(getting ready to head into a rapid)
Saturday morning we got up bright and early and made the two hour car trip to Ohiopyle, located in western Pennsylvania. We went with White Water Adventurers Inc located along side the Youghiogheny River. We chose to do the lower yough, which is normally a class III and takes anywhere from 3-5 hours to complete. However, with all of the rain the water was up a considerable amount to 9 feet. It made the trip only about an hour and a half and bumped it up to a class IV. I can't even imagine doing the Cheat River which is a class IV/V. Tons of rocks that are usually exposed, couldn't be seen and a guide was required to be in every raft.
Anyways, the 6 of us piled in our raft and got underway with our great guide Andy. Who by the way was completely awesome and cool. He knew his job in and out and I'm pretty for sure all of wouldn't have made it down the river without him. Plus we all thought he was funny, cool and not bad on the eyes.
(can't see us? Yeah neither could we. Andy had a nice view though)
So we're going down the river and we hit a rapid. I got rocket launched out first thing. Literally, we had probably been in the raft maybe, maybe 10 minutes.
(See the two flailing legs in the air? That's me)
The best part of the rocket launch was having no idea that I got thrown out until I was sucking water down my lungs. However, Andy came to the rescue and tossed me back into the raft like a bag of cookies. Hello... I was dead weight. I held onto that oar like a champ though! Death grip! Both times actually....
(In calmer waters: Guide Andy, Leanna & Hope)
Everything after that was going great, down the river. We finally get to the last rapid and we hit a rock. We were all talking and apparently not paddling (oops, who would have thought you really had to do that on a rafting trip?!) and completely hit a giant rock. Needless to say it happened so fast, all of us except our guide got knocked out of the boat. I think it rattled everyone because we ended up getting pulled out of the water by 3 different rafts and I even saw the emergency rope get thrown out into the water. Thankfully, once again I got tossed back into the raft like a bag of cookies.
After we made it back to dry land, we posed for a photo....
The group plus 2 guides.
My Personal favorite favorite was of me goofing off before all the mayhem began...
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and count all the bruises I acquired. Haha! But it was an awesome time and I'd definitely go again.
