The next day, Raymond, Gabe, and Johnny leave their camp on the raft they built. Johnny is still reluctant to go since they must leave so much of the moose he shot behind. As they raft down the river, they see the Cessna airplane they had flown in sunken in the river. They grab 15 feet of cable from the plane before continuing onwards. At night, they camp on the side of the river. Gabe starts to feel cold winds and checks his compass because warm Chinook winds blow from the west. Gabe “felt sick, knowing what this meant” when he saw that the winds were coming from the northeast (86). The warm Chinook winds were gone and the ice on the river would freeze soon, but it was too late to turn back and return to where they came from.

By the next morning, the river already has ice on it. Gabe apologizes for his decision to go downriver. The trio slowly rafts their way down the river until they hit a bend where the river would force them to crash into a rock wall or drown in a whirlpool. They navigate around the bend, but Johnny goes overboard in the process.