I'm on a Raft! White Water Rafting Down the Ocoee

When I realized that our club has two NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) raft guides and that I was/am friends with both of them, I decided to beg them both to lead a rafting trip. In exchange, I baked them cookies and spanakopita. White water rafting is something that has always simultaneously terrified and enthralled me. I love the water but I also have a healthy dose of fear and respect for its power, rapids and strong currents in particular. Still, I took a chance and hopped into a raft with no reservations. Admittedly, I did NOT want to fall in the water even a little bit. I shoved my foot and leg into the boat so hard that I ended up with bruises down my shin. However, this was not in vain because I managed to stay in my boat for every run.

I had Matt as my raft guide both days and that was a wise decision. He's very experienced and we were the only boat that never lost anyone. Kara dumped her entire boat, including herself, at the very beginning (Grumpy's) of the first day, which freaked me out even though they weren't really in danger. She also almost lost her paddle and the other boat (there were three boats total) lost a few members and paddles while surfing, all of which we recovered thanks to a friendly white water kayaker nearby. The only really “bad” thing that happened in our boat was while we were surfing Flipper. Surfing is essentially when your guide steers you directly into the rapids, allowing your boat to fill completely with water. Then, you "surf" over and under the rapids.  To quote Matt “All I could see was Alden's helmet submerged about a foot under water, shaking back and forth and then when we got out of the rapids, I hear this 'What happened to my paddle?!'” Suffice to say, my paddle got caught on a rock and I felt like I was going to be ripped out of the boat. Rather than letting go of the paddle or letting myself get sucked out, I t-gripped my paddle as hard as possible and shoved my knees under the middle bar thing. My paddle ended up getting bent about 45 degrees and was unusable until we could stop and Matt could bend it back (mostly) into shape.  

White water rafting in general is a blast. Some of it reminded me of my rowing days and nostalgia flooded my brain every time Matt called out paddling commands. The water wasn't always as rough as I thought and there were plenty of opportunities for us to pull over to the shore and jump out into the water. Toward the end, we even swam some of it and tried to take over each other's boats like pirates. Also, there's one particular rapid, called Cat's Pajamas, in which you can jump from a rock directly into the rapids, get sucked under, and then pop out several feet downstream where the water is calmer. That was one of my favorite parts, aside from rafting itself. I also wrote a parody of the song "I'm on a Boat," entitled (obviously) "I'm on a Raft." The lyrics, however, in reference to the original song, contains a few swear words. A copy can be found listed under the "stories" section of the trip page on the OAR website:
 http://www.ufadventure.com/#!type=trip&command=displayTrip&tripId=261&time=0.5937776477076113 

Events occurred: September 7-9, 2012