Whitewater Rafting
What an absolutely gorgeous weekend in San Francisco. Today it must have been 80 degrees in the city, with a slight breeze keeping it just cool enough. The grass was green, the birds were chirping, the girls were all wearing shorts and tanktops, and best of all it looks like we have this weather for another week. After one of the rainiest early springs on record this late spring is looking damn good.
And to take advantage of said weather, I went whitewater rafting. It was great.
I have never been whitewater rafting before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect on my inaugural trip. The day started off poorly since I had to get up extraordinarily early (6.45 -- anytime before 10am on a Saturday is painful). I was meeting friends at my place at 7am to eat breakfast, and at 7:30 we were to take off for the river, which is 2.5 hours away. We were headed to the American River: this popular river with the imaginative name is located east of Sacramento.
Of course, my friends did not show until 7.30, and we ended up leaving at 8 after a quick meal of homemade breakfast burritos. Our delay and the slightly erratic driving one of my friends notwithstanding, we arrived only slightly late at the designated meeting place, and greeted our guides. Nathan - a friendly and very relaxed college freshman, and Zach - one of the owners of the company. Both were easy to get along and clearly a lot of fun. Oh, and also pretty competent (somewhat important, all things considered....)
We promptly all got wetsuits to put on -- not normally necessary, but apparently a requirement with the water levels so high. All of the rain and snow this past winter has raised the water levels and increased the flow rate to a level not seen in 30 years. These wetsuits were called "farmer johns", as they resembled a pair of overalls.....i found them pretty odd, but hey, when in rome.... So we got into wetsuits, put on lifejackets, signed away our lives on release waivers, received the requisite safety talk, and hopped into a big rubber boat.
There were six of us, and we all fit in one raft (that was it's max capacity, it worked out quite well) plus the guide who sat in the back and barked out orders: "forward row!" "backward row!" "STOP!", and the ever popular but uttterly confusing "left turn!!"
We then proceeded down the river. After about 1.5 hours we stopped for lunch along the shore, a hearty meal of sandwiches, fruit salad, lemonade, and oreo cookies. I tell you, eating good food beside a roaring river under the sun with friends is what life is all about. After lunch we continued rafting for another 1.5 hours or so, through what is known as "The Gorge". The water was white and the rapids were strong, everyone got soaked but we never tipped over. In short, it was a blast. At the end we all jumped in the water for a refreshing swim before heading out. To tell the truth, it was a little too refreshing: the water was absolutely frigid.
And that was my first experience rafting in whitewater. It's probably not going to be my last -- I had a good time, and would love to do something like that again for a longer period of time.
What an absolutely gorgeous weekend in San Francisco. Today it must have been 80 degrees in the city, with a slight breeze keeping it just cool enough. The grass was green, the birds were chirping, the girls were all wearing shorts and tanktops, and best of all it looks like we have this weather for another week. After one of the rainiest early springs on record this late spring is looking damn good.
And to take advantage of said weather, I went whitewater rafting. It was great.
I have never been whitewater rafting before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect on my inaugural trip. The day started off poorly since I had to get up extraordinarily early (6.45 -- anytime before 10am on a Saturday is painful). I was meeting friends at my place at 7am to eat breakfast, and at 7:30 we were to take off for the river, which is 2.5 hours away. We were headed to the American River: this popular river with the imaginative name is located east of Sacramento.
Of course, my friends did not show until 7.30, and we ended up leaving at 8 after a quick meal of homemade breakfast burritos. Our delay and the slightly erratic driving one of my friends notwithstanding, we arrived only slightly late at the designated meeting place, and greeted our guides. Nathan - a friendly and very relaxed college freshman, and Zach - one of the owners of the company. Both were easy to get along and clearly a lot of fun. Oh, and also pretty competent (somewhat important, all things considered....)
We promptly all got wetsuits to put on -- not normally necessary, but apparently a requirement with the water levels so high. All of the rain and snow this past winter has raised the water levels and increased the flow rate to a level not seen in 30 years. These wetsuits were called "farmer johns", as they resembled a pair of overalls.....i found them pretty odd, but hey, when in rome.... So we got into wetsuits, put on lifejackets, signed away our lives on release waivers, received the requisite safety talk, and hopped into a big rubber boat.
There were six of us, and we all fit in one raft (that was it's max capacity, it worked out quite well) plus the guide who sat in the back and barked out orders: "forward row!" "backward row!" "STOP!", and the ever popular but uttterly confusing "left turn!!"
We then proceeded down the river. After about 1.5 hours we stopped for lunch along the shore, a hearty meal of sandwiches, fruit salad, lemonade, and oreo cookies. I tell you, eating good food beside a roaring river under the sun with friends is what life is all about. After lunch we continued rafting for another 1.5 hours or so, through what is known as "The Gorge". The water was white and the rapids were strong, everyone got soaked but we never tipped over. In short, it was a blast. At the end we all jumped in the water for a refreshing swim before heading out. To tell the truth, it was a little too refreshing: the water was absolutely frigid.
And that was my first experience rafting in whitewater. It's probably not going to be my last -- I had a good time, and would love to do something like that again for a longer period of time.
posted by slithytoves at 1:58 AM
1 Comments:
When I think of going back to the US, this is the kind of stuff I look fwd to:)
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