Whitewater Rafting

Two-ish weekends ago, a few of my fellow ENR scholars and I went to West Virginia for a little bit of whitewater rafting. While a few of us have been, a majority, including me, have never gone. There were seven of us ENR scholars (well, six, since T-Spice isn't in ENR), and then two trip leaders. We went through the Rivermen program and rafted on the New River, and man, was it fun.

We were set to leave around 4:30, but we all didn't leave Blackburn for the OAC until that time so we were a little late getting on the road which meant we ran into a little bit of traffic. (When I say a little, it is a little in comparison to Chicago. So all in all, the traffic wasn't really that bad). But when we signed up for this trip we were told we were going to sleep in tent cabins, but at the informational meeting they were like, no, we're sleeping in tents. I personally have nothing wrong with tents, but I don't think too many people like setting up tents in the dark. Just saying... But then when we were getting our gear ready, the trip leaders said that they had misinformed us and we were getting tent cabins! Cheers all around.

So I don't know how many of you all have driven through Ohio before, but it really isn't all that exciting. Lots and lots and lots of farmland. But all of that changes as soon as you go towards southeast Ohio and hit the Hocking Hills area. It's hilly and foresty (that's not a word, I know, but it rhymes with hilly. Just go with it.) and very aesthetically pleasing. But holy poop, there is nothing to do down there! Driving by Ohio University, we all were thinking the same thing: no way we could go to school down here. Yes, it's pretty, but there would be nothing to do outside of the OU campus! But once we got down to WV, the view was just as pretty. It was a very nice change of pace from the flat land of Columbus.

New River Gorge - So pretty!

The picture above if of the river we rafted down. Boy was it so pretty! If there weren't dangerous rapids, I probably would have just stared at the scenery all day. While the scenery was nice and pretty, the rafting itself was AWESOME! Holy shit. So. Much. Fun. Words simply cannot describe the experience we had. Well, we first thought we were going on the Upper Gauley, which is extrememly hard, but we ended uprafting down the Lower New, which I think was just right for us. The first 6 miles or so was pretty tame, only one or two major rapids, but after we ate lunch (which was very delicious), we finally started hitting the bigger stuff. So there was 9 of us in the raft, in a 2-2-2-2-1 formation (1 being the back) and I don't know if you know this, but when you whitewater raft, you sit on the EDGE of the raft. Seems a little unsafe, no? But we were all approaching a rapid with two sets of waves, and you essentially had to paddle your heart out for the first wave if you want a chance to even make it over the second. Well we paddled and paddled and paddled, but we did not make it over the second wave. We were so close in fact that we were basically sitting on top of the second wave. But as we started to fall backwards, a wave hit the front left of the raft, causing almost everyone to fall out. Our raft was about to tip, but our guide Seth was screaming"GET LEFT! GET LEFT!" Somehow Stephanie and I managed to get left and stay on the raft. So once we got the raft settled, Stephanie, Seth and I look down the river to see everyone floating on down. There were no really close calls the rest of the day, just lots of fun!

We all got very lucky: it was supposed to rain and thunder ALL day, but it held off until late Saturday night. And since we had our nifty little tent cabins, we did not have to worry about water leaking into the tent or have to worry about putting down the tent in the rain. But the tent cabins had a tin roof, which made the rain REALLY loud at night. A small con compared to all the pros.

That weekend was so much fun, and I know we would all go back in a heartbeat. I can't wait to go back next year. Who knows, maybe I'll try the Upper Gauley!

Blast from the not too far past.

Note: I ended up writing this entry on 3 separate occasions, so if parts of it don't really flow, that is why.