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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Day 56: Ashland "rest day" whitewater rafting

August 16, 2014

So while playing monopoly withe Zero, Giggles, Spacerace and Kentucky I saw  a brochure for rafting and decided it would be a good idea to go. So at 10:00 pm I signed up for a full day rafting trip down the upper Kalamath River.

I shamefully butchered my Monopoly game. I should have won based on the properties I had, but I lacked the cash necessary to pay off the others' properties and in the end Kentucky won.


But anyways we stopped playing at 1:00 am and I had to walk 3 miles to be at the rafting place by 8:00. Not a lot of sleep. 

But my reservation went through and I made it on time to Kokopelli River Guides on time.


I chose the trip because it looked like the most intense that they offered. I was not disappointed. However I didn't know that it was a couples' event so I got to be the 5th wheel.


We went through some intense rapids. On one such intense rapid, aptly named "Hell's Gate" our guide broke an oar. He went from being regular guide shouting simple orders like "Forward two. Forward. Stop."  to drill sergeant guide screaming "PADDLE HARDER! DIG IN WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE OTHER SIDE KEEP GOING GO GO GO PADDLE HARDER."

Turns out if we didn't make this particular maneuver we could have been hung up on an "ego bruiser." Ego bruisers are rocks that get your either stuck on or tossed out of your boat.

After we made it passed Hell's Gate he got a spare oar from our support boat and the rest of the day was uneventful. Well, we were still going over huge roils and rocks, getting soaked and getting a fine upper body work otu all at the same time, but there were no near catastrophes.


Our guide was great, very informative and fun to talk with. So were the two other couples I was with. I couldn't ask for a better rafting experience!


After a day on the river it felt great to have a kitchen and utensils with which I could make stuffed peppers. I'm tempted to stay another day to actually rest up, but I think tomorrow I will head south for Mt. Shasta.

2 comments:

  1. Best blog post yet! I actually laughed out loud when you said you were unknowingly the 5th wheel.

    ReplyDelete