White Water Raft Trip

Our four-wheel trip would have been a good enough reason for our early arrival to the reunion, but Wednesday brought another great adventure. Andrew and Becky were able to get us a white water trip. We were so amazed that it worked out and it was a blast!

Andrew and Becky guided the trip for their boss and his scout troop from Utah. There was just enough extra seats for Kelly, Kelsey, Evan and I. We woke up early so that we could drive to the spot where we would put our rafts in the river. We loaded up in the rafts and began our trip down the warm, brown waters of the Colorado River. Thank goodness it started nice and slow, so that we could get accustomed to our spots on the journey. Our group had 4 rafts, the scouts taking up two, the “boss” and the bishop in one and then Kelly, Kelsey, Evan and I , along with some of the young men leaders, in the last one with Andrew as our guide.

Right away the sides of the banks grew up around us as the canyon narrowed. We were treated to an eagle sighting. We spent the next hours surrounded by beautiful red and black cliff walls. All the pictures look like it was an easy float trip, but that was on the case. There was no way to get the camera out when we were going through the rapids. We were paddling hard and trying to stay in the boat!

This is a shot of the beautiful and amazing surroundings we spent the day viewing. We stopped for lunch along the banks. Kelly went chasing after a lizard and then took this photo of our group hanging out on the bank. And he got this great photo of that lizard. Beautiful isn’t it?

Remember when I talked about staying in the boat? There were many times I wondered if I was going in and I hung on to the raft like my life depended on it, because I felt like it did! I would grip the sides with my legs and wedged my foot under the tubes in the raft till they went numb. And that worked. I never left the raft. And before you get the wrong idea—I had the best time. It was awesome. But we did have trouble on one of the rapids called…  (duh duh dum) Skull! We were behind Becky’s raft and as they went through all of the scouts flipped out. Becky saved the raft from flipping and miraculously stayed in the boat. It was a amazing. Then the realization hit, it was our turn. I jammed my foot harder under the raft and away we went. Then I heard Andrew say “oh Kelly is out of the boat” and I turned to look and sure enough he was gone. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Then he popped up and was dragged under again. I looked for him on the other side thinking he was pulled under the raft. But I couldn’t find him. Then, he popped up again, just to be dragged under again. I became very afraid and very frantic, trying to figure out how to get him inside the boat. He seemed to be spending way too much time under the water. The whole time we were being tossed and turned and then I saw him smashed up between the raft and the rocks. Just when I thought I was going to be a widow, Andrew got up and plucked Kelly up out of the water and onto the side of the raft. Oh! relief washed over me. I was so consumed by it that it took me a few seconds to realize that Andrew forgot to bring Kelly’s swim suit with him! He was safe on the raft and bearing his bumb! I didn’t know whether to laugh along with everyone else or cry because he was okay. I think I did both!

What a great day!