Tuesday, July 27, 2010

White Salmon River

When you’re on the road, you can only do so much Google-ing before you start to take the first option that you find on each search, hence why we didn’t do any background checking on River Riders rafting company. We cruised past some nice office headquarters for other companies on our way to the RR launch point…bungalows, log cabins, actual parking lots, etc. Then we pulled up to our company—a dilapidated shack that looked like it was one loose board away from a lawsuit. The fact that we were the only people booked for our river trip didn’t make us feel much better. Then they told us their bus, nicknamed Purple Rain for the Prince tape that had been stuck in the tape deck for 20 years, made their “headquarters” look nice.

But (the magic word!), our guides were as skilled as the next, it was 70 degrees, and since we were the only 2 people, they let us stop whenever we wanted and go at our own pace throughout the afternoon.






Since Brian used to physically float down the creek in CO where tourists took rafting trips, I would say our comfort level in rapids is pretty different. Which explains why I was terrified when we got rushed at the launch point by some boats behind us and had to skip the paddling lesson and jump straight into a class IV rapid—weeeeeeee!

I loosened up after a few minutes and the rest of the afternoon was just straight up fun…and by fun I of course mean scary. We got to see a Great Blue Heron and an Osprey (yes, I have become a rare bird nerd on the trip), go inside caves, see lots of lava deposits, watch other boats flip, and do a little swimming in the 42 degree water.



Caves!

River Riders gets 5 stars from us!


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