Tycho

Posted 21:45 by Tycho

Slainte! First post in a while, I know. I've been pretty busy lately.

I finally put two and two together last Thursday--that my cousin's graduation would be taking place the same day as the white water rafting trip. Ordinarily, such a decision is a no-brainer. This decision wasn't reached so easily. What made all the difference was that she's blood. I kind of freaked out when I realized this (the day before I was to depart to moose country), and tried to figure out what to do, because they were both important--whitewater because I made the commitment to go something like six months ago, and the graduation because she's my cousin. I was given some advice, and I followed it.

That Friday, I was all packed and ready to go. Then the bad news hit--Marc wouldn't be able to make it because he came down with something. DAMNIT! So the ride up was done with 3 rather than 4, and a long ride it was (five hours). Good thing we weren't on horses, because not only would it have taken a couple days, I would have had the sorest ass in the world.

Once there, we set up camp, went to some place down the road for pizza and whatever else was available. Got thoroughly whumped in a game of Checkers, then it was back to the camp site to get the fire going. First, though, we needed firewood. We probably got 30 trees in total, plus sufficient kindling for the weekend. I started off chopping up the trees as they came in with the axe, a position we all swapped off on because it is physically taxing, and we had a raging river to face in the morning. Much of the wood was moist, and so we had a pretty smoky fire--which stings and affects the eyes quite a bit.

It wasn't easy getting to sleep that night. Evidently someone left a bag of Goldfish out, and we had an animal going through the campsite. I heard it pawing around my tent and sniffing around. Whatever it was, it sounded big (coyote?). After hearing it circle around a bit, I dozed off in a deep and restful sleep.........

.........And was awake at 5:30, and up and about shortly after that. Helped Marky start the fire for the morning, and we had a roaring fire going by the time the rest of the campers got out of their tents. Breakfast was good--eggs in a bag, sausages, and hot dog buns (and any combination thereof). We needed every calorie we could get.

At about 0900, a guide came over and asked us to report to check in and stuff. We did so, and got the standard safety lecture, except they didn't warn the rafters to never touch bottom with their feet. Which surprised me because that's an extreme danger--if you do so, you run the risk of getting your foot caught. Best case scenario is having your ankle or leg snap. Worst case scenario is that you drown. Anyways, Chris A (aka Bob) was chosen to be a dummy to demonstrate things.

Once that was over, it was time to gear up. It really does feel like preparing for battle, not that I have any experience there, but you know what I mean. Or maybe not, but I don't care if you don't, because you should. Anyways, once I was in the wetsuit, I immediately had the urge to go to the bathroom. UUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!! Even though its ok to piss in the suit (everyone else before you has!), I decided it wasn't a good thing, since I hadn't even been in the river yet. We boarded the bus for the twenty minute drive up to the head waters of the Dead River. Steve (one of the guides) proceeded to hit on anything and everything that had a heartbeat. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Our guide was Josh, who turned out to be a cool guy. He got us ready and said that we were probably going to be taking a swim--the river was running at over 10 000 cubic feet per second, due to snow and ice runoff from a harsh winter. We soon learned that the water was cold. Chris was first to take a dip when we eddied out, and he told me the water was fine. What a liar. I jumped in and nearly got a heart attack from the thermal shock--Josh then told us that the water was probably 40 degrees (AFTER I jumped in...notice his good timing!). Chris dragged me back in, and away we went.

The river was good, and we had a few good, hard hits. One hole nearly threw me off, but everyone was on the ball, and caught my legs. It was one helluva sit up to reach the hands that were trying to get me back in. We hit another rapid that nearly dumped three of us into the thermally challenged water. One person fell out, not from a rapid, but from stepping out of the boat and having no dry land underfoot. We lurched out for a snack break, and I marched off into the wilderness to answer Nature's Call. Once on the river, it was time for Big Poplar Falls, which was great...1.5 miles of pure Class V rapids.

Afterwards, we changed up (I was almost dry after getting out of the suit--polypropylene is an amazing material!), and headed over for a much needed meal...which was steak, rice pilaf, and the best cole slaw I think I've ever had. Then it was time to look at pictures. There was a sequence of shots of our raft that showed me about to be dumped into the rapid, which everyone had a good laugh at. Some of the hits were amazing...the boat was there...boat was there...boat was there...boat disappears into a hole, and water is flying.

I've have to say the funniest thing is in the movie of this one hapless raft on its trip through Big Poplar Falls...you see the raft fast approaching a large hole, and then you see the guide stand up, and let loose with the throw bag (basically rope in a bag) to someone who got dumped, and then the raft smashes into the hole. A true whitewater rescue.

Then I warmed up around the fire and just relaxed...and got to play a bit of kickball with a deflated volleyball. I said I was good for a homerun, but all I got was a double. Meh, ah well. Later that night, just hung around the fire. Heard a certain someone cry out into the night (evidently he has vicious night terrors). Went to bed earlier than the other guys, but I was knackered.

My first thought of the morning was "Hey! It's only 6! I can just lie in my sleeping bag for another hour!". The second thought was "SHIT!!!"--it had begun to rain. Reveille was therefore at 6:15 for everyone, rather than 7:00. We broke camp, cleaned it up, and put out the embers to the fire to an extent--not cold to the touch, but the rain would take care of it. Went a half hour down the road to this breakfast place...which serves amazingly good meat omelets. The coffee was a little weak, but I couldn't complain (it was coffee!).

Ride home went quickly. Feet of lead were especially helpful in this regard.

The first thing I did when I got home (after dragging my stuff into the house) was go out running. A nice 2.5 miler. I had been itching to run, and it was a great release, and I felt great the entire way through.

Monday (yesterday?), I got up and went out for a 3.5 mile run, and felt good, though definitely exhausted at the end. Tuesday (today?) was another 2.5 mile day, and I could feel myself as being noticeably fatigued before getting too far into the run. The middle part of the run was the hardest, while the last bit was amazing, because my breathing pattern changed and became nearly perfect...or what felt like nearly perfect.

Wednesday (tomorrow?) will be an "off" day for me, to give my body a chance to recover. Probably go for a walk, or something non-strenuous like that. Or maybe just completely relax. I have no clue.

I think I'll stop boring everyone now...assuming anyone actually read this entire thing.

Slan agat.

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