Life with the Rettigs: A white water adventure...really!

We are up in Boone in the mountains and so Dan and Auntie Jenn talked me into going white water rafting and since the rapids were family friendly we decided to bring Sean along. Well, my disdain for swimming in non-chlorinated bodies of water is no secret so I was a little less than excited for our trip. It was a trek out to the river in Tennesee. From Boone, it was about 1 hour or so but it was pouring the whole way. We even called and asked if we should re-schedule but by then we were so close we went ahead to the check in point. Luckily, the clouds cleared and the sun came out.

After getting all suited up we rode a bus to the spot where we would be getting on the river which was right the near the dam. The dam is opened up daily and that creates the rapids...pretty cool except the water comes from the bottom of Lake Watuga and therefore it was about 40 degrees...brrrr. Once we got in the boat we headed down the river and our first stop was a large rock formation with a natural diving board off of it. Our guide (who we could tell was a newbie) asked if anyone wanted to jump off of it (about 15 feet high) and into the water. Much to our surprise Dan offered immediately (which we found odd as he refused to walk across the swinging bridge at grandfather mountain!?!?). So, he climbed the rock to the top and jumped in doing his best big splash dismount that he could getting as many of us wet as possible. He immediately got out of the water and into the boat as it was freeeezzing. Either way, it was pretty cool that he did that as the guide said not many people will.

Off we went down the river through several bouts of rapids class 2 and one big set that was a class 3. It was pretty fun though I was a little nervous the whole time. It is an irrational fear of getting into murky water...I cannot explain it. Although-most of the way down the river we could see the bottom and the water was crystal clear. The whole trip was about 1.5 hours and as we neared the check out point I had no idea that stopping and steering into the correct area was of some difficulty. As said earlier, it was pretty obvious that our guide was brand spanking new which would explain why we completely missed the check out point and also missed the rope that the owner threw to us. Yikes.

Everyone else was nicely getting out of their raft and here we are sailing down the river with a guide that has no idea what to do. The owner shouted, "go down to the bridge and get out there" but she had never been down there. Luckily, a more experience guide came in a kayak down to help us and jumped into our raft and she took the kayak and he was able to ferry us to the side where other rafters get in and out. Oh, but I forgot to mention that since the other guide was coming to get us, our guide was pretty distracted (and I am assuming nervous) so she did not notice that we were heading straight for a large tree hanging down over the river. Ouch. We ducked as much as we could and of course covered Sean but Jenn got a big knock on the head with a tree branch and the rest of us got scraped up. Oh, and Jenn also claims to have had a large spider on her which in turn forced her to convulse around for a minute or two...which was pretty funny.

Anyway, so we made it to dry land, thank goodness, and then had to sit and wait for the van and other guides to come and get us as we were on the other side of the river about .5 mile down from where we were supposed to be. What a day! If I wasn't already nervous enough and then we had to go and have all that drama! Sean did have a great time and I admit it was fun but the ending was nerve wracking for me. Moral of the story....make sure your guide is experienced!! (in her defense she was super sweet!) Hopefully some of the water proof camera pics will turn out. More to come.