Utah Day 4: Whitewater rafting

Garrett and I arrived at the white water rafting outfitter at 8:30am. We checked in and dropped off our backpack, which held our stuff for the day since we were on our own from Ian and Joelle. We got fitted for our lifejackets, which were actually quite snug when fitted correctly, and then waited around for the rest of the rafters to show up.

Next, we piled into this ancient school bus painted white and red with the outfitter's colours. The bus was so rough running you could hear it coming from a mile away! The driver struggled to get it into gear, and we proceeded to drive up the Colorado River to our drop off point.

Once at the drop off point, we waited under the cottonwood trees with a bazillion other individuals rafting with other companies. During this time, our guides got our rafts in the water and secured everything we would need for our trip downriver. Finally, they called us all over and we climbed into the rafts - large, 18 foot long crafts that are VERY sturdy and are controlled by two oars managed by the guide who sits in the middle of the raft. Garrett and I ended up in the front of the raft, which was cool because that's where you get wet when going through the rapids.

Most of our morning was actually spent just floating down river. Since we didn't really have that far to travel in an entire day, the guides didn't rush us down the river and rather let us drift along with the current. The current in the Colorado River is quite fast, although nothing that seems terribly unmanageable to me - however, I am much more used to the currents in the ocean rather than the river, so maybe I don't know that much. I do know I wouldn't really want to swim myself out of the river if I had to.

We went over 3 rapids in the morning, which were either Class I or II. The river runs pretty low at this time of the year, so the class of the rapids is lower than it would be with a high river. Class I are kindof boring, but Class II are alright, splashing into the boat if you go right into the heart of it. It really surprised me how much that big raft just plowed through any waves, so that you couldn't even feel them!

Most of the people on in the morning got off at noon - they had only paid for half a day, so off they went. A few more people were picked up and loaded onto the rafts. At this point, Garrett and I actually switched crafts for the remainder of the day. The outfitter had these inflatable kayaks (called a Ducky) that you can rent out for 20$ more per day. For no extra charge, our guide let us take over a two-person Ducky that was vacated by a half-day participant. This is when our trip became way more fun and interesting! We got to direct ourselves over the rapids ourselves! Now, don't worry at all that we were in danger at any point. First of all, Garrett and I were quite competent in guiding our Ducky, and in fact, our biggest problem is that we floated down the river way faster than the rafts (since we were so much smaller and lighter), so we had to keep paddling back to the rafts to stay near our guides. Secondly, as I have mentioned, the rapids weren't really that big, and we were not at risk of flipping at any point in our river tour. The other neat thing about the Ducky is that the bottom of the kayak is open to the river, so you're sitting in the river the whole time you are paddling. This was very key for cooling us off during the heat of the day.

Included in our rafting fee was our lunch meal. So, around 1:15, we all pulled onto a beach and our guides unloaded the cooler they had brought on the rafts. However, once they opened it up, they realized the support staff had packed YESTERDAY'S lunch, leaving them with the leftovers and nothing suitable to feed us. Garrett and I were feeling pretty nervous about this, since we were feeling really hungry and hadn't eaten since quite early that morning. We were worried that we weren't going to get food until dinner, and that wouldn't do since we'd be pretty tired paddling the river all day without food! I started to feel annoyed, since the girl at the outfitter's office told us we couldn't bring anything on the raft with us, so we didn't. However, other people brought their backpacks and had FOOD in them! I wished the girl hadn't been stupid and had told us we could bring our pack.

Fortunately, there were some staff members enjoying a free trip down the river on some one-person Ducky's, so they volunteered to speed down the river to a nearby ranch, call the company and get them to meet us farther down the river with our new lunch. Phew! So, we only had another hour until we got fed!

When we finally got lunch, it tasted so great! But aside from how hungry we were, it was actually a very impressive lunch considering we were on a beach on the river. We got to build our own sandwiches, complete with all the fixings like meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and avocado! As well, they had lemonade, chips and fruit for us. We were quite full by the time lunch was done.

After lunch, we only have half an hour before we reached our take-out point. We unloaded ourselves from the boats and the guides loaded them back onto the bus and trailer while we waited at the top of the road. If I had one major complaint for our rafting trip, it was that the passengers were not given quite enough direction about what was going on. For example, when we dropped of the morning-only crew, Garrett and I weren't really sure where to go or what to do. Did we eat lunch on the bus with the people who were leaving? Did we eat lunch later? Turned out we ate lunch later, but it took us 10 minutes to figure that out on our own. As well, I didn't quite feel they gave Garrett and I enough guidance once we were in our own Ducky. The guides just started pushing their rafts into the river and we were like "I guess we should get our Ducky into the river too now!" All they needed to do throughout the day was let people know what they were doing and it would have been fine. Instead, we were slightly confused for much of the day!

Alright, that's enough. Oh yea, we don't have any pictures because we decided it was safer to leave the camera at home! Water plus expensive camera = bad. At first, we were disappointed because on the raft the camera would have been completely fine. However, we wouldn't have been able to go in the Ducky in the afternoon if we'd had the camera, because it would have been wet for sure, so it worked out in that respect. Overall, a fun day and a good way to escape the heat.