Cross Training, Rafting style

Excuse the long post. But I just loved this day and wanted to remember it.

My girl J arrives early Saturday. Me and my two girls had a long planned whitewater rafting excursion. But I find out Friday the dam release has been canceled for lack of rain, and one pal wont be in till Saturday night. She's been down South covering the hurricanes. Understandably, she wants to be nowhere near water.

So J and I decide to do what I explain is rafting for babies. It's called summer rafting. It's low grade, low level, low excitement far as I can tell. But it'll be relaxing, I tell J when I let her know of change of plans. We can lazily float and weather is supposed to be perfect. Sure, she says, sounds fine.

We arrive. Families everywhere. Big families, extended families. We're gonna get stuck with one of those big crazy families, I tell Joy. Watch. The lede guide comes by. “Just you two?” he asks.
“Ya,” I tell him. “And we’re fine rafting alone.”
“I have no problem with that,” he says, and walks away.
J and I give a high five.

After our safety session, we head to river. We choose raft. We take our seats. We practice paddling. We’re sitting in the wrong place. We’re paddling wrong, one guide tells us. We look at each and shrug. Our cover as experienced rafters has been blown. As we’re getting ready to leave, a man comes over. “Can I join you?” Neither of us says anything. “OK,” we finally manage. We wanted to be alone, like he cares. He sets himself in comfortably. Turns out he’s a floater guide, assigned to go from boat to boat to assist struggling rafters. We also become headquarters since we have space for the first aid kit and other if-things-go-wrong-equipment.

Time to pull the raft into the water. J and I each take a rope and with our new guide, whom I’ll call Charlie since that’s his name, prepare to shove off. We are pulling the heavy raft, stumbling over rocks. We’re deep enough to jump in the raft. I, Miss Outdoorsy/Wanna Be Raft Expert, lose my balance and FALL COMPLETELY IN THE RIVER. I have fallen, trying to look pro-style and hardcore, BEFORE we’ve launched. J gives a horrified look before she cannot contain her laughter any longer.

Off we go. Look for the V’s, that means you’re clear and away from rocks. Avoid the water rushing inward and down, sign of rock. Charlie is explaining all this as we start off. OK so maybe having Charlie with us to start wasn’t such a bad thing. In minutes, it’s like we’re experienced rafters. A short while later, we stop for lunch. Then it’s back off. Charlie, perhaps satisfied we’ll not overturn at the next large rock, joins another group.

With just two of us, it’s easy to get into a groove. We get stuck on rocks, sure, but we quickly emerge as the group’s stars (if you don’t mind me saying so). An unfortunate consequence is that we’ve become both headquarters and camp Charlie. Charlie joins us in between looking for the next struggling rafters. We are ordered to swim to raft 465 so he can jump on or to paddle faster to the right or left to avoid rock. While at camp Charlie, he rests. J is becoming irritated. “Are we gonna get a cut of what you make or what?” she asks him. He pretends not to hear. We are seriously working.

He joins next raft. Rafts are ordered to line up single file to enter narrow portion of river with lite whitewater. The boat in front of us plows right into a large rock. The boy sitting nearest the rock hits it with his back. It has caught the boat off guard. He tumbles backward into the river and goes under our boat. He begins to panic. “Calm down,” J tells him. “Relax. We’ve got you.” I get the paddle. He jumps onto our boat, we paddle to get him back to his crew. We have accomplished our first rescue.

“It feels good helping people,” I say. She agrees.
”There’s a word for us,” I add. “Heroes.”

And off we paddle.