Five days out of the fifty were spent on the river learning how to read white water and operate rafts and canoes. We spent three days on the Nantahala River and two days on the Tuckaseegee River. The first day, we went rafting in an effort to get to know the white water and how it maneuvers you down the river. I had been rafting several times before and wasn't worried about this day at all. That is, until they told us we would be guiding the rafts after some practice with the strokes. I already knew the strokes, but I was definitely a little nervous guiding the raft as I would be responsible for any mishaps. Well, the first time in the driver's seat everything went really well. On our raft was myself, Brian and Katie(two of the people I got pretty close with over the course of the trip) and my two instructors. Ev
erything had been going very smoothly the whole day. We had named our "ship" Cinnamon after it's red color and the general awesomeness of the people aboard it. We were making jokes and telling stories all day as we smoothly road the waves. Soon after we had stopped for lunch it was getting towards the end of the River where we would hit our most challenging rapids yet. We would only reach a class III, which I had done several times before. Despite my lack of enthusiasm to guide us
down these rapids, my boat mates nominated me to be "captain". As we approached the more difficult rapids I was getting rather nervous. We hit a rock and bam, one of my instructors fell out. I was terrified. But, we kept on trucking. We quickly arrived at "Nantahala Falls" and even more quickly we arrived at a huge rock. Well, I proceeded to take complete cover and dove into the ship while completely abandoning my role. We managed to somehow make it down the falls without a spill, but I was rather embarrassed. I guess that is one of those moments where you just have to tell yourself, "live and learn".
erything had been going very smoothly the whole day. We had named our "ship" Cinnamon after it's red color and the general awesomeness of the people aboard it. We were making jokes and telling stories all day as we smoothly road the waves. Soon after we had stopped for lunch it was getting towards the end of the River where we would hit our most challenging rapids yet. We would only reach a class III, which I had done several times before. Despite my lack of enthusiasm to guide us
down these rapids, my boat mates nominated me to be "captain". As we approached the more difficult rapids I was getting rather nervous. We hit a rock and bam, one of my instructors fell out. I was terrified. But, we kept on trucking. We quickly arrived at "Nantahala Falls" and even more quickly we arrived at a huge rock. Well, I proceeded to take complete cover and dove into the ship while completely abandoning my role. We managed to somehow make it down the falls without a spill, but I was rather embarrassed. I guess that is one of those moments where you just have to tell yourself, "live and learn".
The next four days, we spent in tandem canoes. This was a little bit frustrating for me as some of the strokes were difficult to learn. I was also placed with a partner one day that outweighed me by 80Lbs, which didn't make things any easier. Once I found the right partner and got more comfortable, I really enjoyed canoeing. It was definitely hard on my knees, but a great new challenge for me. On the last day we got to pick our partners. I was again with Katie and we of course named our boat. We had been told early on that "loose hips save ships". This was a motto to live by if you felt as though you were going to flip. Well, Katie and I were not the strongest paddling pair and so we followed this motto very strongly all day long. Therefore, we of course named our boat Shakira after the "hipy" singing artist. My strokes may not have looked pretty, but I was the only one who didn't fall into the water the entire 5 days!
No comments:
Post a Comment