took us some time to get upstream
over the boulders Then Moritz went
to MaEes aid, and finally got the
photographer ashore. Durham was
cominc around all right when we
reached him, and was able to help us
get hirl ashore.
But IN going through the main chan
mel, N9ritz-power1ul swimmer though
he was-was swept down so feet, where
his hC d struck a rock. knocking him
uncon ious. He san'1 twice before any
one { Id reach him. That was the
Mario st escape any OF us had from
drown 9.
Our chief worry no. wos our cam,
eras ard films. We lncw the metal
comp: 'tment would nos loal; for half
an f-'r, but longer than that was
doubt
TAX g the bow-rope from the other
boat. tied it to tn rcNH of the
vrecl-~7 craft, and fou~d II would
reach q tree on shore. This gave
us cline on which to so back and
forth. Then We t:ied to raise the
craft.
Food Swept Away.
Aftar three hours of prying and lift
ing curing which we lost our footing
freq tly and went down over our
head. we raised the wreck until the
hatch was two inches above water
only ~ find the camera compartment
was full to the briml
Ono Of the movie cameras and a still
came~1 were hcDelesSly ruined. The
graft: was a sodden mass. The second
movie camera Durham thought he
could fiX up. But all the pictures we
had taken were a total loss The I'M
expocad still films were so carefully
packed that they were wet only half an
inch long the sides. and could be saved
by drying. The uneXposed rolls of
movie film were not wet at all
We sOread everything out on rocks in
the sun to dry
We now were entirely without food
except for two cans Of baked beans and
one can of soup which fortunately were
in the hatch. And there were no plates
knives forks SfTOOnS
Birch Seeks Help.
Fray Baker, the cattleman, was to
NEE Us with a fresh supply of food at
the foot of Johnsons Draw-about
halfway through the Canyon-but we
had no idea how many miles away that
was.
Since the injury to my back made 1t
imposs bic for me to do as much heavy
wor,: nth the boats as the other fell
lows it was decided that should start
aheGd on foot to try TO reach Johnson's
Draw and bring back food. We did not
know whether the walls Of the canyon
on ahaad would permit one to walk
through, but the attempt had to be
maze
Sc shortly after noon, started out.
While The other fellows remained be-
hind 70 try to raise and repair the
'Lcakin' Lena" Failing in that they
agreed to follow in the remaining boat
(COpv. ut. 1902 hv Nortl, American Name