This just might be the most bad ass of my 30 before 30 list items. Kristian and I drove 6 hours up to Maine this weekend to go whitewater rafting with my friend Alyssa and a bunch of her buddies. We went rafting on the Penobscot River with the New England Outdoor Center. These guys really know their stuff! They were both organized and fun, two qualities that don’t always go hand in hand.
We rafted for a few hours in the morning, hitting up to Class III rapids and just generally getting comfortable on the river. We broke for an outrageously delicious meal and then tackled a series of trickier rapids in the afternoon. We hit a couple of Class V rapids at that point.
See? That’s me. Drinking about 17 gallons of river water.
For some reason, my head is only partially visible in most of the photos. You’d think my giant melon would be easier to spot, but it really isn’t. I may or may not have used the guy in front of me as a convenient shield against all of the water rushing at us.
I love this photo. Especially the look of determination on the girl in the front of the boat’s face. She’s like “Oh yeah river? BRING IT!”
I had gone rafting in HS, but I think that this was a lot more fun. Not only did we get to tackle harder rapids (there’s a minimum age on the Class V rapids), I’m also a lot stronger than I was in HS – both physically and emotionally.
Sure I got a little nervous during the safety demonstration, where they go over all of the different ways that you could hurt yourself on the river (not limited to: getting flung out of the boat, getting trapped under the boat, bashing your sensitive bits on rocks, bashing your head on rocks, getting your foot caught on a tree root resulting in having the current pull you under water and moose attacks).
(Ok, I made that last one up).
But I was definitely able to relax and enjoy the river in a way that I never did in HS. And all of that extra insulation that I’ve packed on over the course of 15 years sure kept me warm! I also have the arm strength now that I never did back then. It was nice to feel like a contributing member of the boat.
Our guide is a history major at Bowdoin, so he told us the story behind everything we came in contact with, down to the rocks and the gorges that had been blasted out with dynamite. History nerd that I am, I loved it. He told us about the local history, about the logs that they used to float down the river and how they almost dammed the river up for the local paper factory, which would have ended all of the rapids. That factory has since gone out of business and rafting is still thriving, so I think they made the right choice.
We also had a great time camping. Kristian cooked up a veritable feast on Saturday night and we all spent a fantastic evening sitting around the campfire making s’mores and shooting the shit… at least until 9:30pm when we all realized how bone tired we were from rafting and everybody passed out in their bunks and tents. Going to bed before 10pm on a Saturday night? It’s a glimpse into my own future.
At least I’ll be well-rested.
We drove somewhere in the area of 10-11 hours to get up to Maine and back. Well, I should say that Kristian drove in the area of 10 hours. I drove about an hour on the way back. Who says I’m not a contributing member of this relationship? I made my contribution in subtler ways like pushing the buttons on the GPS and making sure that he got plenty of rest by asking for frequent bathroom breaks.
I hope that the rest of the items on my list are this much fun!
Very cool! I went river rafting in high school, and got trapped under the raft for about 30 seconds. It was really scary. Haven’t been back since.
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Yikes! If I got trapped under the raft, I don’t think that I would have gone back either!
OK, this adventure sounds like a big win, Hope. Way awesome.
🙂
You’re awesome, Hope. How exciting!
Oh man, awesome!!! It sounds like you guys had such an incredible weekend – I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Who’s taking the photos? Someone in a raft in front of you??
So worth the drive!
Bellacantare – they have someone who works for the company whose only job is to take videos and photos. He has a little kayak and he follows all of the rafts around. I think he sat on various rocks and on the riverbanks to take most of the photos. They charge a lot of $$ for the photos, but our group all chipped in and paid for a photo disk. It worked out to only ten bucks each!
Awesome option to have!
That looks seriously intense! I don’t think I could go whitewater rafting, no way!