30 New Things: White Water Rafting
Kelsey (on the left) and me getting ready to start out rafting adventure. Note my sweet sunglasses and cool kid helmet. At least my legs look nice.
A couple weekends ago I went with a few friends of mine to Ohiopyle, PA (in my opinion a totally redonkulous name) to do some white water rafting on the lower Youghiogheny River (another absurd name). My only experience with rafting was as an 8 year Girl Scout, where I floated down a river, doing a little tubing along the way. Thus, I did not feel entirely prepared for the class 3 and 4 rapids on the Yough (which is actually pronounced ‘Yak’).
So Kevin, Kelsey and I drove out eight freaking hours to Ohiopyle on a Friday night, stopped halfway to sleep at Kevin’s parents house and got back out on the road really freaking early Saturday morning. Being entirely badass, we did not sign up without a group and we even brought our own boats and safety gear. Lucky for me the two friends that I went rafting are quite experienced, one of them being a certified rafting river guide for the area we were rafting on. I am fairly certain that if this were not the case I would have spent a considerable amount of time being ejected from the boat and flailing in the water. Instead I had the luxury of staying fairly dry and watching in amusement as others were thrown from their rafts (I’m so cruel).
In general it was a wicked fun trip and I think I’ll be weaseling my way into more of Kelsey’s and Kevin’s trips in the future. If you’re interested in doing the route that I took with them (about a 3-4 hour paddle) there are a bunch of groups you can sign up with, including Ohiopyle Trading Post and White Water Rafting Ohiopyle.
Kevin about to go swimming
p.s. I am modifying my 30 new things a little. Seeing as I waited until mid summer to make my list, it probably was not the best idea to put mostly summer activities (as well as activities that cost money and take multiple days to accomplish). So I’m modifying the list a little to reflect the fact that I live in upstate New York, where the temperatures are already in the 60s.
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