Grizzly
07-06-2004, 12:10 PM
ok so I have never gone White water river rafting before so I was looking forward to this. I was slightly nervous but not too much as I can swim and so forth and I like boats.
So we get to the place and go through all the safety speeches. Meet out guide and we get in the water. First few rapids are class 2-3's no biggie. We then hit a Class 4 called Big Mama and it was a wild ride but fun.
The comes Magic Falls. We hit it sideways and not enough speed so the damn raft mule kicks, the guide went out the back and I felt myself going so I reached for the center rope but couldn't get it before I went over. I was able to hold onto my paddle and toss it back in the boat and used both hands to grab the outside line.
The outside line was loose so it barely let me keep my head above water...well almost. Most of what it did was give me fallse hope of keeping my head above water and allower the current to pull me under the damned boat.
In safety they said to breath when there was no water and hold your breath when there was water (well no ****!) it is alot harder to do in class 4 rapids and clinging to a boat. I tried a few times to push up and grab the inner rope but couldn't get a hold of it. Noone was able to get to me cause they were trying to paddle and keep us away from the rougher spots (the guide was yelling instructions from the water).
Eventually the guide got pulled back in the boat but I was clinging on to the outside still in rough water. I will admit I was scared to death; I had swallowed alot of water, I was having trouble breathing and lost all sense of time. I could see what was going on as my head came above water and I could see a friend on his side of the boat but he couldn't get over there to grab me.
Eventually one of the more experienced guides (our guide was apparently new as this being her 3-4 trip down the river)tossed a rope to the boat and pulled his boat over and he got me in the boat.
I had a killer headache for a few hours and had trouble breathing as well. we went down the river the rest of the way only class 2's from then on but every single swell made me nervous as hell.
I decided to not go rafting the second day, which apparently the group had a more experienced guide (5 years on the river) and was really good in many ways. I decided not to go cause I was afraid and still shaken. I have never had anything like that happen before and it was the scariest thing I have had happen.
Will I do it again? Highly unlikely but there is that nagging thing in my head saying to not let the river defeat me, fight it and win. So who knows.
Some people think I am weak or a pussy for the way I acted while in the water or immediately after getting pulled. Screw em I say. It was nasty.
There are more details that I may put in later and all but for right now this is enough for me.
So we get to the place and go through all the safety speeches. Meet out guide and we get in the water. First few rapids are class 2-3's no biggie. We then hit a Class 4 called Big Mama and it was a wild ride but fun.
The comes Magic Falls. We hit it sideways and not enough speed so the damn raft mule kicks, the guide went out the back and I felt myself going so I reached for the center rope but couldn't get it before I went over. I was able to hold onto my paddle and toss it back in the boat and used both hands to grab the outside line.
The outside line was loose so it barely let me keep my head above water...well almost. Most of what it did was give me fallse hope of keeping my head above water and allower the current to pull me under the damned boat.
In safety they said to breath when there was no water and hold your breath when there was water (well no ****!) it is alot harder to do in class 4 rapids and clinging to a boat. I tried a few times to push up and grab the inner rope but couldn't get a hold of it. Noone was able to get to me cause they were trying to paddle and keep us away from the rougher spots (the guide was yelling instructions from the water).
Eventually the guide got pulled back in the boat but I was clinging on to the outside still in rough water. I will admit I was scared to death; I had swallowed alot of water, I was having trouble breathing and lost all sense of time. I could see what was going on as my head came above water and I could see a friend on his side of the boat but he couldn't get over there to grab me.
Eventually one of the more experienced guides (our guide was apparently new as this being her 3-4 trip down the river)tossed a rope to the boat and pulled his boat over and he got me in the boat.
I had a killer headache for a few hours and had trouble breathing as well. we went down the river the rest of the way only class 2's from then on but every single swell made me nervous as hell.
I decided to not go rafting the second day, which apparently the group had a more experienced guide (5 years on the river) and was really good in many ways. I decided not to go cause I was afraid and still shaken. I have never had anything like that happen before and it was the scariest thing I have had happen.
Will I do it again? Highly unlikely but there is that nagging thing in my head saying to not let the river defeat me, fight it and win. So who knows.
Some people think I am weak or a pussy for the way I acted while in the water or immediately after getting pulled. Screw em I say. It was nasty.
There are more details that I may put in later and all but for right now this is enough for me.