Good advice, Pete.

I did white water kayaking in New England years ago, had swiftwater rescue training, and was on safety crews working Olympic qualifying kayak races. I have seen whitewater canoes and kayaks wrapped around rocks and trapped submerged in various hydro features. The power of swiftly flowing water is relentless, overwhelming, and unbelievable until you experience it.

I have decades of solo and group trekking where the fording of small but swift melt-water streams and rivers are forded singly and using group shuffle methods. Occasionally we would construct rope bridges.

I have intentionally and unintentionally swum-floated through shallow and deep rapids, it generally scared the everloving out of me until the river depositied me in to a friendly eddy or pool. I have been rolled downstream in less than 2 feet of water trying hard to get up or out.

By choice you would not cross a flooding river of any size except by bridge. A multi-person crew using tension diagonal lines [TDLs] and mountaineering-grade lines and hardware very carefully tackles such situations for training and rescue.

My scenario, however, is an alone-in-the-woods with no-choice-but-to-cross poser intended to harvest bright new thoughts.