Rafting Report--Alive, Pancreas in One Piece, A Little Low on Adrenaline.

The rafting was awesome. We floated down the Gauley river, surrounded by forested canyon walls on a perfect day--sunny, low 80s, just a bit of haze to shroud some of the more distant peaks. This was the first weekend of a three-week period when they release a large volume of water from the dam above the river, in an agreement to give a set period of quality rapids. (They used to release the water anyway for management purposes, but eventually the rafting outfits realized they could make a tourist season if they asked the authorities to do it at a set time rather than "sometime in the fall.")

There's nothing I've experienced quite like bouncing over 3-4 foot high swells which are more or less standing waves set up by water rushing over the rocks. I took a couple of broadsides from walls of water, but it really wasn't too hard to stay in the boat, despite the stories below. Then again I have a nice low center of gravity. Going through a rapid that is an 8-10 foot drop over about 100 feet is something that I'd have to recommend you try at least once. And it wasn't all that scary. Now, the 10 foot waterfall on the Upper Gauley...yeah, I don't know if I'm up for that.

The rapids were swift but we were guided well, although we dumped two people in one of the Class V's (Upper Mash) when we grazed on rock on the front right and our front right passenger flew into our front left passenger, and they took a spill. We had to yank them back in. Yours truly did a fair share of the yanking, thus proving that I know which safety lectures to listen to and which ones are safe to ignore. That was by far the freakiest part; as we were still in the middle of the rapids, trying to get people back in, with very little ability to control our path while we were focused on rescue. But it turned out just fine. We also lost two people (Bess and the poor front right passenger) when our guide missed a rock as she was watching another stuck boat in fairly still water. But that was an even easier rescue. Nonetheless, we clearly earned our merit badges in "yanking people from the water."

I definitely can recommend our outfit, Class VI, as we were well lead and well fed.
It worked out well for my insulin pump, as our tour leader's husband was also and insulin pump user--and raft guide. So she had plenty of experience in keeping a diabetic safe. (For the record, we threw the pump and my meter in a "dry box", and kept it safe there, and pulled it out for lunch.)

If you think this sounds cool...well, you're right, and I'd highly recommend you check it out.