a99kitten's Musings

Went whitewater rafting today with husband and group of friends (12 of us so 2 full boats.) Super, duper fun! I have loved whitewater rafting for years. Been on several different American River trips, Yuba river trips and A Snake River trip in Colorado. Today, we did the middle fork of the American River starting outside Auburn.

We went with a tour group called raftWet.  They did a great job. Our tour guide, Chris, was awesome! He made sure we hit every rapid full on. He had us doing 360s in them, going in backwards, and actually paddling upstream to get us back into a waterfall/rapid. Although I do think he made it his mission to make sure I got wet in every single rapid!!! I think since I screamed the loudest, he thought this was funny! This is them:  http://www.raftwet.com

There were several different tour companies out on the river today. But ours was the *only* one with a kayaking photographer.  We always knew we were coming up on a crazy rapid when we saw him on a rock waiting for us!  The funniest thing is our guide was making us “paddle”, “dig”, “forward”, “back left”, etc…so our photos are likely of us grunting through the rapids. Or of us screaming as we got hit with the snow run-off freezing cold water!  Meanwhile, the other boat with our friends in it would just stop paddling and pose for the photographer!  And my friend Helen was in our boat and she wasn’t stopping to do “asian girl pose” for the camera as we were serious about our paddling!!

We were supposed to do the North Fork which is a shorter trip in time but “all rapids, all the time!” But they called yesterday and said the water level just wasn’t allowing this anymore this season…boo :( But something for next season for sure!!

I am pretty darn sure every single person in our party had a great time! I would love to plan another trip for this season ASAP. The weather was perfect. All week it was forecasted to rain but there weren’t even any clouds in the sky. And nice and warm.  We are getting the DVDs with all the photos mailed to us.  When I get them, I will post a few :)