Whitewater Rafting

Excitement! I recently got to go whitewater rafting in Colorado. We did class 3 rapids on the Arkansas River. This was one of the funnest things I have ever done. My friend, Wendy said she would never forget it. The Adventure company took us and they were great. We only had a half a day as we were flying out that evening and these guys made a special trip for us that was a half day. The guide, John took just the 2 of us in a raft and we ran those bad boys! Our guide was an experienced rafter versus a 16 year old kid which was nice.

White water rafting is not for everyone as class 3 can be done by any healthy adult and children over 12 but you are expected to paddle and you get wet. Wendy had never done it and balked at class 4 or 5 which they say you are pretty much guaranteed of going in the water. Sounded good to me but we did the lesser class 3 which was plenty of fun. The Arkansas has a nice pace of rapids broken up by relative calm. I think we hit 5 rapids in our 4 hour jaunt. Some of the drops are very dramatic as fall over the mini falls. I am sitting here thinking how to describe it but I think most of us have an idea and the adrenalin rush is fantastic.

A couple of keys we picked up. The river goes up and down depending on the time of the year. The spring it is the highest and the thus the fastest. 3600 PSI is the rivers peak and we rode it at 800 PSI so the variance is extreme. I would use this as a gauge as if the river is below what the guide says is the norm I would try and move up to class 4 if looking for more adventure and being a first timer where as if the river is way above the norm then class 3 or even 2 would tons of fun. The other key is the guide matters. John had local history and really knew the river as he had grown up in the area. This really added to our experience and made it a lot more informative. The larger rafting companies had what I would call kids as guides and for me that would probably have been less good. Yeah at 37, I am old I guess.

The Adventure company also does 2 day trips which take you down the Royal gorge. I am already booked for early next!