rafting

Okay, people are getting on me for not keeping this thing up. Never thought I'd have that problem. But it is about time I posted something, and the whitewater rafting trip I went on last weekend is a prime candidate for topic of the night.

Five of us from my church went rafting on the New River in West Virginia...well worth the trip. I think we were in the central part of the state but that's just a guess; I never looked at a map on the trip and still haven't. The mountains were much more awe-inspiring than I expected, and right in the heart of coal mining country too. Back in the early part of last century when the mines were going there were towns up and down the river, so there's still ruins here and there. And the lodge had a wall of old pictures from the early mining days so the before and after comparison was neat. Kinda weird, the way that went down...a town would spring up from nowhere and be bustling with railroads and gangsters and lots of money and all for a few years, then as soon as the coal was gone the settlers would take what they could further into the mountains and leave the rest to become a ghost town. Similar to the old west gold rush towns I guess. There's still lots of coal mining there but it's all inland so you don't see it. The high density of railroads struck me though; much more track than I would have imagined for mountains and clear evidence of mining activity.

As for the river, it's similar to the Arkansas ones I've been on in that it's mostly slow with rapids scattered every so often, except that the rapids are about 237,492,190 times more intense and can kill you if you fall in. Some of the drops are 10 feet or more, which results in a feeling quite like going over the edge of a small waterfall except you can't see it coming. (I've never gone over the edge of a waterfall but I suspect if I ever do the sensation will be similar to rafting in Class IV or V rapids.) Clearly the stuff rafts and kayaks were made for. And the locals think so too. Rafting is big business out there, with around 20 companies doing their thing on the same 20-30 mile stretch of river. In fact, the whole day we were never out of sight of other rafting parties. Probably much like a busy day on the Buffalo, only not so cramped--rafts were never right on top of each other.

One thing that stood out to me was the absence of canoes on the river. I guess this should have been obvious since canoes and whitewater generally don't get along well, but every other time I've been out on the water I've been in a canoe or with canoes so it was a different experience in that regard. But there are plenty of good reasons for canoeists to stay off the water. I suppose a soloist in a whitewater canoe might take it but there's no way two people could paddle it in a river canoe and live to tell the story. At least not with their canoes and bones intact at the end. Of all the people we saw, most were rafters and a handful were in the tiny whitewater kayaks (which looked AWESOME by the way) but no brave souls dared tempt the river gods in canoes. So the fact that all of zero people were in canoes probably says a thing or two about their feasibility on the water. For one thing a canoe is hard and not attached to you so it becomes a deadly weapon if you fall out in rapids. And it's also made to go straight, not pull tight turns on short notice. Not the kind of thing you want to be floating in or doing battle with in whitewater rapids.

As a side note, the major risk in big-time rapids isn't drowning because you'll either be sent speeding down the river in short order or get caught against an undercutting rock, in which case the force of the water will crush you long before you'd run out of breath. Cool, eh? (I suppose there are other possible methods of death, but none with quite the same ring as thousands of pounds of water snuffing the life out of you while you lay helplessly pinned to a rock.) And that of course makes whitewater kayaking a rather deadly sport compared to others. But no worries, methinks the threat of imminent death with the wrong moves would just add to the thrill. And I suspect most of the victims are fools who don't know the lay of the river nor possess much skill at the sport, and so they are actually doing the world a favor by voluntarily removing their stupid genes from the pool.

Anyway, as I said the trip was awesome. Started off a little slow, with a handful of I's and II's to give us some practice before lunch. Lunch was awesome, with deli style stuff and a wide selection as opposed to the normal generic packed lunches one would expect on such a trip. Our guide was right; the rafting company sets itself apart from the others with the quality of food it provides on its trips. But overall I was getting used to things a bit too much before the break.

But afterwards things quickly picked up. As I remember it, most of the good stuff was III and up, with plenty of IV's and V's. And to top it all off, we even got to watch a "slaying" of tens of soloists in "duckies"--inflatable kayaks that seemed all but impossible to maintain control of in rapids. Hilarious stuff, plenty of spectacular spills for us to take in. The view gradually got better too. Don't get me wrong, it was great the whole time, but as we got further on the second leg we started seeing cliffs and better rock formations and such. And finishing the trip off by going under some cool bridges near the end was pretty sweet too.

So, overall a great trip. The river was high but still rough and the rafting outfitter we went with is highly recommended. If there is one thing I would change I would include a bit more of the danger element. Sure, it was dangerous to some extent, but I never felt out of control, like I was heading into the drink or the raft was going to flip. And I really wanted that. Heck, I even kinda wanted to get tossed out just to see what it's like. Oh well, maybe the next rafting excursion will satisfy some of those wishes. But still, an amazing trip and hopefully something I'll be doing much more of in the future.