Thinking about this event a year later - I now have some upper body strength, but I still can't do a pull up if my life depended on it. So that is why I am starting P90x in 2 days. I don't ever plan on being in the situation where my life depends on my physical strength, but I have made some pretty bad decisions in the past and I am sure that there will be more to come, and I want/need to be prepared to save my ass.
I am actually looking forward to the pain!
At the bottom of this post is the actual story.
****************************************************
Shout out to Jess and Dan for the adventure
Quote of the day: Nature hates calculators. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
What I ate today:
Corn flakes
Milk
Banana
Apple
Turkey Hummus Wrap
Orange
Small iced latte with skim milk
Carrots
Chicken
Small potato
Broccoli
Watermelon
Ice cream
xo
Kate
The Ohiopyle and the Youghiogheny river
Now I am not a storyteller by any means, but as promised here is the almost too crazy to be true story of our insane white water rafting adventure.
This past weekend I went out to Pittsburgh to visit Jessica. Now I would consider Jessica and myself two very intelligent people. We have both completed our Master's programs, I now have 2 very successful jobs and Jess has gone on to her PhD in enviro engineering. You would think that we are more than capable of making smart, informed decisions.. but as this story will prove 18 plus years of education left us lacking some seriously needed decision making skills.
Prior to my arrival in the Burgh we had discussed several of our options for our entertainment, we discussed museums, bars, a Pirates game and the Ohiopyle state park which includes hiking, natural water slides and white water rafting. Having gone White Water Rafting a few times in the past and having a blast I thought that it was a good idea (bad decision number 1). Jessica and one of her friends Dan (who is also a smart climatologist-or something fancy- PhD student) did some research about the rapids in which offer guided or self guided trips. Somehow it was decided that we could go down the rapids self guided (bad decision number 2).
Now, the rafting rental place we wanted to rent from had told us when making reservations that three people could not rent a raft, but that we would have to rent a one person kayak and a two person kayak, which we agreed upon (this would be bad decision number three had this actually happened).
--- I am sure that many of you are wondering why we just didn't ask a fourth person to join...well Jess and Dan did. They asked probably about 10 of their friends, aquaintances and even some people they had no desire to spend a day with, but did out of desperation. No one could make it, so we trek on just the three of us.--- However, upon our arrival on Saturday morning the woman offered us a four man raft, which we jumped on because we wanted to STAY TOGETHER, ha.
Before I go on, there were signs that this trip was not going to go well which we so intelligently ignored. After we check in and are told we can get this four man raft for the three of us we are told that we need to park our car at the end of the river, about 7 to 9 miles down the road, where the course ends. Now we all must have misread the website, as we thought there was a shuttle that would bring us back to the launch area. We get down there and there is no shuttle no other people. We call the rafting company which tells us that we either needed to have two cars or hitch a ride. Ha. So we stand around contemplating this - wondering if we can get our 100 bucks back that we just paid. Just then we spot a park ranger! Putting on my best act I flag him down and bring Jess over to his car with him and tell him that we had no idea that the shuttle didn't run, which he informed us hasn't in a few years because not enough people were rafting to use it (which is BS, but anyway) we guilt him into giving us a ride back to the launch area. The park ranger cleans his truck out and I notice that his name is Hawk.
On the ride back I make small talk and stupidly ask how dangerous the rapids are in which he informs us that last Monday a guy drowned and gives the good details. Then ends it with "he was a drunken fool." Oh what a relief! A drunken fool drowns going down the rapids.
So we get to the launch area, are given a raft 3 oars and 3 helmets. We watch the safety video twice and launch away. The first 3 or 4 rapids we handle like true champs. We do get stuck a few times but nothing major and we make it without a hitch. We come to an area where we see a guided group off to the side of the river all talking, we think nothing of this and paddle on. Big Big Big rapids. Somehow, Dan and I fall out the raft, Jess stays in. We manage to both get back in but then we realize that our raft is flooding with water, it is literally lodged in between 2 rocks and is submerged. We are doing everything we can to dislodge the raft but nothing works. Meanwhile, everything we had in our raft starts to float away. Also, somewhere in this mess I feel my shoes get ripped from my feet and I am now barefoot (this is bad decision 3 -as I was not wearing the appropriate foot gear, and neither was Dan as he lost his shoes too, powerful rapids they are). So finally we see this guy in a kayak come towards us, he gets out of his boat climbs on a rock next to us and we are all like awesome he is going to help. No, no. He stands on the rock whips out a video camera and starts filming. Outraged. Another dude in a kayak comes over and says we need to move. Duh. We tell him we can't so he and the man filming come and help us dump the water from our boat and dislodge. All the while telling us in a very "nice" way that this is why people takes guides. How much did we want to bitch slap this guy. Anyway...Somehow, one of us lost an oar in this debacle and luckily one of the kayakers give us an extra, phew. So we get through the rest of this rapid, which we later find out is called cucumber rapid and its a level 4.
