April 29, 2008

Moab - Colorado River Rafting!

Having just completed the interesting biography of Buzz Holstrom, "The Doing of the Thing" and well into Powell's own account of running the Grand Canyon, I simply had to get on the River for a little whitewater fun & adventure.


Since Kim wanted Tuesday to peruse the quaint shops of downtown Moab, I was left with only one choice for the float, the full day trip from to the ...takeout, a nice scenic trip with mostly class 2 rapids with a couple of 3's for a little extra excitement....with the Colorado at record highs this early in the season, we actually finished well ahead of schedule at each of the day's two stops.

Shortly after starting down the river, our guide, Sean, pointed out this unusual "dog rock", can you recognize who's sitting up there?

In case you haven't figured it out...a hint...think about the Charlie Brown show.
We went through several nice sets of ripples and a few Class 1 & 2's. Aphrehension started building a bit as we approached the first Class 3.....not so much out of any fear of going over, but, since it was a cloudy, windy, cool morning none of us was ready for a icey cold shower!


Although that big wave to the right looked mean, it turned out to be just an easy fun ride, and even though we had to bail a bit, Sean did a great job of keeping the chilling waters off of everything but our feet as you can see in this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zEWk7JPNiE

Shortly before lunch, we passed the Red Creek Lodge, where Kim & I had enjoyed the day before on the trail ride. I was surprised at how much more beautiful the place looked from the water. It's a bit pricey, but I don't think you could go wrong staying there....



As we enjoyed our lunch, we noticed that last rapid hadn't been quite as friendly to the now soaked souls were using this (inverted) craft! (don't worry, moments later a group of kids floated by on another obviously overloaded boat, waving, laughing & hollering, after picking up this crew...).


The final Class 3 was a blast, and managed to fulfill Sean's statement earlier that "you may get a little wet on the next one"!

By the time we got into the second section, I was able to get the camera on video mode again.....so take a look at this one! Boy, that water was some COLD!!!
All-in-all a great day on the River! see y'all out there next time.......