whitewater rafting

No, I did not fall out of the raft. it is just really hard to climb back in
swimming/ floating through "swimmer's rapids" -the water was soooo cold!
after we came through "Tunnel chute rapids." the craziest rapids I have ever been in.. and one of 2 rapids in the world that you end in a tunnel!

Kraig and I went whitewater rafting on August 13. We went down the Middle fork of the American river in CA. We had the best time ever! We went on a day long trip- and the rapids were mostly class III and IV, big enough I guess, that we had to wear helmets for half of the trip! I have been whitewater rafting before... but these were by far the hardest and longest rapids that I have been in! This was Kraig's first time.. and I am pretty sure that he loved it! I can't wait to go again. Unfortunately, my pictures with my underwater camera did not turn out that well... because you can't paddle and take pictures at the same time!
Oh yah... while we were rafting we saw a family of merganzers (diving ducks).. AND a real, live, river otter playing around on the shore! it was so cool!
For the first half of the day, Kraig and I sat in the lead paddling position on each side of the front of the raft (well the guide tells us what to do, but we lead the rest of the paddlers). we did a good job and never got in trouble for not paddling through the rapids! Neither one of us fell out of the raft.. but the force of the rapids did make us fall into the raft. The only casualty was that once, when trying to pull one of the other rafters back into the boat, I hit our guide in the helmet with my paddle. Ooops. They told us to watch out for that. Oh well, he had no hard feelings.. I even got a hug at the end of the day.. oh yah. He also said that Kraig and I could probably handle rafting in small class Vs! I want to get stronger before that though. No matter what, we will definitely be going again! Anyone interested?