Part two of two.
At 9:30 we left Basecamp to drive the few miles up the mountain and then down the moutain to get into the gorge. Being a little fearful of heights and long drops I sat in the middle of the bus. I prefered not to sit at the back of the buss and Kiss my butt as we went around the curves!! There were even a few places where we had to do three point turns to get around the curves!
My boat consisted of Me, Susan, Bill, Leann, Sarah, and PITA (PITA is one of these people who feels the need to complain about EVERYTHING. She is such a whiner that before we left she was trying to decide if she wanted to rent a wet suit or not and I finally told her to do whatever she wanted...but that if she chose not to get a wetsuit or swim jacket that I was not going to listen to her gripe and moan all day because she was cold. hehehe She got a swim jacket and never mentioned being cold
Although she did complain because she was wet
Um, I'm sorry you are on a RIVER with RAPIDS...what part of getting wet do you not understand...I'm the virgin and I knew that...she was experienced and still griped
The other boat was our Pirate boat
They had a pirate flag and their favorite sayings were "argh" and "prepare to be boarded"
Around the campfire with spirts this was hysterical!! They even took their flag out on the boat and it rode with them. This was John, the Kims, Scott, Ryan, and Brian.
We arrived at the river around 10 and were able to get our boats right in the water. The water was gorgeous and views were spectacular. The sides of the gorge were anywhere from 800+ feet high to about 1000 feet above us. The water level was only about a foot high. This river goes up to about 12 feet high in wet winters and then has a totally different ride.
I held my breath on the first rapid and then after that I couldn't wait to get to the next one. It was like riding a roller coaster except that you never knew what the drop was going to be like. We tried raft surfing but we couldn't get into the hole right so we kept missing it.
But we hit some other rocks that sent us sailing!!
The first big rapid that we hit I wasn't braced very well and I flew forward and hit my hands on the lunch cooler. After that I made sure that I had a good grip and had my feet properly placed!! I never got thrown out on the rapids.
However, I did get thrown out of the boat once by Ryan. John couldn't get to me so he sent Ryan after me. I tried to fight him but he got me anyway. It startled me and I was having trouble getting my breath. The next time he tried to pull me out of the boat I spun around and yelled, "STOP". Apparently I also pointed one finger at him when I said it and I scared him
he left me alone and didn't try to get me again. I apparently scare 22 year old boys too!! hehehehe
One spot on the water was called swimmers rapids. We jumped out of the boat and floated over the rapids on our backs down the river. That was an awesome ride...OMG...it was soooo cool!!!
The water was extremely warm but the air was cool, and the sun wasn't out that much. So we were a bit chilly. We hit 3 or four class 4 rapids but the water wasn't that high so the rapids weren't that fast or high, but we did get bumped around a lot!!
Our guide let us hit some rocks and fly off of them into the water. It was cool!!
About mid day we stopped for lunch. Each boat had a cooler with part of lunch in it. We made sandwiches and ate potato salad, pasta salad, and had chips and 5 layer bean dip. It was yummy and we got to watch other boats coming down another set of rapids. The rocks in front of us were called the "Meat Grinder" because if you got into those, you weren't going to look too good when you came out. This was where the last commercial rafting trip death occured
.
At one point we were able to get out and swim for about a mile. I was the first one out of hte boat and into the water. It felt so good!!! I swam so long that when it was time to get back in the boat I didn't have the strength to help pull myself back into the boat.
We rafted under the 886 foot tall New River Gorge Bridge. That is an awesome structure from underneath.
Finally,
we got out of the water, 7 miles from where we started. We took the boats out of the water and hiked a bit up the hill to our bus. Once on the bus they had a cooler filled with Pabst Blue Ribbon
beer to drink on the bus on the way back to the base camp. They also had soda's for those of us not drinking beer! (I guess there is no open container law in WV!)
Once back at basecamp we all made mad dashes to the showers to warm up and get out of our wet suits. (and to grab some better beer!!
).
Dinner was at 5pm and it was bbq. It tasted pretty good, not great, but as hungry as I was, it could have been a rawhide and I would have eaten it.
That night we sat around the fire and talked about the trip. PITA wanted to complain about how she was thrown in the water and how it made her wet and cold and she didn't like it
. Uh okay. I'm pretty patient but by the end of the weekend with her I understand why people have problems with her!!
I could not sleep at all on Saturday night. There were rocks and things under neath me and I couldn't get comfortable and it wasn't that great. Apparently, when you sleep on the ground without the assistance of the spirits you notice all the lumps in the ground!!
Note to self...bring air mattress or drink more the second night!!
Sunday:
Woke up around 6:45 on sunday morning and we right to cleaning up and packing up. It had rained all night so everything was wet and difficult to pack up but we got it.
Breakfast was at 8 and so we all headed that way and had breakfast. Same type of eggs, bacon, and potatoes but for some reason they tasted much better today than they did yesterday!!
not sure why!!
We were on the road by 8:45 and this time the drive was a little faster. We stopped once to put gas in the car and then once for lunch. After that we drove and didn't stop until we got home! When we stopped for gas Bill threatened to throw PITA out of his car on the side of the highway. Apparently it didn't matter what anyone said in the car but she had to add her own thoughts...to EVERY word spoken in the car. Usually her comments were negative so they were a little over her!!
But here I am today and have survived. I really can't wait to do it again.
Elaine...I will let you know when we go again. The brochure I have says that it takes 6 hours to get there from Clevland and 4.5 hours from Columbus. I think it would be great to do a yaya raft event!!
I only have two pictures becasue I couldn't take my camera on the boat but we got some professional pictures taken by someone on the banks (and then sold to us for an ungodly amount of money!!) As soon as I have time to scan them in I will post them.
I do have a thing I should be going to tonight, but we'll see if I poop out on it or not.
and I've always wanted to go rafting 
The house is sooo quiet with them gone. 
Glad you got your DVD project done. 
