I know there are a lot of athletes that like extreme sports but what we witnessed yesterday is even above what I would call extreme sports. My brother Leonard and his wife Martha are visiting from Oregon and we took them to Grand Marais for the weekend. We stopped at Cascade River State Park to hike to the waterfalls on the beautiful Cascade River. As we were walking along the trail we noticed some kayakers putting their kayaks in above the first waterfalls. I had heard that some people kayak this area but it was very hard to understand why as it is so dangerous dropping off of a 35 to 40 ft waterfall.

We waited at the overlook for the kayakers to run the falls. The first one dropped off the crest of the waterfall and started to plummet towards the pool at the bottom. He disappeared into the waterfalls before he was half way down. Upon hitting the pool below both kayak and rider were driven deep into the dark waters below. A few seconds later both popped to the surface but his spray skirt had pulled loose and the kayak quickly filled with water. He bailed out of the kayak and drifted downstream.

The second kayak took the plunge shortly after. This one was slightly turned when it came over the falls. He stayed on the outside edge of the water for a couple of seconds longer than the first. The kayak turned slightly as it entered the pool and was driven underwater. As it popped to the surface it was upside down and you could see that he was struggling to upright himself. The kayak was pushed into the rocks on the side of the pool.

You could tell that his friends seemed slightly worried. He made two attempts to right the craft but could not do it. Luckily he was not pinned against the rocks and managed to exit the kayak with probably only seconds of air left in his lungs. As his head popped above water everyone was relieved and he floated down the last small falls and grabbed his kayak. Then both kayakers hollered as a sign of accomplishment and smiled up at their buddies.