OH. Did I forget to tell you that in White Water rafting there are levels of rapids? Well, yes, there are 5 levels. 1 to 5. Usually the family friendly guided rapids are levels 2 possibly 3, but not usually. The Youghiogheny river is level 3 and 4.
So two of us are shoeless and we are all a bit rattled but we are fine and it was kind of fun. We realize that the mass of guided rafts that were stopped before the cucumber rapids was to inform them about the danger and safety precautions needed. So we need to be aware and we will know when it gets bad. So we keep going and are having fun. I spot of one of Dan's shoes and jump in to rescue it.
We take a short break on this little beach like area and Dan spots of my shoes and rescues that. Awesome we now each have a left shoe. We get back in and continue to do a great job navigating the hydrolics and the level three rapids. Then we come to Dimple Rapids.
As we approach we see a good 20 rafts lined up getting lectured by their guides. We decide to hold off and park the raft, walk around and see for ourselves what these rapids are actually like. They are huge and they are scary and we watch people get tossed from their rafts and kayaks attempting to go down them. There is the option of portage at these rapids, which means we haul our raft 500 feet around these rapids. We decide that if cucumber rapids was an issue, this was going to be a bigger one. However, shoeless attempting to carry a 300 pound raft seemed more impossible than the dimple rapids. So we decide "lets do this" (biggest bad decision of the day, number 4). We watch several rafts go down and we know the technique and exactly what we need to do. Which is possible when you have an 6-8 person raft with 1000 pounds of human bodies to keep the raft more level. We start our decent and right away, its bad form. The first boulder we hit knocks all three of us from the boat. Now I can only speak from my perspective here, although Jess, Dan and I discussed this at length later on in the day. As I am thrown from the raft I tell myself get on your back and face forward, you need to see where you are going. I am still holding my oar and I plan to use it to help push away from the rocks and boulders. I am staying relatively calm although and being thrashed around hitting rock after rock and pushed under the water swallowing what felt like gallons of water. I soon hear Jessica yelling to me. I spot her holding on to the raft which she so obviously calls to me "I HAVE THE RAFT" I make is towards her and grab onto the raft as well (bad decision 5) we hear people shouting to us "GET BACK IN THE RAFT, GET BACK IN THE RAFT " We get Jess in and I toss my oar on board, then comes a giant rock which crushes me between it and the raft. Now comes the panic. Jess is in the boat. I desperately want to be in the boat. I feel Jess grabbing at my arms and yelling at me to get in. I go under the boat, come up on the other side. I hear Jess yell "WE NEED HELP" some dude tosses me a line with a floating bouy which I grab, but the raft comes crashing into me yet again forcing me to let go of the line. Just then some brilliantly brave men jump into the rapids and pull us to the side. I am gasping for air and feeling the need to throw up the quantity of water I just swallowed. The the same time we are shouting that we are missing Dan and cant see him. We spot him walking on the rocks on the other side of the river. We also notice that we have no oars. Not even the one that I was holding onto most of my swim down the dimple rapids and tossed into the raft. Then I become acutely aware of my bloody knee and ankle and skinned shins.
This is where we meet a group of godsent people. A woman named Anna offers me some first aid and bandaids. Dan is making his way to our side very carefully. And Jessica asks for advice on how to get down the rest of the rapids sans oars. A man named Terry offers us two of his groups oars, and Dan finally makes it to us. Looking at Dan's wounds I feel selfish as his toe is a bloody mess and his calves are not skinned but gouged. More first aid is offered, as is some food, as we naturally had none. Terry and his crew offer for us to follow them down the rest of the way and whip out A MAP OF THE RAPIDS. This is especially funny because, at least I was not aware of any kind of map exsisting, nor were we offered one at any point. The map also gives you the best course to get through each set of major rapids. We jump at the chance to follow along especially because we have only 2 oars.
