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Mid-Atlantic Vacation Blog
Yes, we survived our big day of whitewater rafting on the New River without any major injuries other than sunburnt legs. We went on the milder "middle" section of the New River since we weren't sure how much whitewater would be too scary. However, when we get to our area to check in, we saw a group of about twenty 12-year-olds who were also going on this trip and started to think that cordless bungee-jumping would have been less scary.
(NOTE: The picture at the top is one we actually bought from the rafting place. Since we don't have a scanner here, Brooke suggested that I take a picture of the picture so I could post it on the blog. I did take some pictures myself with my old digital camera in a waterproof bag which got put to its toughest test today.)
Anyway, it turned out that the large group was loud and rowdy, but they were reasonably well supervised and were in three rafts by themselves, so they were no problem. There were also a couple of other families, so it wasn't just us and the large church group. So after a brief, potentially uncomfortable discussion about whether or not Brooke and I should paddle in a kayak (a.k.a., a "ducky") together or separately, it worked out that I would paddle in a single person ducky while Brooke rode in the raft with another family, and we got ready to go:
Other than the more spectacular view and the wider, deeper river, the trip started out to be not much different than a canoe trip in Indiana. The rapids were certainly faster and would eventually get to where waves would crash into the boat (at least they crashed into mine; Brooke said that the raft was so stable that there that it wasn't scary at all). Here's an example of the rapids as I saw them (this is from much later in the trip):
Due to the depth of the water, if we fell out of the boat, we would have to figure out how to get back in without touching the bottom, and that was much harder than it looks for someone with weenie arms like me. That's why all of the ducky riders had to go through "getting back into the boat" practice. Yesterday it was learning how to get onto and off of a horse; both Brooke and I needed the help of a picnic table to get on. We need to find adventure activities that don't involve complicated procedures for getting into our mode of transportation. So after me falling out of the boat, it took about 10 attempts for me to be able to hoist myself (and my life jacket, a huge impediment for re-boarding a ducky) back into the boat. Not only did I prove that I could eventually get back into the boat, but I also put the waterproof camera bag to a tough test as I had it tied to my swim trunks and it came out of my pocket as soon as I put myself into the water.
Once we finally got going, we went through a couple of sets of mild rapids (although they were long sets compared to anything I've been through) and after on hour, we finally caught up to the rafts and pulled over for lunch. We knew that lunch was provided, but I was expecting deli sandwiches. But when we got ashore, I saw several grills and the guides were making hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, and tuna steaks. Add some chips, carrots and broccoli (good thing I rode alone), pasta salads, potato salad, cole slaw, cookies, chocolate oreo pudding, and cantaloupe, and some other stuff I don't remember, and we had a really good lunch. We were even under a huge canopy as a big thunderstorm rolled through. We had rain periodically the rest of the day, but we were under cover for the worst of it.
The second part of the trip was very leisurely as we stopped several times to simply play (the "mild" trip is more geared toward families and children). One of the stops we made was at a place called "Jump Rock":
The rock was about 12 feet above the surface of the water, and I wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of having to jump from that high. I've only been off of a high dive once and that was 20 years ago and it felt like it took forever to hit the surface of the water. However, it wasn't the height that was keeping me off of the rock; it was the thought of trying to figure out how I would get back into the boat.
We eventually made another stop for some swimming, and since Brooke jumped in, I followed suit and could only hope that my even weaker arms could get me back into the boat (it only took two attempts). When we finally got to the end of the trip, we reached to two most exciting rapids of the trip. The first one was Surprise Rapids, named because you don't really see them because they are just around a bend. Even though they were not a surprise to us (the guides were nice and warned us), they were still the roughest patch of water on the trip and were the place where the professional photographs were taken. We bought a copy of the picture of Brooke's raft (which I'm not posting now since you can barely see her in it and there are 8 other strangers, including some spoiled brat kids) and two different pictures of me going through, including the one at the top of this entry and the following:
Now in case you're wondering about my facial expression, what was going on in front of me was a little scary. The spoiled juvenile delinquent who was going through the rapids right in front of me (one of the kids who was not with the large group but with his parents, who were in the raft with Brooke completely spoiling their other children) had been a pain earlier in the day and would not operate his ducky according to the guide's instructions. Naturally, he got dumped out of his boat in the middle of the rapids. A kid in a ducky in front of him (one of the kids who was part of the large group) pulled the other kid out of the water and I retreived his paddle and helped corral his boat. I don't know if the kid was in any real danger (the picture makes the rapids look a lot more violent than they were, even though they were fun), but I was pretty impressed how the older kid pulled him into his boat.
Finally, we paddled toward the second of the two big rapids, Big Baloney, after which we would be done:
We navigated through here with no problem and got ashore where they actually had beer waiting for us. I think they had enough for all 40+ people in our group, but I don't think they counted on almost 30 of them being under-aged and two of them being non-drinkers Brooke and me (although I thought about it, but I was too dehydrated so I opted for water). And so ended our day of "mild" whitewater rafting. Although Brooke and I enjoyed our day (although Brooke had enough of the parent's non-control of their kids in her raft for the second part of the trip), we decided that we really need to try the other, more adventurous section of the New River the next time we come out. I thought she would find that too scary, but she found the raft to be very stable and is looking forward to another adventure on the New or Gauley rivers sometime. Of course, that may be a year or two away, but if we are still alive after this trip, who's to say that we can't do it?
So we originally had hopes of hiking another trail after the ride today, but since our 5-6 hour trip took 7 hours and we weren't done until 5:00, we just changed clothes (and took pictures of this butterfly/moth that was in our changing room:
and yes, it did feel weird carrying a camera into the changing room), had dinner, wandered around Beckley a little bit, and rested up for the mountain bike tour tomorrow. The trip is supposed to be 95% downhill, but I don't know if it will be on dirt trails or pavement. Also, I think the tour is supposed to start and end at the same place, so if it is 95% downhill, that last 5% must be really steep. Anyway, after that, we are hoping to hike two more trails that should give us some more views of the bridge. It has been a fun couple of days and I'm really thankful that we're getting to spend an extra day here (thanks June!) so we can do all of these things. I just hope we're not too wiped out after tomorrow because I keep forgetting that we have three more destinations yet!
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