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Rafting Adventure Kishore C.S. (August 2001) In July
2001, I ventured on my first Rafting Adventure. The following is an account of
my adventure. During May
2000, I visited Grand Canyon with my brother. When we watched the movie about
Grand Canyon in IMAX theatre there, they showed people rafting on the Grand
Canyon river. The water was very turbulent and people were rafting. I thought
they must crazy to raft such waters and could not understand why they risk
their life for the adventure. I decided I am never going to do such a foolish thing
of going on rafting. But here I
am, alive after my first rafting trip and glad that I went on this adventure.
This rafting trip was organized by my company after we completed a project.
Around 15 of us went on the trip. I was not sure what exactly this adventure
would mean, but anyway wanted to be part of the Team that goes. To the Camping Area On July
12th we all started by bus from our office in Palo Alto to the Camping Area
provided by American Whitewater
Expeditions. The drive took approximately 4 hours as there was traffic.
After we reached there we settled in our camps and evening was spent in
anticipation of next day. This was also my first 'Camping'. Preparation for the Rafting We got up
early on the Rafting day and we were ready by 7.30 AM. Day was already getting
hot. We went by bus to the River from the camping Area. This took us more than
an hour and we were at the river around 10.00 AM. Look at the photo before we started for the rafting
trip. We were given Safety instructions on the bus. Some of us expressed
concern what is the worst that can happen? We were assured nothing would
happen, even if you don't know swimming as all safety precautions are taken and
one should follow instructions in case something happens. There were already
more than 100 people from different companies who were getting ready. There
were 7 boats from our company. We were life jacket, helmet and paddle. We
were introduced to our Guide who will be taking us through the river. We also Glossary of Terms The
following are the terms that I learned about Rafting. Rapid: Rapid is the term used for rapid
flow of water because of slopes created by rocks in the water. Water turbulence
varies based on the 'drop' of water level and number of rocks. There are levels
assigned to Rapid based on the difficulty of rafting across the rapid. See one
such example in this photo Highrise: If you raft gets stuck on a rock,
the guide will warn as Highrise which will mean every one should to go the
higher side of the raft. Morning Session We started
our rafting adventure at around 10.15 AM. We had to lift the raft and put it on
the river. We have around 18 miles of trip down the river and we are likely to
end the trip by 5 PM. We got into the raft and received instructions on how we
should paddle and when we should start and when we should stop. Our raft went
through adventures within half an hour of the trip. First rapid gave a me
a taste of what is to come. We paddle our raft and when we reach the rapid we
have sit tight and ensure that
we don't fall off and also paddle so that we cross the rapid safely. Our Guide
will give us an idea of how difficult the rapid is. 15 minutes
on the river we reached most difficult rapids called 'Tunnel Chute'.
This is 5 ft drop that takes us down the river very rapidly. When our boat went
through this our raft made a 360 turn resulting in lot of water splashing all
over us and I was quite scared at this. I started wondering how many such
dangers I have endure during the day. Fortunately this was the only scary rapid
of the entire day. Adventure 1 Immediately
after this: while we were crossing another rapid, my colleague sitting next to
me fell into water and guide had to pull him back into the river. I was glad, I
did not fall into river as I watched the anxiety it causes in a short time. My
colleague who fell into water did not know swimming and he was shocked at the
event and though the entire fall and rescue was over within seconds he was
dazed for a few minutes. He lost his Sunglasses when he fell into river. Adventure
2 As we were
recovering from this, our raft went into "highrise". See Photos: On the Rock, Back into raft. . Our raft landed on a big rock resulting in
part of the raft going under water. We had to climb out of water. Everyone was
watching us and we had to carefully get out. There was not enough space to
stand on the rock so couple of us went into water. Our guide pulled the raft
and later we all climbed back into raft. We had juggle in the raft so that our
weight would force the raft back into water. After 5 minutes of anxiety we were
back onto water. With this
quick events happening to our raft, we were shaken and started wondering how
long we have to endure these risks. But after these initial rapids, the river
got smoother and around 10 mile stretch was a smooth ride. Sun was getting
hotter and we had to apply sun block lotions as we continued our rafting. The
river was passing through mountains and it was very calm. There is no noise
other than the flowing water. When I looked up at the mountains I felt certain
calmness in my heart. I was glad that I could experience such a natural
phenomenon. All 7 boats
from our trip stopped for Lunch at around 1.45 PM. Sun was very hot and
everyone had their lunch. This stop was around 45 minutes and every one started
getting lazy after lunch and looking forward to end of the trip. Afternoon session I switched
boats after lunch time. Immediately after starting off, our guide started throwing
people in our boat into water. He said people tend to get lazy and don't enjoy
the trip anymore after lunch. In fact it did help: when we took a dip in a
water, our laziness was gone and we were looking forward to more adventures. Rescues For us,
afternoon session was also good as we managed couple of rescues. Around
2 miles after our lunch break there were a good number of rapids. As we rafted
across those turbulent waters we reached a spot where we need to get off the
raft and walk. This resulted in approximately one hour wait time where we got
down while the raft was pushed through highly turbulent waters. Again hot sun
made it difficult. It is at this point we made our first rescue. We crossed a
rapid which had around 3 ft drop and we were waiting to watch other come
across. Then one person from the next boat fell off and we picked her up. This
was our first rescue We came to
another rapid towards end of the day. We crossed the rapid which had
approximately 4 ft drop. We managed it without problem and again we were
waiting. Then the next boat that came, almost everyone fell off the boat
including the guide except one rafter. This time we rescued all the rafters and
our boat was filled with 11 members at that time. Look at the photo after rescue. Our rafting
adventure ended sometime after 5 PM and we were tired at end of day. Overall Experience I have taken time to share my experiences because this
adventure taught me important lessons
Hope you liked this narrative experience. Send me your comments
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