White Water Rafting _Gauley River
September 2007 was when I had one of the busiest months of my life. With an old job ending, new job starting, packing, moving, unpacking, saying good byes, adapting and what not, I managed to carve out my birthday weekend to take a break. Spending my 25th birthday in a car for the 12 hours drive from Boston to West Virginia wasn't the most comfortable, but it got us to where we needed to be. Sleeping in a wet tent because I forgot to zip up the windows before we left the camp site on a rainy day wasn't the most pleasant, but it gave us shelter when we needed it.
The Gauley River is the 7th best white water rafting river in the world, with multiple class V and class V+ rapids. Each command from your guide needs to be heeded to carefully and diligently, or you risk your life drowning under a piece of rock the size of a ship. The exhiliration was phenomenal and I had the best rafting experience I could possibly find. The weather was temperamental the day that we rafted the upper and lower Gauley, which consisted of 26 miles of rafting. As the rain started around lunch time, an eerie layer of mist emerged from the River - the Rivergod is giving us a challenge, blurring visibility within 50 yards. Our boats creeped up towards the gates like a pack of soldiers, listening to the rush of the next white water that we will be hitting, and praying that conditions have not been worsened by the rain. And so, we conquered, battled and won, to emerge as better fighters, ready for next year's challenge.
White Water Rafting at Penobscot, August 2007
A group of us went white water rafting in Maine this summer and had a fantastic blast. The trip consisted of a KFC buffet lunch, grilled steak, prawn, sausage and hotdog dinner, banana boat and coconut marshmallow dessert, lots of dirty jokes, dropping down a 12 ft water fall in a raft, swimming in white water, flipping the raft and falling into the Penobscot river and lastly, lots of fun!