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good times
Jul. 17th, 2014 09:32 pmIt was a beautiful day on the river yesterday (the Chattooga, right on the border of Georgia & South Carolina, also known as where they filmed Deliverance.) D & I have rafted a lot of different rivers over the years--the New and the Gauley in West Virginia, the Youghiogheney in Maryland/Pennsylvania, the Snake in Wyoming, etc) and in all the years we've done it, I've only been out of the raft once (Iron Ring on the Gauley, which is a Class V rapid and one that you *really* don't want to be out of the boat on, but we hit it wrong one year and I backflipped out, hit the water, and came up right alongside the raft as we all finished the rapid. It was pretty painless for a 'your life is in danger if you're in the water' kind of a rapid.)
Yesterday, I was out of the raft TWICE. The first one was a stupid little dip that I didn't get my lean away started early enough, but the second was Corkscrew, which is a Class IV and I went out on the high side and got to take the last 2/3rds of the damn drop on my own. blech. Our guide threw me a rope really fast (bless him) and then hauled me back in at the bottom (though I think he had to tell me 4 or 5 times that it was okay to let go of the line because by god, all my brain knew was that I HAD THE LINE AND I WASN'T GOING ANYWHERE.) He was pretty freaking adorable. At some point in there, I lost my paddle, Oldest's paddle (because the kid held it out to me but wasn't braced to take the torque of the current and wisely let go) and my pants.
Now, granted I was wearing swim shorts under my cargo pants, so it's not like I was flashing anybody, but it made for a great story, and an even better one when the above-mentioned adorable guide snagged them off a rock further downriver. :D
There are pictures of my Corkscrew debacle, which I got to commemorate the occasion (and D's birthday.) Unfortunately, they were having issues with their burner so they're mailing things out, but I will share when the CD arrives.
(I may possibly be getting too old for this shit, but I hurt less today than I did after the zip lines in Costa Rica a few years ago, so the weight training might be helping? maybe?)
Yesterday, I was out of the raft TWICE. The first one was a stupid little dip that I didn't get my lean away started early enough, but the second was Corkscrew, which is a Class IV and I went out on the high side and got to take the last 2/3rds of the damn drop on my own. blech. Our guide threw me a rope really fast (bless him) and then hauled me back in at the bottom (though I think he had to tell me 4 or 5 times that it was okay to let go of the line because by god, all my brain knew was that I HAD THE LINE AND I WASN'T GOING ANYWHERE.) He was pretty freaking adorable. At some point in there, I lost my paddle, Oldest's paddle (because the kid held it out to me but wasn't braced to take the torque of the current and wisely let go) and my pants.
Now, granted I was wearing swim shorts under my cargo pants, so it's not like I was flashing anybody, but it made for a great story, and an even better one when the above-mentioned adorable guide snagged them off a rock further downriver. :D
There are pictures of my Corkscrew debacle, which I got to commemorate the occasion (and D's birthday.) Unfortunately, they were having issues with their burner so they're mailing things out, but I will share when the CD arrives.
(I may possibly be getting too old for this shit, but I hurt less today than I did after the zip lines in Costa Rica a few years ago, so the weight training might be helping? maybe?)
