Raging Rapids—For Real
Posted on July 2, 2008
Filed Under From the road |
Posted by Sierra
On June 27, 2008, we, the Hieronymi, officially went whitewater rafting on the Athabasca River in Jasper National Park, Alberta. Mom and Dad had gone before, but not I! So we got on the bus and rode to the Athabasca River.
Then we were split into groups. In our group there were us Hieronymi plus two women from Africa, a man from either Vancouver or Edmonton, and two guides. We had to put on plastic bag “socks” and cute lil’ booties (I put mine on the wrong feet), and a wetsuit, and a life jacket, of course. Then we hauled a raft that felt like it weighed around 100 pounds down a “historic” path that Marilyn Monroe used to get down to the river by jeep to film River of No Return (or so our guides said). Then we lugged it onto the river, paddling along with our T-grips, (which I originally thought were called teegrits) and into some (Yeaghh!) rapids. We sloshed down the river in the raft, in which we were in the below order:
Left
Row 1 Mom
Row 2 Dad
Row 3 Woman from Africa
Row 4 Guide (James Junior)
Right
Row 1 Guy from Vancouver or Edmonton
Row 2 Me
Row 3 Other Woman from Africa
Row 4 Guide (Kyle)
So off we went, along the river that had just thawed from a glacier that morning and had good-tasting water.
We ka-rashed and screamed our way along the rapids, occasionally hitting (yawn) long, calm, stretches. Our guides told us about the river and its surroundings. Unfortunately, the left side of the boat got wetter. (NO FAIR!) During the calm water, it was too quiet. During the rapids, however, it was nice and loud, like a lion’s roar. In the rapids it was like a roller coaster, and in the calmness it was like a boring book (unless you like calmness).
At the end of the trip, we had to take off all our equipment and we got back on the bus. We rode back and went on with our lives. But I’m sure I’ll never forget my first whitewater rapids rafting ride.
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I love the facial expressions!