Wine goes with many things, but not usually being catapulted from a rubber raft into a boulder. This was what crossed my mind as I was sitting in the front of, in fact, a large rubber raft, about to plunge into Granite Rapids on the Snake River. Granite is generally a Class IV rapid (“powerful, irregular waves, dangerous rocks, and boiling eddies; take all possible safety precautions”), but occasionally, when the river is high, it reaches Class V (“wild turbulence and extremely congested routes; a danger to your life and near the limits of navigation”). Our guide, Ben, was standing up at the back of the raft, holding his paddle and peering thoughtfully at the churning water ahead. Peering at the water and rocks, I should say. Lots of rocks. “Ah, it’s four,” he decided. I’d learned already that it’s pro forma for white water guides to sound vaguely dismissive about pretty much anything that won’t simply kill you dead instantly, like going over Niagara Falls in flippers and a Speed...