White Water Rafting

Last week was Joi's family reunion, which took place in our home state of Colorado. We had 30 people joining us from California, Oregon, and Texas. My beautiful wife already posted a recap of the reunion, so I won't redo that. I'd like to talk about one of the highlights of the week of festivities for me. White Water Rafting! This was my second trip rafting. The first trip I did when I was a teenager with my Dad, Stepmom, and Brother on the Snake River in Wyoming....which was a blast. That trip consisted of some class 3 and 4 rapids. The trip we did last week was a beginners trip with some class 2 and 3 rapids. It was on Clear Creek, which is about 30 minutes west of Denver. Their website describes it as a "steep, narrow, technical river that is both challenging and fun" and with an "average gradient of 67 feet per mile, and over 100 feet per mile on the advanced section, Clear Creek offers more rapids than most commercially rafted rivers in the state." We had quite a group and filled up three boats. Not everyone was able to attend. Some chose not to and others were watching the little one's who were too young to raft (including Gage and Gavin). You had to be at least 7 years old to ride the rapids. The boat I was on consisted of myself, Garrison, Joi's Papa (89 years young), Joi's Mom, Joi's Uncle Danny, Joi's Sister Errin, and Errin's son Reed. We had a blast. It was Garrison's first white water rafting trip. The guide gave him the option to paddle or not to paddle. He decided he would rather hold on tightly for his first trip. We had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The only drawback was the 40 degree water (which was recent snow melt-off). My feet were completely numb after the trip. In fact, I ended up ripping off a portion of my toe nail by jamming my feet into a crevice of the raft to balance myself and didn't even feel it until we were back and dried off. That was some cold water. I can hardly wait until Gage and Gavin are both 7 years old...so that I can take my whole family and my wife rafting. It should be a blast. Anyway...here are some photos from the trip. In case you can't tell, Garrison is the last guy on the right next to the river guide. I'm the first guy on the left in front of the guide.

P.S. Joi reminded me in her comment. One of the best parts of the trip was that I got to hit my mother-in-law in the head with an oar (by accident, of course...at least that's my story). It was awesome!