Rafting Wonderland
Last weekend we went rafting on the Deschutes in Oregon and had a blast! Although this year was a bit scarier than last year. The water level was very low, so there were a lot of rocks closer to the surface. And our raft completely flipped over right at the beginning of the day. We were fine, but I didn't really want it to happen again! Me and another girl, Amanda, got swept downstream and had to be picked up by another raft. I wouldn't have been quite as scared, but my sandals got pulled off my toes (still attached to my ankles, so I didn't lose them altogether) and kept dragging my feet down and made it very hard to kick to get back into the raft. They were like extra floppy feet, totally useless!
So the other raft rescuing me and Amanda threw her a rope because she was further out. Well, first the rope smacked me on the head, then they totally clotheslined me while pulling her in! I was holding on to the side of the raft and they were trying to get me in (made more difficult by my useless extra floppy feet) when all of a sudden the guide shouts "Get her in, get her in NOW!!" I'm like what, is there a rock coming up behind me? Is there a SHARK? What is it!!!
But it all turned out fine and in a few minutes my original raft showed up with Chris and the 3 other people in it. That was quite a relief because I hadn't seen him since the flipover. I wish they had gotten pictures because I bet it looked spectacular, but apparently we flipped on a pretty easy rapid. We must have been special! :-)
Later, on the most difficult rapid, our raft was the only one that didn't have anyone bounce out! I think our guide knew that we didn't really want to have another involuntary swim, so he had us all paddle really hard right up to the little waterfall, then hold on and crouch down in the bottom of the boat as we went over, and then paddle out as hard as we could. We did awesome and it worked perfectly! None of the other rafts did that, so they all had a few swimmers. And one raft had the best swamping caught on camera! You can see the people's faces all determined at the top of the fall, then change to AAAHHH as they go over, then a lot of arms and legs in the air, then lots of people in the water, then some great shots as they pull everyone back in.
In all, I'm terribly sore, but it was so much fun even with the scary parts, that I'm glad we went and we'll go again next year!
So the other raft rescuing me and Amanda threw her a rope because she was further out. Well, first the rope smacked me on the head, then they totally clotheslined me while pulling her in! I was holding on to the side of the raft and they were trying to get me in (made more difficult by my useless extra floppy feet) when all of a sudden the guide shouts "Get her in, get her in NOW!!" I'm like what, is there a rock coming up behind me? Is there a SHARK? What is it!!!
But it all turned out fine and in a few minutes my original raft showed up with Chris and the 3 other people in it. That was quite a relief because I hadn't seen him since the flipover. I wish they had gotten pictures because I bet it looked spectacular, but apparently we flipped on a pretty easy rapid. We must have been special! :-)
Later, on the most difficult rapid, our raft was the only one that didn't have anyone bounce out! I think our guide knew that we didn't really want to have another involuntary swim, so he had us all paddle really hard right up to the little waterfall, then hold on and crouch down in the bottom of the boat as we went over, and then paddle out as hard as we could. We did awesome and it worked perfectly! None of the other rafts did that, so they all had a few swimmers. And one raft had the best swamping caught on camera! You can see the people's faces all determined at the top of the fall, then change to AAAHHH as they go over, then a lot of arms and legs in the air, then lots of people in the water, then some great shots as they pull everyone back in.
In all, I'm terribly sore, but it was so much fun even with the scary parts, that I'm glad we went and we'll go again next year!
posted by Christa at 12:43 PM
1 Comments:
Oh, did I mention that the water level was low because they were trying to get a body out of the river further up? Yeah, even more exciting!
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