Much to our dismay we disembark to get through the rest of the rapids. Terry and his 2 rafts get through the next set, called the wine bottle (or something) with no issue, we start through and get stuck on a rock, which prior to dimple was no problem for us, but with me with no oar and shaking like a leaf we all immediately get into the center of the boat and sit. We get off the rock and meet up with the rest of the group at jumpers rock. Where we watch a majority of the other rafters jump 30 feet into the water from a giant rock. We sit this one out. Terry comes to see how we are feeling to which I reply anxious, or nervous. Terry offers to get in with us and guide us down the rest of the rapids. We accept. As we are getting ready to leave another group of people come by asking if we lost an oar. We say yes and are given an oar that does not belong to us, but we take it anyway. Mind you we have now lost 4 oars and have 3 new ones on loan, plus a stranger to lead the way. Terry is some kind of expert and has done Youghiogheny river a number of times. He gets us through the rest of the level three rapids and one more level 4 without so much as getting stuck on a rock.
We land at the end of the rapids and get out. Now we realize that this is where the shuttle comes in. Awesome (our final bad decision, what am I up to? 100?). However, because we were told that the shuttle doesn't run we didn't think to ask about it further. So all these people have red wrist bands on to get onto this bus, because the car is parked about a mile away from our landing. So we send Jessica with her charm to beg for a ride with a promise of payment when we get to the car. YES! It works. So we deflate our raft hop onto the bus and make our way to the car. We have to get the giant raft to fit into the trunk of the sebring we rented which we somehow manage. We realize that we will have to pay for our missing oars and start doing the math. Not too bad. Only 10 bucks an oar.
Upon our arrival we are assisted with unloading our raft that we shoved into the trunk. It's here I realize that my rear is in bad shape and announce this to all the young men helping us unload.
The Art of Distraction. We realize that they are not paying attention to what we are returning and nor do we share that we used at least 7 of their oars. As they are too enamored by our story and our battle wounds.
We had plans to check out the natural waterslides, however decided to call it a day and head back to the Pitt. The three of us discuss our feelings and fears, and decided that not a single one of us had ever felt that kind of fear. The kind where you actually believe you are going to die and fear for your life. As much as we would like to blame the rafting company we take full responsibility for our inflated egos and lack of respect for mother nature and we will never overestimate our abilities again nor we will underestimate the power of the Youghiogheny.
A large amount of beer, and pizza was ordered and consumed. And we survived.
This past weekend I went out to Pittsburgh to visit Jessica. Now I would consider Jessica and myself two very intelligent people. We have both completed our Master's programs, I now have 2 very successful jobs and Jess has gone on to her PhD in enviro engineering. You would think that we are more than capable of making smart, informed decisions.. but as this story will prove 18 plus years of education left us lacking some seriously needed decision making skills.
Prior to my arrival in the Burgh we had discussed several of our options for our entertainment, we discussed museums, bars, a Pirates game and the Ohiopyle state park which includes hiking, natural water slides and white water rafting. Having gone White Water Rafting a few times in the past and having a blast I thought that it was a good idea (bad decision number 1). Jessica and one of her friends Dan (who is also a smart climatologist-or something fancy- PhD student) did some research about the rapids in which offer guided or self guided trips. Somehow it was decided that we could go down the rapids self guided (bad decision number 2).
Now, the rafting rental place we wanted to rent from had told us when making reservations that three people could not rent a raft, but that we would have to rent a one person kayak and a two person kayak, which we agreed upon (this would be bad decision number three had this actually happened).
--- I am sure that many of you are wondering why we just didn't ask a fourth person to join...well Jess and Dan did. They asked probably about 10 of their friends, aquaintances and even some people they had no desire to spend a day with, but did out of desperation. No one could make it, so we trek on just the three of us.--- However, upon our arrival on Saturday morning the woman offered us a four man raft, which we jumped on because we wanted to STAY TOGETHER, ha.
Before I go on, there were signs that this trip was not going to go well which we so intelligently ignored. After we check in and are told we can get this four man raft for the three of us we are told that we need to park our car at the end of the river, about 7 to 9 miles down the road, where the course ends. Now we all must have misread the website, as we thought there was a shuttle that would bring us back to the launch area. We get down there and there is no shuttle no other people. We call the rafting company which tells us that we either needed to have two cars or hitch a ride. Ha. So we stand around contemplating this - wondering if we can get our 100 bucks back that we just paid. Just then we spot a park ranger! Putting on my best act I flag him down and bring Jess over to his car with him and tell him that we had no idea that the shuttle didn't run, which he informed us hasn't in a few years because not enough people were rafting to use it (which is BS, but anyway) we guilt him into giving us a ride back to the launch area. The park ranger cleans his truck out and I notice that his name is Hawk.
