We had quite an adventure over the weekend. After work on Friday we drove down toward Colorado Springs and then over toward Cañon City and just a bit past that to our campsite for the weekend. We were joining a group of close to 150 others with the primary goal of whitewater rafting Saturday morning and afternoon. Nothing terribly exciting happened the rest of Friday, but that was definitely made up for on Saturday.

I will admit that I was a bit nervous of the actual rafting for a few reasons. First, my ankle was injured a couple weeks ago and is not back to 100%, or even close really. Second, the Arkansas River is the highest it’s been in over ten years due to a huge snow pack that is now melting. Third, I had never rafted before and wasn’t really sure what I was getting into. Add this all on top of the fact that the original section we were supposed to raft, Royal Gorge, was closed due to the extreme conditions.

So instead of doing the Royal Gorge section, we did a section called Bighorn Sheep Canyon, which is typically rated at class II/III (out of six classes) but due to the conditions was more like III/IV. Our group of six was fortunate to be led by one of the owners of the company, who has been rafting the Arkansas for years. That’s not to say that all of their guides aren’t great, but I felt added comfort in knowing that we were in especially good hands.

The trip started off easy enough, as we learned the commands the guide would call out the rest of the day when going through more advanced rapids with names like Shark’s Tooth, Double Dip, and Kamikaze. The first big rapid we ran into was called Three Rock Falls, and our plan was to stay on the left side of the river to avoid the namesake three large rocks. But as I soon learned, not everything goes as planned and we actually ended on the far right side. Our guide said that we probably came the closest to flipping possible without actually going overboard.

From that point on the guide felt we were capable enough of having some fun and hitting some of the bigger stuff along the way. He said that sometimes he gets very timid groups who want to avoid everything possible, but our group was all for going after the big stuff. So the rest of the day was spent steering into the heart of the rapids and having a blast! We never lost anyone out of our boat, despite it slowly leaking air and taking on water at times. However, we did get to see three other boats flip and participated in the rescue of those sent swimming.

I really enjoyed rafting even more than I thought I would, had no problems with my ankle, and cannot wait until we can do it again. Since this year is such a good year to do so, perhaps we will take another trip later in the summer back to the Arkansas for round two. If we do, I will be sure to bring my camera even if I can’t take it on the boat. I regret not having any photos from our weekend this time, but will be on the lookout for other group members sharing theirs.