Saturday, July 30, 2005

RAFTING!

Steve and I went rafting yesterday with a bunch of fire department friends, and we had a blast! We dropped Morgan off in Bend at the sitter at 8am, and met out party in Madras at 9. Then we headed to Maupin, about 47 miles from there, and jumped in the drink on the lower Deschutes. Before that, we dropped off cars here and there, as we were borrowing rafts and going without a paid guide. Anyway, we rafted for 1 1/2 hours, stopped at one of our cars for a lunch (we had the cooler in the back) and then rafted for another few hours. It was SO much fun! There were 17 of us, and we had two rafts and a couple of tahitis (river kayaks). They were pretty big rafts. In the middle, attached to a frame, were coolers, for drinks.... and libations. There were plenty of slow spots on the river, allowing us to lean back, and bask in the 100 degree heat, while many sipped on a cold one. Or, a lot of the time, they'd jump in the river, and float down... with a cold one. It was fun. There was one class 4 rapid, Oak Springs, but we went through it okay. There were only a couple of times where we hit spots just enough to bump someone out of the boat. But there was no harm done, and everyone did great. I would, of course, in those moments, grab onto the framed cooler that was attached to our raft and hold on for dear life. I did NOT want to fall in.
There was one spot in the river called "Elevator" where you get out of your raft and float down the rapid on your own. The water was deep enough that you weren't scrapping bottom, but you bounced up and down a little bit. That was fun. After that, we sat in the far back of the raft, and Shawn, our tiller, held on to a rope attached to the front, and we'd "ride the bull" and pull the front up as we hit the rapids. We almost tipped the boat over. That front end went straight up in the air. The only thing that probably saved us was Jessica and I, bench partners, because as everyone else leaned back, we leaned forward. We didn't want to get dumped out.
All in all, it was a blast. We picked Morgan up @7:30pm. That's the longest I've ever left her anywhere. She did great. Good for mama. Steve and I had a fun day of bonding together. I can't wait to do that again!

1 Comments:

At July 30, 2005 9:20 AM, Blogger Sabrina said...

Oh that sounds like SUCH FUN!!! and YEAH that Morgan did so well!

 

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