socialy retarded

Do we get wetsuits?

Posted on 28. Jun, 2009 by Derrick in Random Events

A couple of weeks ago my little sister called me and asked simply “do you want to go white water rafting down clear creek”. She should have just stopped at “do you” cause I’m always down for anything. Summer on the other hand took a couple of days of convincing to get her to agree to go.

We woke up and fittle farted around this morning. Finally getting in gear at about 9:15. We needed to be out of the house at 9:30 and up to our destination by 10:30. Hustling along and right before we head out the front door, my underwater housing for my camera broke. I was furious because the sumbitch cost $250. Going out the front door I glanced at my watch and it was 9:40. No biggie, Mile Hi Rafting’s web site said it would only take 30 minutes to cruse up the mountain. I should know better, I’ve made this same drive up 1-70 hundreds of times. As we were about to hit the highway, I swung into McD’s for some breakfast. It took 10 minutes in the drive thru. Summer said as we were heading out of the drive thru “Can we stop at the gas station to get energy drinks” I thought, no prob. I took a wrong turn and found myself in old town Arvada (which by the way is super cool), 15 minutes of taking one way streets to find my way back to Wadsworth and get to the gas station. I pulled in to the gas station and Summer made her way in, 5 minutes later. Apparently some chick was making a ruckus in the conoco. At this time it was 10:20 and we hadn’t even started driving up the mountain!

We eventually got there after my best impression of Mario Andreti in my 4 banger Honda. 10:55 am! whoooo. Then we waited till  12 to get started! After about another 30 minute tutorial the guide Keith ask who wants to sit in the two “splash” spots. Or other words sit in the front. Back in the day, my mother used to have to regulate Annika and I on who sat in the front of the car. This time both of us got to sit in the front.

Summer forgot that she wasn’t supposed to take her hand of the “T” on her paddle, but at least during the trip we all kinda forgot to do one thing or another. At one point our guide asked us if we would rather do it on our own since we weren’t listening to him. Ooops.

Our first Class IV on Nomad. By this time Annika and I were suffeciently splashed.

Our next class IV was called Phoenix…. Notice my dedication to paddling, 40 degree water or not!

SPLASH!

Our Final class IV rapids was called Outer Limits. I’ve compiled a photo sequence that is really fun to look at. click on the picture and view it in the full size and watch all of our faces.

But my two favorite are these, Notice the dunking, then the face afterwards.

We had a good day. I can say that the “Splash spot” isn’t all that its cracked up to be. And if you ever go rafting with Annika, you have to remind her to not have so much fun. Her laughing so loud makes it so you can’t hear your guide. Todays also happened to be the boys day, in that only the boys went into the drink. I made it about halfway in (head only). Kit went full monty and decided that a quick swim would do. His face turned white when his nether regions hit melted snow water. I couldn’t let another man suffer, so I promptly pulled him out.

Tags: annika, clear creek, cold, derrick, kit, Soren, wetsuit, white water rafting