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| Rafting | 16.00 Miles |
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| no partners | | Day 9 and it was time to have some fun in the water. This trip almost didn't happen at all due to a poor winter that this area had. The almost daily rains brought the river up to a level that allowed this section to be runnable, if only for a few days. Even with that, these wouldn't be hardcore, raging Class 4 rapids. They would be lower and more technical with exposed rocks. This is the most difficult stretch along this section of the Rio Grande and I was up for it. I was scheduled to go the day before, but I was the only one signed up, so I had to wait until Saturday so they could have at least 1 full boat. Turns out we had 2 full boats and 3 in the 3rd on Saturday. This was a guided, commercial trip similar to the one I did in the Pacific Northwest last year. Normally the Grande would be at pretty high flow, but not this year. But with the lower water, technical was not easy either.
This was a full day trip. Met at the boat yard at 8 a.m. and got bussed to the put in point which took almost an hour. And then we were on the water. Almost immediately, watched a snake cross the river. The first half had several rapids, but also stretches of quiet time, looking up at the walls of the canyon. After passing under the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, things started picking up. 60 rapids on this trip, 13 were Class 3 or above, with 7 being Class 4. Before we really got started on the serious action, we pulled off and had lunch just before we took on a Class 4.
We got to watch another 2 parties go through it and it looked fun, but it was definitely technical. We had to dig deep to keep from snagging onto a rock after a 7' drop. We were in danger of doing that several times in the 2nd half of the trip and sometimes we succeeded and sometimes we didn't. The Guide had to get out a couple of times and bounce us off, but luckily we didn't ever wrap around a rock which can be bad.  The other full boat lost a passenger twice, but were quick to retrieve whoever went over the side.
We get to this one rapid and the current takes you right towards a rock and you have to do a hard left and flow down a chute to avoid it. We almost made it, but the back side got hung up on the rock and we were stuck in the chute between two rocks. I happened to be on the low side as the raft tipped, but it didn't go over, although even with the Guide's attempt to get us off the hung up rock, we were still in danger of it. Meanwhile, I am still seated on the low side and water was pouring into the raft. After the water started boiling around up to my chest I decided to let the Guide know since he was busy and hadn't noticed. I had been afraid to move for fear of triggering a flip, but once he was aware, he yelled at me to move to the high side. He was finally able to get the rear and side off the rock and we were down the chute and through the rest of the rapid in no time. 
A few more exciting rapid sequences after that and then a bit of calm before hitting the take-out point around 3:30 p.m. Spotted some Bighorn Sheep along the way, but with a paddling trip, it's frequently hard to have the camera out to take any shots and the TG-5 isn't known for making good shots on it's limited zoom. There was supposed to be a photographer taking shots of us through a set of rapids, but he didn't show and I think I'm the only one on the trip to get any pics. The boats were spread pretty far apart, so it was even hard to get the other boats going through the rapids too.
But it was a good, fun trip. A bit of serious adrenaline in places along the way. Now that I've done it in lower water, would love to do it again in high water. But like AZ, NM has to have a much better winter for that to happen.
Went back to camp for a hot shower and dinner and some more book reading. Tomorrow I leave this area and start tackling the Enchanted Circle, wrapping around Wheeler Peak. It's only an 84 mile drive completed, but it would take me over 3 days to do it and they were not enough. |
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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