Regarding the Rafting...

Alright, apparently my last post wasn’t detailed enough, so I’m supposed to re-hash ye olde weekend.

So, at around 5:15 or 5:30pm on Friday Danielle and I had finished loading the car (she did most of it) and we headed over to Matt and Natasha’s to pick them up. We picked them up and headed out on the road. About five minutes later the pasta salad and dried fruit was taken out because it was time to eat.

Three (or so) hours later we picked up Rod just outside of Kingston and continued on our way to Ottawa. We got into Ottawa at about 11:20pm and stayed at Matt’s cousin’s house, they were visiting Toronto so it was very nice of them to let us stay.

Then after a crappy sleep on the floor it was up at 6:00am and off to Quebec. Approaching the outskirts of Ottawa my speakers blew for some unknown reason so now I have not music in that car of mine. Then it was over the bridge and my first venture into Quebec (except for the Montreal airport).

I really enjoyed being in Quebec because everything was in French, it was neat going to the bathroom and having all the signs be in French.

At about 8:45am (after a few wrong turns) we arrived at this small hotel to meet with the company that was taking us rafting. We went to meet up with the people inside the bar, and there was this French man halfway through a pitcher of beer! I mean it was 8:45am on a Saturday morning. (After talking to a woman that works at Esprit that is apparently not that strange at the local hotels.)

Then it was a bus ride to the put-in and it was time to start rafting. Danielle was quite nervous about the rafting and so was I. Everyone else seemed alright with it, Matt and Natasha had both been before and Rod just seemed excited.


It was hard not to feel cool with all the gear on.

We lucked out and got two guides in our boat and were able to stay together without anyone else joining our raft. I think that this helped me to relax since I already knew most of the people on the boat.

I started off in the middle of the boat with Rodney since both of us had less experience paddling then Matt and Natasha. Danielle was behind me because we had an odd number of people. The first trek was down the middle channel for some easy rapids to get us used to the raft.

Going through the first couple of rapids really helped me to build up my confidence and start having fun with what we were doing. After about 5 rapids we stopped for some pasta and some apple cider.

Then it was a bus ride back to the put-in where everyone had to introduce themselves and tell a joke or something. This one gentleman told an absolutely horrible joke; if you ever want to hear it, ask me for I fear that it has been etched into my brain.

Then we went back in the water, except this time it was Rod and I at the front of the raft. I was excited about this at first, sine when you are at the front you get the brunt of most of the water and the chances of falling out are the greatest, and I sorta wanted to fall out. It wasn’t until the second or third rapid that I noticed that I was doing most of the work at the front of the raft. Every time we went through a rapid Rod seemed to think that it was acceptable behavior to simply lie down in the middle of the raft on his back and take a break.

But that’s just not my style, realizing the Rod lacked the strength to meet the might Ottawa river head-on, I unleash both guns and picked up the slack. Needless to say I kept this information on the down low so as to not embarrass Rod.

Not wanting to take too much fun away from Matt and Natasha Rod and I gave up our seats at the front (well Rod did a paper, rock, scissors with Matt) of the raft as we headed to the Coliseum. The Coliseum is (apparently) the second largest commercially rafted rapid in the world, which is pretty freaking cool.

Not knowing that I had relinquished my seat at the front of the raft the guides picked our raft to go through first, I guess the guns did their job. We went right through the rapid without flipping or loosing a single member of our crew.

After that out boat was used as the rescue boat incase any of the other rafts had any problems, which mean that we had to paddle up to the start of the rapids and wait while the other rafts went down. If one of the rafts were to flip of too loose anyone it was our job to paddle like mad and try to pick up as many people as we could.

I really enjoyed this part, even though it kicked me and the gun’s ass. We managed to pick up a few people (I save two myself), I think that three of the other rafts flipped, and most lost at least one person.

After that it was one more small rapid and back on shore. We did get to jump out of the raft during one section, where the river opened up, and just float for a while with the current.

Whew…then it was to the resort where we rented some tents that were set up under small wooden structures to keep out the rain (it looked like it might rain, and it had poured the night before) and time to relax with some beer.

Sheesh this is a really long post now, and I’m running out of steam…basically after that it was your standard night out by a lake beside a bonfire, except for the fact that it we were server great food.


The sunset was nice...