Rafting the American

I woke up early this morning to go whitewater rafting. Justin and I joined our friend/neighbor Jeremy, his father, sister, and sister's friend for a sunny day on the South Fork of the American River. I'll post pictures later.

I did this same trip a year ago with Outdoor Adventures. Growing up on the Central Coast I didn't get much exposure to rivers. Turns out they can be pretty dang fun.

Jeremy's father used to lead commericial rafting trips, so he provided us with boats and equipment for the day. We took two boats, one for four paddlers plus a guide and another paddle boat outfitted for one man, which Jeremy's dad spent most of his time on.

With the boats set up, gear tied down, and cars in position, we set out on the river and practiced our paddling. Then we were off. We spent the first half of the day going over easy rapids, getting a feel for the boat, and taking turns being the guide and steering the boat (stressful at first, but fun once you get the hang of it).

It was a crowded day on the river, with dozens of other boats lining up behind us at times. We'd occasionally stop in an eddy to let them pass.

Soon after lunch we had our first sighting of the "lollipop tree," which means that the Gorge and the fun rapids are approaching. We took on rapids called Satan's Cesspool and Bounce Rock, Justin and myself at the front working to keep the boat in the standing waves where the current is the strongest.

At the end of the day we reached Hospital Bar, the biggest rapid. Here Jeremy's dad took over as our guide, successfully leading us into a wall-of-a-standing wave, screaming our lungs out and getting pushed down into the boat with the force of the thing. That's what it's all about!

After Hospital Bar we were past the rapids. We caught up with forty-odd boats that had already finished up. As the other boats were tied together and towed out by jet skis we were tied to the paddle boat and towed out by Jeremy's dad. With the rapids done we needed something else to splash water around, so we took to using buckets and a double-barreled water gun we'd picked up from the river. We swam around, raided one boat from the other, enjoyed the relatively warm water.

We made it to the exit ramp, brought our gear up to the parking lot, began to dry off. Then came possibly the best part of the day as we deflated our boats, laying on the to force the air out. It felt good to stretch out under the sun.