How a rafting trip turned into a 'bachelorette apocalypse'

Notorious among friends for "loving really bad adventures that are just brutal," like being outside and exercising all day long, Burleson, 31, assured her friends this trip would be different. She never dreamed the experience would be cut short by a huge wildfire.

On June 26 near Fruita, Colorado, 16 women from five states gathered on the banks of the Colorado River. Some were friends since their days in a whitewater club in college at Virginia Tech. They put their five rafts in the water and started downriver, decked out with matching caps and personalized sling bags. Bright red letters on Burleson's white bag proclaimed her "wife of the party."

The first day was "great, perfect weather and perfect boating conditions," she said.

When they got up June 27, they noticed smoke in the air.

After starting downstream, it became "absurdly windy," forcing them to paddle hard against gusty, high winds trying to push them upstream. Burleson said it "was the windiest conditions I've ever boated in my entire life."

As they took a break from the intense conditions about two miles into their second day, a river ranger stopped to warn them a wildfire started overnight, but advised them it was safe to continue, she said.

Fueled by the high winds, the fire grew "a lot worse" as they paddled along. In the same complex of fires that day in Mesa County, three wildland firefighters lost their lives. Two other firefighters were injured as the fire burned along the Utah and Colorado border.

By July 1, the Snyder fire burned more than 30,000 acres. It was one of more than 50 large, uncontained fires burning in the United States.

As the bachelorette crew struggled against the river on June 27, Burleson, finally able to get cellphone service, texted her fiancé, Will McGowan, for weather and fire updates.

Along the way, the friends joked about her earlier promise. "I was like, OK everyone, on this trip, it's going to be relaxing, it's going to be chill, like nothing on this trip here is hard or scary," she said. "And the universe was like, nope, it's going to be epic, you're going to have to work for it today."

"We tried, we tried to make it easy," maid of honor Molly Warner said. "But the universe wouldn't let us."

Thanks to the high winds, their 6.5-mile trip that day took eight hours.

After they finally reached their intended campsite, a river ranger told them they would be evacuated. At one point ahead of them that day, flames reached the river, members of the Mesa County Search and Rescue Team told USA Today.

After it was called to help evacuate rafters and campers along the stretch of river between Loma and Westwater, the rescue team quickly learned the drought-stricken river was too shallow for the boat used for rescues, team member Jesse Padilla-Goryl said. The rescuers enlisted the help of Union Pacific, which provided high-rail vehicles that could drive along the rail tracks parallel to the river in one section of the remote area.

The tracks are across the river from where most boaters camp, so the bachelorette rafters and others were asked to cross the river.

"At this point, smoke is horrible. It's like really bad, and it's everywhere. It's burning our eyes," Burleson said. "So then we like all panic-packed all of our gear."

Climbing back into their rafts, they navigated to the other side of the river, away from the fire and closer to the railroad tracks. The women were ready and waiting on the opposite shore less than an hour after the warning.

Ultimately, they had to climb a steep hill to reach the vehicles, carrying their things. "We had this really awesome chain going up," Warner said. "Everyone just like banded together."

Burleson, a wildlife biologist, always thought it would be fun to ride in one of the high-railers. By about 10:30 p.m., the rescue team "just loaded us up onto the truck and kind of let us keep partying on the way back," she said.

"We have music playing and you know we were still laughing and just trying to make it lighthearted," said Warner, who studies and monitors water quality. "Especially for the search and rescue folks, it had been a stressful, really long night."

The bachelorette revelers helped lift the rescue team's spirits, two of its members said later.

Before the night was over, the rescue team evacuated 120 people, six dogs and one cat. About 2 a.m., the rescuers used a rope tied to the rails to guide the last group of campers up a steep, smoke-shrouded embankment.

"I'm extremely grateful that we got out as early as we did," Burleson said.

She said she wanted to give their "deepest condolences to the friends and families of the firefighters who were lost."

"This is not the trip we planned," she said, "but it's a trip we're going to think about for the rest of our lives."

Warner said they're joking about making matching T-shirts that say: "I survived Sidney's bachelorette apocalypse."