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anyone ever go white water rafting?

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Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
its fantastic. Do it. Gauley River in West Viginia for the win!

(first time rafting, class 5's and 5+'s all the way down. Ridiculous. I swam a few of them, but I survived.)
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Not 5 and 5+ all the way down. The Upper Gauley is a great river, but it's a mix of class 3-5 and there's nothing that's 5+. There's some 5+ on the Russell Fork, but that's a really short ride. The Dead River in Maine is better than the Gauley, unfortunately that's only a couple of days a year. When there's a major dam release on the Dead coupled with some spring snowmelt that's a truly relentless, can't even stop to catch your breath ride for about 15 miles. EVERY whitewater rafter that can do it owes it to himself to catch the Dead on one of the 2 or three annual extreme dam releases.

Some Upper Gauley fun. Great video, really captures the thrills and spills of truly wild whitewater.
 
i have only done it once. i was pretty nervous to begin with, but i had a BLAST. i went on the gauley river in WV... i think it was pretty tame in the grand scheme of rivers, but i had a great time. i am trying to go again sometime.
 
Used to guide in H.S. - small river (Lehigh in PA. class 2 & 3. Close to 4 in spring floods), but the most fun I've ever been paid for 😀
 
Yeah it is a lot of fun, but it pales in comparison to sledging, not too sure there are many places in the US offering sledging though, big in New Zealand.

 
It's great fun, but if you go higher than class 3 go with someone experienced or a guide.
And canoes are much more fun than a large raft.
 
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It's great fun, but if you go higher than class 3 go with someone experienced or a guide.
And canoes are much more fun than a large raft.
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yeh, i am going with a guide.
and canoeing.... i canoe all the time so this is a step up on the excitement scale.

 
Originally posted by: Armitage
Used to guide in H.S. - small river (Lehigh in PA. class 2 & 3. Close to 4 in spring floods), but the most fun I've ever been paid for 😀
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If you thought doing it on the Lehigh was fun, you should DEFINITELY try it on a bigger river. Although after you do, you won't want to go on the Lehigh anymore 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Jzero
Originally posted by: Armitage
Used to guide in H.S. - small river (Lehigh in PA. class 2 & 3. Close to 4 in spring floods), but the most fun I've ever been paid for 😀
Click to expand...

If you thought doing it on the Lehigh was fun, you should DEFINITELY try it on a bigger river. Although after you do, you won't want to go on the Lehigh anymore 🙂
Click to expand...


Yep, my first trip was the Lehigh, then moved on to bigger rivers. Wound up going back to the Lehigh years later and was bored silly. Good place to start, very friendly for beginners. You don't need to have a guide in your raft and it's almost impossible to get into any trouble there. Once you get by the beginner stage the Lehigh doesn't have much to offer.
 
If you go with a good group it is hella fun. My first trip, I was the only man other than the guide in the raft and I had to work my butt off to help keep the raft going in the right direction. I ended up being sore for a week.

The second trip was 4 guys and 2 girls and was a breeze in comparison. I wasn't even sore.
 
Its a ton of fun, until you fall out of the boat.

The outlook on the experience changes very rapidly at that point.
 
i went in west virginia and i have some awesome pics, but it looks like i deleted them from bbzzdd, so i'll have to resize them and re-upload them

edit:
first
second
third
fourth
in the last pic, i'm the only one left in the boat except the guide who is yelling at me to help the others back in. That was only a class 3, we did up to class 5.
 
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
It's great fun, but if you go higher than class 3 go with someone experienced or a guide.
And canoes are much more fun than a large raft.
Click to expand...


I can't visualize any canoe surviving the several cascading series of long violent rapids we shot through, regardless what the canoe was made of. Can't picture that.

There were, however, a few people on kayaks in the upper river above where our raft runs started. Kayakers glided through the calm water in nearly perfect silence. That must be a fantastic way to get up real close to wild animals for some great photographs.

 
Originally posted by: moshquerade
how was it? would you do it again?
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I went in Colorado when I was a kid. Had a blast and would definitely do it again! Only complaint... the water there was cold.
 
Originally posted by: moshquerade
how was it? would you do it again?
Click to expand...

Heck yeah!! I've been on the Arkansas and the Snake rivers. I liked the snake much better, but both were still a lot of fun. Would definitely do either again.
 
Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Originally posted by: Jzero
Originally posted by: Armitage
Used to guide in H.S. - small river (Lehigh in PA. class 2 & 3. Close to 4 in spring floods), but the most fun I've ever been paid for 😀
Click to expand...

If you thought doing it on the Lehigh was fun, you should DEFINITELY try it on a bigger river. Although after you do, you won't want to go on the Lehigh anymore 🙂
Click to expand...


Yep, my first trip was the Lehigh, then moved on to bigger rivers. Wound up going back to the Lehigh years later and was bored silly. Good place to start, very friendly for beginners. You don't need to have a guide in your raft and it's almost impossible to get into any trouble there. Once you get by the beginner stage the Lehigh doesn't have much to offer.
Click to expand...

Yep, I've been on bigger rivers since then - most of the good ones in W.V. Best one was the Ottowa though - HUGE water!

But you'd be suprised - while the Lehigh isn't that big, I've seen some people get in trouble on it - even helped pull the body of somebody that didn't have quite enough respect for the little lehigh.

I've been living in CO for 8 years now and haven't been on any of the rivers out here yet 🙁 That will have to change soon!
 
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