Stef: Coeur D'Alene River 2 -- Spokesman Interns 0

As Sara aptly put it, the river wins . We surrender.

Yesterday, the interns and former interns (Parker, Lacey, Meghann and Shadra) spent a lazy afternoon rafting down the Coeur D'Alene river.

The trip was a blast, and we had an amazing time.

Of course that was before I practically killed myself trying to scale up the rock face to get back to the car.

We'd finished rafting and deflated all the rafts, and were taking turns playing on the rope swing connected to the underside of the bridge. A little after 4 p.m. I started getting antsy about getting back to Spokane because I had an Indians game to cover at 6 p.m.

So I'm standing on the rocks, behind Megs and a couple of other people, impatiently waiting for them to get up the natural(ish) 'stairway' that led back up to the highway.

But in my haste to get going, I decide what the heck, I'm not gonna wait. I'm just gonna try and scale the steeper side of the rock face to get back up so that we can get this show on the road. I'd climbed that same portion of rock a couple of times already that afternoon, so it wasn't like it was impossible.

More haste less speed apparently.

So I'm reaching up to grab onto a handhold. And my fingers latch onto a chunk of rock. Great. Handhold. I put weight on it, and I distinctly remember that at this point, the thought did occur to me that it might be a better idea to just wait the five seconds it would take for the people in front of me to move.

But of course I dismissed the misgivings.

So I put my weight on my arms, and suddenly the rock seems a lot slicker than it felt the first couple of times I'd climbed up that way. My hands slipped, and then I'm scrabbling at rock with my feet realizing that this was probably A. Bad. Idea., and that this could be bad, because there was nothing beneath me but rock and more rock. The water was a little too far away for me to hope to fall into.

Disaster was averted when Shadra somehow caught me mid-slip and steadied me by the waist.

In my relief, I didn't realize until I was clambering up the easy way, that my left foot was kinda wet.

Reach down with fingers. Fingers touch liquid.

That's blood.

Wait. That's MY blood pooling below me.

Apparently I'd sliced an inch-long gash into the underside of my foot while scrabbling around to try and find purchase on the rock as I was slipping.

Well this is fun.

Parker says he has a first aid kit and he runs to get it. I'm sitting there thinking that he's gonna come back with one of those tiny like hiking aid kits that has like three band aids and a roll-up bandage in it.

Nope. The thing he brings back is like the 5-star version of all first-aid kits. He sits there flipping through a selection of different bandages and I'm marvelling at the sight.

So the former Boy Scout ( :) ) and a bunch of people clean me up, and then Sara and Jess bundle me into the car and we head back to Spokane.

Guess I won't be covering the Indians game after all.

Back in town, we figure I might need a tetanus shot and that we should have a doctor just check out the foot. So Sara and I spend the next two hours at the Emergency Room.

Finally, a tetanus shot and four stitches later, I'm hobbling around on one crutch because two crutches, a gimpy foot and a good leg are too much for me to coordinate all at once, and I do not relish the idea of tripping on one of those damn things and breaking my face.

Today, word on the street in that Shadra's out for the day with Sun Poisoning.

Wow. Some weekend huh? I nearly died as a result of my own sheer dumb impatience, and the person who saved me is now fried.

Geez.

The River wins already. Okay. We give up and all hail the mighty power of nature.

P.S. The doctor said Parker said an "excellent job" on the field dressing.