Surviving the rapids.
Yesterday, I tried something for the very first time... white water rafting. It was amazing! Unfortunately, the wifey could not come along, but a friend of mine was going so at least I had him to hang out with.
It was about a 4-hour drive to the site we were going to. It was worth it! For the most part, the river was at a Class-II with Class-I here and there. But there was this one section where we hit some pretty good Class-III rapids. And one of those Class-III rapids knocked our raft upside down! Out of the 5 people in my raft, 3 were newbies. Fortunately, the water wasn't too cold... somewhere in the upper 50s I think. The wave that took us out came out of no where and it all happened so fast I don't even know which part of the raft went up! I was under water for a little bit until I eventually surfaced. When I did come up, I had my paddle in hand and held my composure. All the safety stuff they went through before we stepped in the raft wasn't with me. Fortunately, the experienced people were telling us what to do. The river took me away from the others in my raft, but it also took me to the raft itself. I was holding on to it so I didn't have to use much energy trying to stay afloat. Another raft in our group was yelling at me telling me I was approaching a rock, so I had to let go of the raft and swim away from the rock. I floated towards yet another raft in our group and they were about to throw me the rescue line. However, it got caught on the paddle as he threw it and it just went sideways. Fortunately, another one of our rafts was approaching me and they finally got me out of the water. I'm not sure if the raft I was pulled in to was overturned as well or if some people just fell out because it was only half full and the people inside of it were just as drenched as I was. So out of our 5 rafts, two turned over. At first, it was a little scary. However, thinking in retrospect, it was pretty exciting! No one was hurt, but some of us lost some things (water bottles, hats, sunglasses, sunblock). Good thing I wasn't wearing my prescription glasses because I surely would have lost them!
The latter half of the river was pretty calm compared to what we went through. A few bumps here and there but nothing to worry about. Some people actual just drifted or swap the rest of the way. I was going to, but we just ate lunch so I opted to just float in the raft.
It was just the most perfect day you could ask for to go rafting! The sun was shining bright with no clouds in the sky, the temp. was in the mid to upper 80s, the water was not too cold... it was just a beautiful day to be out there! I'm so glad I was able to go. It's definitely something I've wanted to do and something I'd do again!
It was about a 4-hour drive to the site we were going to. It was worth it! For the most part, the river was at a Class-II with Class-I here and there. But there was this one section where we hit some pretty good Class-III rapids. And one of those Class-III rapids knocked our raft upside down! Out of the 5 people in my raft, 3 were newbies. Fortunately, the water wasn't too cold... somewhere in the upper 50s I think. The wave that took us out came out of no where and it all happened so fast I don't even know which part of the raft went up! I was under water for a little bit until I eventually surfaced. When I did come up, I had my paddle in hand and held my composure. All the safety stuff they went through before we stepped in the raft wasn't with me. Fortunately, the experienced people were telling us what to do. The river took me away from the others in my raft, but it also took me to the raft itself. I was holding on to it so I didn't have to use much energy trying to stay afloat. Another raft in our group was yelling at me telling me I was approaching a rock, so I had to let go of the raft and swim away from the rock. I floated towards yet another raft in our group and they were about to throw me the rescue line. However, it got caught on the paddle as he threw it and it just went sideways. Fortunately, another one of our rafts was approaching me and they finally got me out of the water. I'm not sure if the raft I was pulled in to was overturned as well or if some people just fell out because it was only half full and the people inside of it were just as drenched as I was. So out of our 5 rafts, two turned over. At first, it was a little scary. However, thinking in retrospect, it was pretty exciting! No one was hurt, but some of us lost some things (water bottles, hats, sunglasses, sunblock). Good thing I wasn't wearing my prescription glasses because I surely would have lost them!
The latter half of the river was pretty calm compared to what we went through. A few bumps here and there but nothing to worry about. Some people actual just drifted or swap the rest of the way. I was going to, but we just ate lunch so I opted to just float in the raft.
It was just the most perfect day you could ask for to go rafting! The sun was shining bright with no clouds in the sky, the temp. was in the mid to upper 80s, the water was not too cold... it was just a beautiful day to be out there! I'm so glad I was able to go. It's definitely something I've wanted to do and something I'd do again!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home