8-28-08 part II

Friends, rowdiness, and a campsite: lend me your gear

Two and a half days vacation time, $315.00 in supplies and gas, 22 hours on the road, spending a weekend white water rafting with old high school friends. Priceless.
Last week, I started to tell you about my friend Steve who is getting married. A group of us decided to go camping for the bachelor party instead of doing the usual night of bar hopping and strip clubs. Somehow I have made it back and in somewhat one piece.
We all met in a fitting place, the old carriage house where we spent all of our time as kids. Steve’s brother Mike has converted the old party house into a very nicely renovated house for him and his wife.
Friday morning we left at around 7:30 after loading up­—five hours of driving ahead of us. The drive was uneventful mostly because everyone was taking turns sleeping in any of the free space we could find in the trucks. By around 1 p.m., we made it to Rivermen, the company that was running our tour.
We were going to be on a section of the New River that runs through Fayetteville, West Virginia. It was a beautiful part of the country. It just smelled clean. This was probably due to the fact that they don’t have turkey and hog farms, no offense to anyone. It was pretty much like being in Asheville or Boone.
Before the trailer was unloaded, the cooler was found and unloaded first. This would pretty much set the pace for the rest of the weekend. Like a bunch of hibernating animals, we all searched for a prime spot for our tents. The grill was set, the food brought out, a horseshoe pit was made and a spot in the woods was designated as the “bathroom.” Friday was set aside for travel, camp set up and catching up with everyone. We did so and crammed a lot of lost time in very short number of hours.
Saturday morning came very fast. I don’t know who brought the clock, I don’t know where the outlet was, but somehow someone knew that it was time to get moving at around 7:00 a.m. We were all very tired and not really ready to fight rapids all day—some of us a lot less ready than others. We ate, made it to the short class about the trip and signed our lives away on the waivers that were required for us to go on the trip.
Our group divided into smaller groups and paired up with our river guides. Thank the lord they didn’t send us out on our own. Julia Schneider was our guide, a quick-witted young lady that somehow kept us all in line.
Julia was also from Maryland so that made her OK in my book. She made her money that day. Julia got us started and prepared us for the first rapid—a fast moving class III. I have never been rafting and had no idea what a class III meant, but I knew that I shouldn’t be there when she said “...and if anyone falls out, stay on your back and get back in the boat as soon as you can. The hydraulics will pull you under.”
Our raft came up to the rapid and everyone’s hearts were pounding. Julia yelled out the command to paddle forward and with the power of fear and adrenaline, we paddled like no tomorrow. Rocks were smacking the raft around and you could feel them changing the contour of the bottom of the raft.
A rock smacked us around and flexed the raft and sent John right out of the boat. John was in no shape to be on the raft because of the night before. We made it through the rest of the rapid and pulled John back into the boat. Julia now had our attention for the rest of the trip!
I asked Julia how high the class rating went for the section of the river that we were traveling for the day. She informed us that by the time we were done we would go through all ratings up to a class VI.
The day went on about the same as the first rapid and the fear slowly turned to excitement as we knocked out a few more. Our trip snaked through the bottom of a deep gorge and large boulders littered the sides of the river.
In a few areas the water was 30 feet deep and very slow moving. In these areas Julia let us jump into the river and float with our life vest. Some areas we floated flat with our toes pointed to the sky and slid over some slow moving rapids. The first one hurt but I quickly learned to put my hands under my backside so that the rocks didn’t crack my tailbone. They should warn people about that!
The last rapid of the day was the highly anticipated class VI. Julia told us that we had to absolutely pay attention and act fast when she told us to “paddle left” or “paddle right.” We took a brief pause in the calm of the river right before the rapid. She told us strap down anything loose, get a secure footing and to remember to act quick.
“Forward” Julia commanded. Like Vikings going to battle, we dug in and rowed. I can’t even begin to tell you how much water came into the boat and how many rocks have layers of our raft still on them, but it was tough. Our raft got to the end and one drop was ahead of us.
We plunged, took on water and were knocked hard. Steve was not in the boat anymore. We were moving fast and out of the corner of my eye I saw his foot sticking out of the water. He was getting pulled down. I quickly grabbed for him but lost my grip. I think it was enough to get him upright. His head came out of the water and Julia quickly extended her paddle and Steve grabbed on.
She single-handedly got him from the rapid and pulled him back in. If her parents could have seen her at work, they would have been proud and impressed. I was.
We made it out and everyone was cheering. The rapids were done and from here on out we floated down the river and jumped in and out of the boat and just cut up for the last 45 minutes of the trip.
A bus picked us up and got us back to camp where we quickly showered and ate a good meal. All of the guys got back together after dinner and hung out at the lodge. There was a great bluegrass band and free games of pool. We all finished our night there trading stories and recapping the days adventure.
Now, spending that much money on a vacation just for myself and leaving my family behind made me feel a little bit guilty. Did I also mention that one of the days was my wife’s birthday. She’s a trooper, Leigh understood the importance of the trip and wanted me to go. There were a lot of hoops to jump through to make this trip happen from the planning to making it home but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. There is nothing like good friends that stick with you for life. The experience was so much fun that some of us were talking about trying to make this a yearly event in some shape or form. I don’t know that Julia would want us to come back but who knows, maybe she is a glutton for punishment.
If you ever get the urge to go on a trip like this, I highly recommend the Rivermen (www.rivermen.com). Their facility is clean and very professional and everyone working there was accommodating and friendly.
Bryan Pinkey can be reached at bpinkey@nccox.com.