White Water Rafting

For Alan's birthday we went white water rafting on the upper gauley in West Virginia.  Ladies and Gentlemen this was no joke.  I was legitimately terrified 90% of the time.  Fall is gauley season and the water levels are high.  There are five class five rapids insignificant, pillow rock, lost paddle, iron ring, and sweets falls.  I had watched tons of youtube videos before going so that I knew what I was getting into, in hindsight not the best idea.  I was dreading sweets falls all day, and as luck would have it it was the last big rapid of the day.  Sweets falls is a fourteen foot waterfall that is basically a straight shot down into a swirling bowl of white water.  After doing it I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought and was less intimidating than some of the other rapids before it.  We totally wiped out on pillow rock, everyone fell out of the raft except for the guide and Alan, typical.  We got out for the morning at sweets falls where the rafting company has their outdoor kitchen.  They grilled us up some hamburgers and we ate lunch on the boulders overlooking the rapid.  It was fun to watch everyone come down the waterfall, there were some major wipeouts.  The afternoon segment of the trip was a little more low key but still lots of fun, we jumped off a big boulder, and went down a "swimmers rapid".  Looking back on it I can't believe I acutally did it, but I had a blast and would totally do it again!

The epic wipeout...