I Survived the Royal Gorge

Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July.  I got to spend mine with my daughter Tammy who lives in Colorado Springs, CO.  Tammy's real job is a rocket scientist but one of her many passions is being a river guide.  She and her boyfriend really wanted to take me down the Arkansas and through the Royal Gorge.  Our rafting trip was divided into two sections:  we joined 8 other rafts from Ft. Carson traveling the section from Pinnacle to Parkdale.  Then in the afternoon, Dan and Tammy joined one of their river guide friends named Jade in taking us throught he dangerous rapids of the Royal Gorge. 

So i'm thinking the morning is going to be a breeze.  But on the second rapids of the upper section -- disaster struck!  Three Rocks is aptly named.  Tammy had our raft on a perfect line to navigate through Three Rocks.  But the raft in front of us somehow drifted out of the rapids and the spacing between rafts was all messed up.  Undaunted, the intern guide in the raft in front of us manuevered his raft back into the rapids but forgot to look behind him.  River guides tend to keep their eyes looking forward!  As the other raft moved closer to our raft, I'm thinking this is not going to end well.  Sure enough the intern's raft bumped into our raft and pushed into the second rock of Three Rocks called Flip Rock.  Flip Rock is also aptly named.  If you hit this rock, your raft usually gets flipped.  We flipped!  One of my goals on this rafting trip was NOT to fall out of the boat.  I didn't fall out of the boat -- I was still in the boat but now the raft was on top of me.  There is an air pocket under the raft but now I'm in the water in the middle of a rapids, bouncing off rocks.  I decided that staying under the boat was not a good idea and popped up downstream where I grabbed the chicken line of another raft. 

The guy in the other raft asked if I wanted to come aboard.  Dumb question!  I'd rather be anywhere than bouncing off rocks in the water.  The good thing about rapids is that when you are through the rapids there is usually a smooth section of the river and we all safely made it through the rapids -- recovered our raft and oars and proceeded through the upper section without incident, as Tammy guided us with precision and a safe distance from interns in rafts!

As we were eating lunch, I'm thinking so much for the easy section.  The rapids in the Gorge are way bigger and come close together.  You really have to be on your game.  Tammy's boyfriend Dan is the more experienced guide so he took over.  His first words were: "if you have any hesitancy about doing this now is the time to back out.  No harm -- no foul!"  I'd like to say that there was no way I would even consider this offer but after the way the morning started, I'm thinking about whether this is such a good idea.  But hey, my daughter gets her adventuresome spirit from somewhere and I may never get the chance to do this again.  So I took the front row seat in the raft.

Wow!  What a ride!  What a rush!  Big waves -- big water -- big rocks -- big cliffs -- big adventure!  Dan guided us masterfully through the dangerous waters and the best news of all -- I DIDN'T FALL OUT OF THE RAFT!!!  Though I must confess that there were moments when I thought, "This is CRAZY!  Get me out of here!"

Thanks Tammy & Dan for a great ride!  Hopefully we will have some video soon!