In part two of this blog, you’ll hear from my brother Bob Vogel, brother Jim Vogel and some of my own reflections on Jim’s near-death experience kayaking through Clifton Gorge. (If you haven’t read Part One yet, you can read it here.)

From the time I learned what happened until the time I heard Jimmy answer me back, I would guess it was maybe 10 minutes … but it was probably the longest 10 minutes of my life … I had thought my brother was likely drowned and that it was entirely my fault.

– Bob Vogel

We had entered the gorge with 30-foot rock cliffs on each side of the river, and there was just no place to get stopped. The river was moving fast, and we were both very tired… It was at this moment I think we sensed we were in over our heads. I was pretty close to Jimmy when we realized he wasn’t going to get stopped… I yelled to him that I would be right behind him as soon as I unswamped my boat.  

I can’t remember exactly how long we were separated for. What I remember vividly, though, over the loud raging river, was hearing a woman’s voice yelling at me from above. I looked up to see a lady waving her arms standing on a rocky ledge 30 feet above me. It was a struggle to hear her, but I understood her to say, “Your friend went over the waterfall, and I didn’t see him come up.”

Now that was a pretty shocking moment, and I don’t think I ever felt more helpless and worried in my life. I had to figure out immediately what I was going to do next though.

I only had two choices… I could get my boat righted and back in the water and go on over this waterfall that I didn’t know existed or I could try to climb the rock face out of there. At that point, I was much more worried about my brother than my own safety. I wanted to try and get to him as fast as possible, and with my boat still being swamped, I thought the faster option was to try and climb out of there.

Luckily, I was able to see an opening and crawled up the rock face close to where the woman was. I immediately asked her where she had last seen him. She directed me a short distance away to where the waterfall was. As I went further downriver from the top of the gorge, there was not much of the river visible at all but I began shouting my brother’s name.  

Before another thought registered in my head, I saw some light above me, and finally a couple seconds later, I popped out of the water and was able to catch about half a breath, before going back underwater.  When I had surfaced, I saw something right in front of me floating down the river. When I came up again, I grabbed onto it. It was about two feet long, a foot wide and several inches thick. I then realized that it was some sort of flotation device and clutched it with all my might.

I pulled it in with my right arm and held it at my chest.  This enabled me to stay above water and start sucking air. I was battered, bruised, coughing up swallowed water and not in very good shape.

I finally was able to get my wits about me a little bit and thought, “What’s next?” I was being swept downriver and ended up in a small cove in the rock wall to my right. I held the flotation device to my chest with my left hand and paddled to the right. I looked over and saw the raging river that had almost consumed me to my left. It was roaring like Niagara falls, and it had no mercy.

As I floated downstream I saw a larger cove on my right and told myself, “If you want to live, you need to get over there.” There was no alternative, I HAD to make it there. Still clutching onto my floatation device, I used the other arm to swim towards the cove. I didn’t have a lot of energy left, but what I had I used. I made it over to the cove, and after swimming into it a short distance, I finally found a rock below that I could stand on. I was still about waist deep in the water, but I was on a hard surface and finally in a safe place. I stood there on the rock for several minutes just catching my breath. I then started yelling out loudly, “Holy ****, I’m alive”, “God, thank you”, and “Lord Jesus, thank you, thank you.”

After standing there for a few minutes, I heard my brother’s voice from above. I yelled to him that I was alive. He told me that a woman had warned him about the narrows and he had climbed out. I was thankful that he was spared the wrath I had just endured.

The woman’s name was Tina Skaggs, and that day, she was my guardian angel.

I found out later that after I passed Bobby and he was emptying the water out of his kayak, Tina had yelled down to him. Apparently, she had been one of the people that I had seen when I was stuck behind the large rock. She had been trying to warn me not to go any further, but I didn’t hear her.

She also was one of the people that I had seen after the first serious rapids. She had yelled down to Bobby and told him that I had gone over the falls, had hit pretty hard, and she hadn’t seen me come up.  After hearing this, Bobby propped his kayak up on a rock and climbed up out of the gorge. He ran over and found where I was at and helped me. She is the reason that he didn’t make the same mistake that I had, and she very likely saved his life too.

Tina gave us a ride to my truck and was very concerned about me. I told her that I was all right. I reached up and felt my head all over and couldn’t feel anywhere that it hurt. I had somehow gone over the falls without hitting my head. This seemed like a miracle as I had absolutely no control.

I have no doubt that God had a hand in this; I don’t think it would have happened again in 100 tries. Tina told us that it was illegal to kayak through the gorge. We walked back to her car and she showed us where it said this on a sign at the park.

She gave us a ride back to my truck and we drove back to the gorge. We were able to crawl down and get Bobby’s kayak up and out of the gorge. We loaded it up in my truck and left. We never even bothered to look for the other kayak. At that point, we were both overjoyed that we were alive – that was all that mattered.

Afterwards while playing the incident back in my head 100 times, I figured out that the flotation device was a piece of foam that had been glued inside the kayak for buoyancy. As far as I can figure, the kayak must have hit the rock when I went over the falls. This explains what Tina and I both heard. This is also significant because the rock wall actually curves inward at the narrows, so that water going over the falls hits the wall and then rushes downward at an angle. The only reason I didn’t hit my head on the wall was because the kayak was in front of me and struck the wall first. This prevented me from knocking myself unconscious, resulting in certain death, and also knocked out the piece of foam from inside the kayak. The underside of my left arm slammed into the kayak in front of me, and a few days later the entire bottom of my left arm was black and blue.

I truly believe that the hand of God saved me. He cushioned my going over the falls, he pulled me up out of the water, and he placed that foam right in front of me when I needed it most. I’m simply not lucky enough for all that to happen without him. The Good Lord had plans for me and saved me that day. I am forever grateful.

In the aftermath of this incident, I started to look at life differently. I sold my powered parachute and ultralight airplane and began taking less risks. I soon got married and started a family. This collection of life events forced me to mature into the man I am today, which I think is what God wanted to happen.

My Reflections

Words are not enough to express my thankfulness to God for sparing both of my brothers’ lives. I can’t imagine how my family’s lives would look today without them. I wouldn’t have gained my sister-in-law and friend, Jamie Vogel, three months later on July 3, 2010. My niece and nephews, Elijah, Gracelyn and Dillon, would not exist. River Rock Cattle Company, my brother’s cattle farm, would never have become a reality. Bob would never have become a world champion practical shooter, and thousands would never have benefitted from his expertise and training.

The honest truth is … God knows the exact number of days you will live on this earth (Psalm 139:16). Every day of your life is truly a gift he’s given you, and he wants you to make the most of it.

So how are you spending the time he’s given you? Are you focusing on things that truly matter beyond the here and now? If not, it’s never too late to start living life with a focus on eternity.

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

– Psalm 90:12