Guided Raft Trip
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness?
-- Gerard Manley Hopkins
Saturday, July 22, 2000
One year ago: Family Matters
Two years ago: Swing Fever
Three years ago: Digressions are Sunshine
We were up betimes, and drove to Maple Falls after picking up Moses and getting food at MacDonalds. I like the Steak bagel sandwich!
We parked in a field behind a barn (but it's right in the middle of the village). We were issued our wet suits and booties, after signing waivers. We got fitted for life jackets (they need to be cinched up tight!), and picked up our helmets and paddles. Spray jackets (nylon overblouses) no extra charge! Everything has the company's name and phone number on it -- the better to find our bodies, think I!
We loaded up the bus, then drove to our put-in spot on the North Fork. It's the place we visted last week, where we found out about RiverRiders, from their entries in the log book that the Forest Service asks rafters and boaters to fill out.
"Buddha" (are all heavy bald men of Asian descent called this?) gave us a good rundown on commands the guide might give, and various safety procedures. Make sure that life jacket is tight! That's how they pull you back into the raft, should you chance to fall out. And he demonstrated with a young girl, how they would bounce you down, then pop you up like a cork!
In our raft: Jack, Moses, Jack's daughter H----, and me, plus three other folks (who wanted to be near their friends in another boat) and our guide Meghan. We picked up our raft, and carried it down the stairs to the waters edge, sliding it on the rustic handrails. It was reassuring to have a guide who gave us directions crisply and clearly. I'll admit I was a bit nervous!
Off we went, down the canyon. The water had that strange, pale celadon green milkyness. The ride was fairly spectacular! But the rafts pulled up to the river's edge after each section, for safety's sake. They wanted to make sure that each raft made it through with no mishaps.
I did do some whooping and hollering, but concentrated on paddling when told to. When we were some way down the stream, Jack and another man took the chance to get right in the front, belly on the "prow", and get their faces right in the waves that splashed over us. Fun! Even Moses did this when we were in calmer waters, later in the run. (Moses was a whitewater virgin.)
We encountered class 3 and class 4 rapids; no class 5s. After making it through the "nozzle" -- they give these things such charming names -- we were in the lower, calmer part of the trip, and had time to notice the scenery, do some splashing of other boats, and generally have fun.
We stopped for a break on a cobbled shoal. The wetsuits are really the way to go! Since I didn't get cold, I didn't mind about getting wet! I was getting out of the raft when I looked over and saw that someone had slipped and was floating down the river. What? That was Jack getting pulled out! Good heavens, he might have drowned and I'd not even have noticed! Actually, he said he'd been floating intentionally, which the guides said we could do, and hadn't needed to be pulled out.
The round stones on the beach made it hard to walk around, so I was glad to get going again. I was amused yet attracted by the cool equipment that the guides wore -- of course their wetsuits and footgear and helmets were all black and high-tech looking and customized.
When we got to our put-in place, we had to haul the rafts up a steep, muddy slope. But doing a chain thing worked well, just passing the raft up the hill a few feet at a time. the guides took care of strapping down the rafts to the trailer and the roof of a van, so all we had to do was get back on the bus!
We returned to our starting place, then peeled the wetsuits off like banana skins (I had my bathing suit on underneath). Dry clothes felt good!
The rafting company is very efficient! They give you a meal as part of the experience, but the morning rafters eat afterwards, and the afternoon rafters eat before. It was a big barbecue, with grilled chicken breasts, burgers, sausages, fruit (nice blueberries and apricots), salads, and cookies. We feasted! I tipped our guide, and ordered two pictures of us in the raft, from thumbnails that had been taken at a good spot and developed before we even landed.
Good thing the drive home didn't take long. It was looking rainier and and cloudier. I felt for our former raftmates, who would be camping out tonight.
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