On the ride back I make small talk and stupidly ask how dangerous the rapids are in which he informs us that last Monday a guy drowned and gives the good details. Then ends it with "he was a drunken fool." Oh what a relief! A drunken fool drowns going down the rapids.
So we get to the launch area, are given a raft 3 oars and 3 helmets. We watch the safety video twice and launch away. The first 3 or 4 rapids we handle like true champs. We do get stuck a few times but nothing major and we make it without a hitch. We come to an area where we see a guided group off to the side of the river all talking, we think nothing of this and paddle on. Big Big Big rapids. Somehow, Dan and I fall out the raft, Jess stays in. We manage to both get back in but then we realize that our raft is flooding with water, it is literally lodged in between 2 rocks and is submerged. We are doing everything we can to dislodge the raft but nothing works. Meanwhile, everything we had in our raft starts to float away. Also, somewhere in this mess I feel my shoes get ripped from my feet and I am now barefoot (this is bad decision 3 -as I was not wearing the appropriate foot gear, and neither was Dan as he lost his shoes too, powerful rapids they are). So finally we see this guy in a kayak come towards us, he gets out of his boat climbs on a rock next to us and we are all like awesome he is going to help. No, no. He stands on the rock whips out a video camera and starts filming. Outraged. Another dude in a kayak comes over and says we need to move. Duh. We tell him we can't so he and the man filming come and help us dump the water from our boat and dislodge. All the while telling us in a very "nice" way that this is why people takes guides. How much did we want to bitch slap this guy. Anyway...Somehow, one of us lost an oar in this debacle and luckily one of the kayakers give us an extra, phew. So we get through the rest of this rapid, which we later find out is called cucumber rapid and its a level 4.
OH. Did I forget to tell you that in White Water rafting there are levels of rapids? Well, yes, there are 5 levels. 1 to 5. Usually the family friendly guided rapids are levels 2 possibly 3, but not usually. The Youghiogheny river is level 3 and 4.
So two of us are shoeless and we are all a bit rattled but we are fine and it was kind of fun. We realize that the mass of guided rafts that were stopped before the cucumber rapids was to inform them about the danger and safety precautions needed. So we need to be aware and we will know when it gets bad. So we keep going and are having fun. I spot of one of Dan's shoes and jump in to rescue it.
We take a short break on this little beach like area and Dan spots of my shoes and rescues that. Awesome we now each have a left shoe. We get back in and continue to do a great job navigating the hydrolics and the level three rapids. Then we come to Dimple Rapids.
As we approach we see a good 20 rafts lined up getting lectured by their guides. We decide to hold off and park the raft, walk around and see for ourselves what these rapids are actually like. They are huge and they are scary and we watch people get tossed from their rafts and kayaks attempting to go down them. There is the option of portage at these rapids, which means we haul our raft 500 feet around these rapids. We decide that if cucumber rapids was an issue, this was going to be a bigger one. However, shoeless attempting to carry a 300 pound raft seemed more impossible than the dimple rapids. So we decide "lets do this" (biggest bad decision of the day, number 4). We watch several rafts go down and we know the technique and exactly what we need to do. Which is possible when you have an 6-8 person raft with 1000 pounds of human bodies to keep the raft more level. We start our decent and right away, its bad form. The first boulder we hit knocks all three of us from the boat. Now I can only speak from my perspective here, although Jess, Dan and I discussed this at length later on in the day. As I am thrown from the raft I tell myself get on your back and face forward, you need to see where you are going. I am still holding my oar and I plan to use it to help push away from the rocks and boulders. I am staying relatively calm although and being thrashed around hitting rock after rock and pushed under the water swallowing what felt like gallons of water. I soon hear Jessica yelling to me. I spot her holding on to the raft which she so obviously calls to me "I HAVE THE RAFT" I make is towards her and grab onto the raft as well (bad decision 5) we hear people shouting to us "GET BACK IN THE RAFT, GET BACK IN THE RAFT " We get Jess in and I toss my oar on board, then comes a giant rock which crushes me between it and the raft. Now comes the panic. Jess is in the boat. I desperately want to be in the boat. I feel Jess grabbing at my arms and yelling at me to get in. I go under the boat, come up on the other side. I hear Jess yell "WE NEED HELP" some dude tosses me a line with a floating bouy which I grab, but the raft comes crashing into me yet again forcing me to let go of the line. Just then some brilliantly brave men jump into the rapids and pull us to the side. I am gasping for air and feeling the need to throw up the quantity of water I just swallowed. The the same time we are shouting that we are missing Dan and cant see him. We spot him walking on the rocks on the other side of the river. We also notice that we have no oars. Not even the one that I was holding onto most of my swim down the dimple rapids and tossed into the raft. Then I become acutely aware of my bloody knee and ankle and skinned shins.
