I was thinking more about the link and Cantara Loop

 Canterra Loop or Cantara Loop? Where the Metam sod...

This following is a true story that actually happened to me around 1969 or 1970.

Then we were still young and foolish so I was 21 or 22 and a consummate adventurer hanging out with other mountain climbing and rock climbing adventurers then (mostly rope climbing with pitons in Yosemite or other places like Castle  Crags where a good climbing friend of mine eventually died free climbing there.

So, this adventure we had obtained Truck inner tubes for riding down the Sacramento River. We had had other friends survive doing this so we thought we would give his a try. And so one of us drove our car to Cantara Loop where it intersects with the Sacramento River below Box Canyon Dam which holds back Lake Siskiyou from going down the Sacramento River all the time.

Was this a good idea?

It was fun for awhile but nearly fatal for me eventually when I hit rapids I knew I couldn't survive on an inner tube.

What did I do?

I swam on the inner tube for the shore because I saw I likely wasn't going to survive this set of rapids even though I was okay on smaller rapids before this.

You see. There was no way to search ahead and to see these rapids before we got there because there are no roads there between the river and Interstate 5 (except there might be some private roads we wouldn't be allowed on then (no tresspassing dirt roads) between the river and Interstate 5 then.

So, I desperately swam on my inner tube over to the shore and grabbed the branch of a tree. However, this didn't entirely work because the current swept my inner tube away downstream. 

So now, I was holding onto a tree branch and the current was taking me underwater so I couldn't breathe air.

This wasn't going to work to stay alive.

So, I was young and strong enough to start pulling myself up the tree limb so I could breathe again. Breathing is important after all if you want to stay alive.

Then I kept going up the tree limb dragging in the water until I found a way to climb ashore.

NOw I had another problem!

Which was that I had lost my inner tube. Now I had to find a way to survive where I was without my inner tube. 

The other problem I had is I was on the wrong side of the river away from Interstate 5 and the forest between me and interstate 5.

So then, I had to find a way to portage the river (cross the river) so I could somehow get to somewhere I could get back to a vehicle somewhere back to Mt. Shasta.

Finally I was able to find a way across the river without drowning or dying but now I was all wet which because it was summer time was all right. 

I also had tennis shoes on that the water hadn't washed off my feet for some reason. So, I found a dirt road eventually in the direction of Interstate 5 that I could walk through the forest in that direction.

However, I likely was on a no tresspassing road and eventually I met someone unhappy that I was there even when I told them I had almost died running the rapids on an inner tube.

Eventually we parted ways and I kept walking until I found a way out of there onto a paved road. We might have left a car somewhere in the vicinity of Mott Airport Road that I was able to get to.

I met up with a friend at the car who had been on another inner tube and they had had similar problems to mine but we were separated by the currents of the river. So, we arrived at different times to the vehicle we had parked somewhere on Mott Road then.

We as young college students didn't have a lot of money but this often was the kind of thing we did for fun in Mt. Shasta like inner tubing down rivers and climbing up and camping at Horse Camp and swimming and camping at Castle Lake too.

At that time we could buy Gasoline from a Mohawk station in San Pedro and drive up in either my 1966 VW Bug or his 1959 36 horsepower VW Oval Window Bug both of which got at least 30 mpg then. So, often we could drive up and possibly back to Los Angeles on 10 dollars or 20 dollars at most. So, if we brought enough Granola and spare change then we could have enough food to eat and have a great camping trip to Mt. Shasta for very little money then while still being college students most of the year with summers off.

This is what it was like then visiting mt. Shasta.