Moab raft trip

[Conrad]

It's kinda slow around here as of late so I thought that I'd share this.

This is from our trip out west last year. We took a half day white water raft trip on the Colorado River. My wife and I have rafted before and we're also experienced kayakers.

The raft company offered us two options for the trip. We could ride with the rest of the folks in the big raft or we could follow the main raft in an inflatable two man kayak. That was a no brainer for us, we took the kayak option. Our guide had only two instructions for us. Go where she goes and stay close.

The raft company had a photographer set up at the roughest white water on the trip to get some action shots that we could purchase later if we liked the pics, that's how the below pics got taken.

A little set up and then I'll let the pics tell the story.

So, we were following the main raft and having a great time till the raft got stuck in a 'hole'. Since we were told to stay close and go where they went we ended up getting caught in the current and ramming the main raft. My wife is in the front of the raft and that's me in the back. My wife got sandwiched between the two rafts and she was sure that she was a gonner, I was under our kayak. She swears that she had a near death experience and I can't disagree.  I had no idea where she was when I came up and if you look at the last pic, on the right, that's her just about to surface. The guide had no idea what had happened till after it was all over. Our kayak was stuck under the raft and once we were both aboard the raft we had to get over to the bank and get our kayak unstuck.

[VirginiaJim]

Next time take the standard option and ride with the rest.  It's difficult breaking in new members....

Seriously, as you know, glad you made it out ok.

[Conrad]

Thanks Jim. Next time we'll ignore the guide's advice.   

[stevewfl]

Looks fun!

[Conrad]

I was having a ton of fun, right up till the point where my wife thought that she was going to drown. Heck, I even thought it was fun going into the drink. I never feared for my life at all. I'm a strong swimmer and besides, we had life jackets and all those folks around to help.

[sherob]

AWESOME!!!!!! 

[okxd45]

Scary stuff there........sign me up!  Glad you guys got out of there ok!

[Sgt Mac]

Didn't take the rafting trip but I did find a protected little beach to take a dip and swim across. In distinct contrast to those rapids, there was very little current until about 30 feet out, and even then it was light.



...and one with the kid.


...who is pretty fearless and according to her mother, enjoys a bit of risk....too much like me, standing (according to her mother) way to close to the edge of a very long drop.

[okxd45]

Good memories being made.......very cool. 

[T Cro ®]

That confirms it.... No rafting trips while we are in NC next month! No way in hell I could enjoy myself getting dunked in the water if I have to worry about my wife getting drowned.

[VirginiaJim]

I took a tubing trip on the Chattahoochee near Helen, Ga some years back with the family.  The river was low due to drought but still enough to float/walk.  The deepest parts were near the bank.  I was in the rear of the raft and got knocked into the water by a low lying branch.  I was hanging on the back for about 5 minutes before my wife saw me and she thought I was horsing around.  Nothing like Conrad but it was just funny them thinking I was doing it for fun.  Wasn't funny at the time, though.