Boaters capsize tackling Spokane River rapids

When the downpours and hailstorms hit Saturday evening, the two men attaching a kayak to the top of their car in Riverside State Park were already wet.

But there was no lightning streaking across the sky three hours earlier when Jordan Miller and Scott O’Halley were submerged in the runoff waters crashing through Bowl & Pitcher on the Spokane River after their boats capsized. In fact, the river was probably warmer than the rain, they said.

“The water wasn’t that cold,” O’Halley said as he secured the kayak, long after television and rescue trucks had left the scene. “It didn’t feel that cold, at least.”

The two men were part of a group of four who braved the rushing waters Saturday, only to find themselves swimming for shore as their raft and kayak overturned.

Three men were in the raft, which got pulled under the rushing waters near a large rock. Miller, in the kayak, tipped over and was submerged for at least 30 seconds, which seemed more like a lifetime, he said.

“It didn’t seem like seconds, it seemed like minutes under there,” he said.

People at the nearby state park called authorities, and at least seven Spokane fire trucks, as well as Spokane County sheriff’s deputies and park rangers, arrived only to find the four men pulling the raft out of the water about one-quarter mile downstream, wet and embarrassed.

The men, ranging from 19 to 24 years old, were wearing lifejackets and helmets, and had taken the rapids before, they said. None of them was cited with any crimes.

“We’ve done the same run before, we just didn’t tip over last time,” O’Halley said. Both men said they had encountered more dangerous waters in previous outings, but this was the roughest water in which Miller had ever capsized.

The waters can be dangerous to those who are unprepared, said Riverside State Park ranger Mac Mikkelsen. In 2003, a man without a lifejacket drowned when he lost control of his inner tube and couldn’t out-swim the currents at Bowl and Pitcher.

“You’ve got to know what you’re capable of doing, and go out with some experienced boaters,” Mikkelsen said.

At least a dozen boats of some type pass through the area every day during the spring, he said.

“You have ideal conditions for having fun, but along with that you get the danger,” he said. “These guys had the proper equipment, but obviously they misread the current a little bit, and it got the best of them.”

Mikkelsen gave the boaters suggestions for other areas to visit this time of year, but as Miller gazed down at the swirling green waters, he said one thing was for certain.

“We won’t be doing that run for a while.”