This is where we meet a group of godsent people. A woman named Anna offers me some first aid and bandaids. Dan is making his way to our side very carefully. And Jessica asks for advice on how to get down the rest of the rapids sans oars. A man named Terry offers us two of his groups oars, and Dan finally makes it to us. Looking at Dan's wounds I feel selfish as his toe is a bloody mess and his calves are not skinned but gouged. More first aid is offered, as is some food, as we naturally had none. Terry and his crew offer for us to follow them down the rest of the way and whip out A MAP OF THE RAPIDS. This is especially funny because, at least I was not aware of any kind of map exsisting, nor were we offered one at any point. The map also gives you the best course to get through each set of major rapids. We jump at the chance to follow along especially because we have only 2 oars.
Much to our dismay we disembark to get through the rest of the rapids. Terry and his 2 rafts get through the next set, called the wine bottle (or something) with no issue, we start through and get stuck on a rock, which prior to dimple was no problem for us, but with me with no oar and shaking like a leaf we all immediately get into the center of the boat and sit. We get off the rock and meet up with the rest of the group at jumpers rock. Where we watch a majority of the other rafters jump 30 feet into the water from a giant rock. We sit this one out. Terry comes to see how we are feeling to which I reply anxious, or nervous. Terry offers to get in with us and guide us down the rest of the rapids. We accept. As we are getting ready to leave another group of people come by asking if we lost an oar. We say yes and are given an oar that does not belong to us, but we take it anyway. Mind you we have now lost 4 oars and have 3 new ones on loan, plus a stranger to lead the way. Terry is some kind of expert and has done Youghiogheny river a number of times. He gets us through the rest of the level three rapids and one more level 4 without so much as getting stuck on a rock.
We land at the end of the rapids and get out. Now we realize that this is where the shuttle comes in. Awesome (our final bad decision, what am I up to? 100?). However, because we were told that the shuttle doesn't run we didn't think to ask about it further. So all these people have red wrist bands on to get onto this bus, because the car is parked about a mile away from our landing. So we send Jessica with her charm to beg for a ride with a promise of payment when we get to the car. YES! It works. So we deflate our raft hop onto the bus and make our way to the car. We have to get the giant raft to fit into the trunk of the sebring we rented which we somehow manage. We realize that we will have to pay for our missing oars and start doing the math. Not too bad. Only 10 bucks an oar.
Upon our arrival we are assisted with unloading our raft that we shoved into the trunk. It's here I realize that my rear is in bad shape and announce this to all the young men helping us unload.
The Art of Distraction. We realize that they are not paying attention to what we are returning and nor do we share that we used at least 7 of their oars. As they are too enamored by our story and our battle wounds.
We had plans to check out the natural waterslides, however decided to call it a day and head back to the Pitt. The three of us discuss our feelings and fears, and decided that not a single one of us had ever felt that kind of fear. The kind where you actually believe you are going to die and fear for your life. As much as we would like to blame the rafting company we take full responsibility for our inflated egos and lack of respect for mother nature and we will never overestimate our abilities again nor we will underestimate the power of the Youghiogheny.
A large amount of beer, and pizza was ordered and consumed. And we survived.
I will never forget that disastrous trip. Both Dan and I are adamant about never white water rafting again. Trust me, there will be nothing water-related in your next trip to Pittsburgh. Except that beer is made of water. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the weight loss from previous post!
Haha. I thought we could bookend your PhD with a guided trip!!!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see you guys!
And Thanks:)
I can't believe you didn't post any pictures! The image of your busted legs is burned into my brain.
ReplyDeleteBut on a happier note, I'm very happy those two men were there because I need you in my life. Good luck (in 2 days) with P90X. I can't wait to see how buff you get!!