Splashing Fun..Read On!!!!!. Review on Water Rafting

Destination: Sacramento, CA

Sport : Grade 4 White Water Rafting

People: 11 people berserk on adrenaline

While I was in the bay area, we chanced upon a 4 day long weekend (friday and monday were holidays) -- So the 11 of us hired a Van and went on an unplanned trip -- We made no reservations, had no prior plans -- and decided to take the trip as it deciphered --

As our initial route became clearer -- we were on our way to the capital of california -- Sacramento. Here we toured around the city and found acco at a decent motel...While leafing through the tourist catalogue -- we hit upon one about White Water Rafting...and that was it!!!! -- I whipped out my cell..punched out the numbers and was greeted by a pleasant lady's voice. (I wonder who the default answering machine voices really turn out to be :)) The Rafting company people called us back and we set up a date for the next day early morning at 7 AM. We had to travel 1 hr from sacramento to reach this place. Our Credit Card number was also taken for the payment. (i think the cost came to around 120$ for a full day 12 mile stretch grade 4)

White water rafting stretches are graded in a numeric fashion based on the difficulty of the terrain -- 1 is calm, 2 is ripply, 3 is splashy and so on. Niagara falls is considered grade 7, I Think.

the next day, We reached this place (2 or 3 of my friends were already feeling the butterflies in their stomach to be a huge nuisance)

We were dressed in normal jeans/t-shirt and sports shoes. we could rent out skin tights if the water was too cold

There were 2 instructors -- who boarded us all into an old van -- All our belongings were locked in our van and left in the parking lot. The plan was to go to the ''put-in'' point (there is some other techie term for this which is eluding me) - then we raft downstream for 12 miles and then the van will pick us from the drop off point which is quite near to where we had parked our van.

We reached the put-in point and the Forest ranger noted the time of ''put-in'' and we were off to a cool adventure ...we were divided into 2 rafts with an instructor each and we had our life-jackets, helmets and oars with each of us. me being the spritiest (??!!) and the lightest of all was at the helm of the raft on the left side. the instructor was the rear-most end of the raft with a longer oar required for steering.

The first mile was like a training mile for all of us. the instructor made us do some movements based on his commands -- like Left stop -- right stop -- huddle etc... All fun to do...and then we approached our first rapid...The water was frothing like a tempest...the sound of the water hitting the rocks increased and our instructor asked us to stop rowing as he caught a nice rapid vein of water. the water took us into its folds as went down a feet or two...lots of water into the raft all of us wet and screaming with joy . These people name every single rapid with funny names -- I think this was called as ''roaring laff''. Then came many such rapids -- each having a complete nuance of it's own. our instructor steered us expertly - so that we got the maximum thrill out of it. We were getting wetter and wetter...then we came upon a a verrreee cool rapid called as the hellhole-tunnel....this was a 15 foot long tunnel under which the rapid water flows..there was a huge rapid just before it...As soon as we passed that we were pushed into this tunnel. the people in the raft which was ahead of us made such a lot of noise that ...all our hearts took turns in beating as we descended into this dark hellhole -- we were pushed against a rock and the instructor used his oar to pull us out of the mess as we came out into sweet light there was a small stream which poured like a thin veil at the cover of the tunnel which made sure that we were all wet :)

This was the ultimate in thrills...

then after navigating some mini rapids -- just when we were getting a bit tired of the strenuous work --- we came upon some calm waters and we laid anchor -- for lunch -- the instructors had brough with them some pitha breads and lots of vegetables, jam and cookies. We made some sandwiches and guzzled up some lemonade. A 10 min break and we were off again to complete the rest of the rafting...

At one point -- we came across a grade-6 rapid -- There is a water fall of around 20 feet (no exaggeration) but it does not fall vertically -- it spans across some horizontal distance and has lots of huge boulders which make the water all the more dangerous. Here the norm is to get off the raft onto sweet land....Let off the rafts into water -- so that it finds its way to the bottom of the fall where we catch the raft again and then start rafting...

BUT our instructor was one brave soul -- He stood on the raft alone and steered it across the complete ravine himself...alone..as we all watched him from the shore - open mouthed. he did all this with a cigarette in his mouth.

Then we resumed our journey. We came to a point where the water was flowing a bit calmly...at one such point we stopped...ther was a huuuuuge boulder overlooking the water (it towered at around 25 feet)...6 of us along with the instructors (including me of course)...walked around the boulder and climbed it from the back...using the crevices which mother nature had thankfully provided. We reached the top..and then looked at the water which suddenly did not look so calm now. It also showed us that 15 feet away from where were anchored the water was becoming more turbulent..

and then the instructor showed us a point where the water was just deep enough so that we do not smash our skulls into the rocks...each of us jumped. When I jumped I was blanketed into this watery abyss.. I went deeper and deeper and those few seconds looked like hours before I resurfaced. All the swimming I had learnt under Nair sir was forgotten..as the rapid water mistook me to a dead log and started pulling me to the rapid just ahead. my already weak arms started flailing...but to to no avail..then the friends who thankfully had some cowardice left in them and had not decided to go with us--- fished me out of the water and me was too thrilled for words..

We started off again...and this time we reached a small rapid which did not seem anything major at all..It was at this time that my friend deepak, must have took off his foot from the raft that he was hurled into the water..There was immediate commotion..we had all forgotten about what the instructor had told about a person falling off...then one of my friends pulled him up..In the midst of this meelee he lost his oar. We were severely chastisized abt this..the raft following us fished out the oar for us and we went..

the rest was relatively uneventful.

We weighed anchor and ten tired souls (oops!! where is the eleventh guy..!!) we did a quick count and realized that all the the eleven had made it to shore :)) then we cambered onto the bus...and reached our vans -- here we changed in the open parking lot (wink!) and then drove back to Motel--Sweet Motel!--

The next day we had zeroed in on para-sailing at Lake Tahoe -- but that comes in another review :)

Cheers

PVm