We didn't have a plan when we set out to the river that morning. Just a raft, two life vests, a cooler and one car. If anyone knows anything about rafting a river, it's that you need two cars. This is where having more than one car comes in handy. One for the beginning and one for the end to get you back to the first car. I mean, whether you have a beginning car or an ending car, at some point the second mode of transportation will be necessary.
We're traveling Huckleberry Fin style here folks, with good ol' Mark Twain guiding the way. Anything you want to take with you is going to get wet, be aware of that and make sure to take precautions. So this does take a bit of planning at some point before the whim to go rafting comes about.
For a full day of rafting, you have to leave early, so having the proper equipment beforehand will come in handy. Raft, lifevests, cooler with water would be the bare minimum. I'm thinking we're going to need a waterproof bag for things like your cell phone(which should only be taken out for emergencies unless you have a water proof case and floatation device for it), your car keys, emergency cash, your id. That is the essentials case and should be secured in a safe, maybe even in another waterproof case, which is attached to the raft. This is a case which should never be opened during the trip. Trust me, you don't want to get to your destination only to discover you'd lost your car keys somewhere in the river.
If you smoke, want to bring a camera, or want to actually use your water-proof and life-vested phone then a second water proof case should be brought. This is the case of things you would prefer to have dry but still want to access. I'd even suggest still putting everything inside this case in its own zip lock bag since you will be accessing this bag with wet hands. Because unless you have kept them up, or its super hot then your hands will be wet.
Another, larger water proof bag should be brought to carry a towel. That way you don't have to sit in the dirt when you land for some lunch on the beach. More towels should be kept in the ending car so you're not driving while dripping wet. Want to talk luxury style? Get another water proof bag for dry foods like chips, pretzels, and your sandwhiches.
Depending on the type of raft you have and how big it is will determine cooler size. Descriptions of sizes usually run small on tags. So when it says "for two people" it usually means two small teens who have no extra luggage and no cooler. It's safer to estimate one person for two places. An example would be to get a four person boat for two people. We took up an entire four person boat. one of us in front, our stuff in the middle (all still accessible but still strapped to the boat), the third spot was for the feet of the person who sat in the back, on the cooler.
If you go in innertubes, each person needs their own tube and the cooler will need a tube. Tie the cooler to the tube and tie all the tubes together; remember to give the rope some slack between tubes so you have room to maneuver.
Never forget sunscreen. Try to remember to put it on during lunch. Now I say to bring a cooler because on a hot day, under the sun, nothing will taste better than an ice cold drink. Whatever it is, it will taste amazing. That's why you bring ice, and plenty of drinks. Another reason to go big with the boat is to fit a big cooler. Each person should have four or more drinks of their own in that cooler. Hydration is important. Rafting isn't fun with heat exhaustion. Especially because it's not a quit, turn around and go back to the car kind of activity. The key to having fun is being prepared.
Which is where the life vests come in. You never know what a river can do. Everything effects how a trip can go. A drought may have lowered the river depth, exposing new rocks to maneuver, swells to avoid, and crazy current. If there had been lots of rain this could have raised the water level, making for a calm top water flow but crazy undertow. Previous winter snow fall, days since summer began, how hot it gets without acclimation, all are variations to consider when rafting. It can make the difference between a tame level 1 river ride or a white water level 3 rapids.
We went for a full day to the Spokane river and went through level 3 rapids in "bowl and pitcher," located at Riverside state park. We couldn't count how many swells we went over that afternoon. I remember sitting on floor of the raft, holding the sides and throwing my body weight backward everytime he yelled, "lean!"
With the same motion, he would pull the front of the boat up and off the water as we hit the swell, which pulled us up and over a wall of water caught against a rock. Then we would continue for a few seconds more before coming to the next swell and doing the same.
This is a spot where people can get in trouble. If you let the nose of your boat smash into a rock big enough to stop you, the water will determine if you get pushed to the side of the rock, or you go under. Rapids have whirlpools in them, the kind that look and function like drains. Water gets sucked in and pushed down, twists around the bottom until it spits out somewhere else. These are the sorts of things that kill people. It was only a year after our rafting trip when a kayaker died while going through bowl and pitcher. The river was higher and crazy that year. There were a record number of drownings that year because of all the under current.
There is always the possibility of hitting your head on a rock, which is why some people opt for helmets. On this unplanned trip through People's Park, under Tj Meenoch bridge, which ended at the Devils pitchfork, we did not have helmets. We did not bring flashlights, a second mode of transportation, enough water, maps or anything dry. Dusk had fallen while we were traversing bowl and pitcher and we decided it was too dangerous to go through devils pitchfork in the dark. The unfamiliar territory beyond that point was more rural and seriously too close to a gun range to be wandering around lost in the woods at night.
The human element was a welcomed one at the end of our trip considering what we could have run into. Washington state is grizzly country, and you know wild moose arn't unheard of and arn't super friendly. Realistically though, we had Bigfoot to worry about. It would only be a year later when one was supposedly spotted by a teenager right where we had rafted. But seriously though, temperatures begin dropping after sunset and the wilderness is not somewhere to be when it's not on purpose.
Remember your terrain. We knew beforehand the road parallelled the river, so as long as we walked away from the river we would find road. The trees covered any source of light the moon had reflected off the water's surface and ahead of us was a hill. This is where planning your drop spot comes in handy. Carrying a wet raft, a cooler and all those supplies you thought you'd need up a hill, in the dark, through the bushes, with all those noises; Did I mention it's cougar country as well? Not fun.
Still, these sorts of experiences, (which teach us how to be prepared for next time) can be some great memories. We poured the rest of the ice out of the cooler -it was contaminated from the river water and only added weight- and used the raft to carry all our stuff like a gourney to the top of that hill. And how were we going to go those seven miles back to the car? I think part of me figured we could walk it but more realistically we flagged down a driver who had watched us raft under the bridge he'd been standing on. We threw the raft on the top of the car and held it down with our hands through the windows.
These times remind me of the decency in humanity. The importance of learning from experiences and planning ahead. It's a gentle reminder that mother nature can provide entertainment with precaution, as it is often with luck why some trips work out and others drown.
No comments:
Post a Comment