How not to spend a winter afternoon: We set out to build a raft out of reeds like Bear Grylls on Man vs. Wild. Our plan was to sail it out onto Utah Lake. Down by the southwest corner of the Provo Airport there is a good location with an endless supply of reeds. We spent about three hours cutting down reeds and lashing them into bundles and then lashing the bundles together to build our raft. Granted the only reed harvesting tools we brought were a leatherman and a snow shovel. You can probably already tell that this was very spur of the moment and not well thought out. We finally had this awesome raft constructed and carried it down to the edge of the lake. When we set it on the water it floated beautifully, but as soon as we got on things went downhill fast...or underwater fast I should say. It could support our weight, but the top was probably a foot underwater. It would have saved us the effort of swimming, but we were still subjected to the freezing temperatures of the lake. You really hate to be defeated like that but in the moment there was only one thing to do: abandon ship.
video courtesy of Youtube user calebsl1
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