Someone asked a week or so ago

[Royal]

if I had any video of rafting the Gauley River in WV. I dug one out and edited a little of it, it was almost an hour long and posted it on Youtube. That is me in the water at the beginning. I was one scared fella for a while there That was us dumping toward the end too, going through what they call the Box Canyon. That was a hell of a rush too.

I forget how long the run was but it was a full day on the river. What a ball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFgN-9mRvrI

 

[General Ray]

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[Craig in Alabama]

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[Brian(upstateNY)]

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[Royal]

have rafting experience. Heck, I had never done it but lied I was only 51 so still a kid. They advertise it as having five class five rapids and I think it was twenty six class three and above. Basically it was one long rapid

I had done a bit of canoeing but never rafted and that was a heck of a place to start. You just do not realize the violence until you are setting on the edge of that raft and it goes into a dive. You have to lock yourself in with your legs and feet but I didn't have a clue. I learned quickly though.

The problem is, they tell you to that if you get thrown out you are to never put your feet down toward the bottom. You are to go down feet first with your feet posed to ward off any boulders ahead. If you put your feet down they can get wedged between a couple boulders and you are then finished. It will grab you and shove you under and you are dead. Simple as that.

When I was thrown out it was instant. The first thing I thought was, "One size fits all my ass"! That is what they told us when they gave out the life jackets. Now it is odd but it did go through my mind and I was thinking that my friends weighed maybe 170 or so and I was all of 220 and I was sure that my head would have been a hell of a lot higher in the water. As you can see, I would have loved to have a whales blow hole in the top of my head on that run.

To breathe I had to spin from the foot first position, face down stream and lunge to the surface and gulp a lung full of air. Then I would spin around and hold my breath as I forced my feet up and forward to ward off the rocks. There WERE rocks under that water, I am here to tell you.

I was already half way through my water ride when the camera man caught sight of me and I went a ways beyond the last time you saw me before a raft shot out from shore to rescue me. They grabbed me and hauled me in and as I said "Thanks Fellas" they yelled, "Hold on"! We were entering the next rapid. If they had not been there I would have taken two of them. The camera man mentioned some whirlpool, I didn't even know there was one until I saw the video Now that would have scared me more for sure. I must have gone through that sucker too but it was hard to know when you were in a washing machine

 

[therick]

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[Royal]

We put in right at the base of the dam and that water is "COLD" for sure. Most of us wore wet suits. They let water out in the spring when the snow and such melts and in the fall to protect the lake from ice damage. There are 12 ft tubes that shoot the water out like fire hoses and that is where we put in. Gets your puckerer a puckering right from the get go. Part of my main video shows that too but I will have to edit it out and will post it later tonight. Lots to do now.

I am gonna see a guy about banjo lessons today. I have a couple of them, an Alvarez I am gonna sell and a Gibson that I am going to start playing again, after 15 years of neglect. I hope I can get my head right to put the effort into practice this winter

 

[Royal]

Pretty Hairy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtzbRb1n8Dk

 

[therick]

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[Craig in Alabama]

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[Royal]

I was thinking about was shrinkage!! I saw some people that didn't want to pay the 10 bucks for a wet suit rental and thought they were nuts. So did that by the end of the day!!

 

[therick]

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[Royal]

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[RustyNTX]

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