Friday, May 21, 2010

Whitewater fun


The first day of our roadtrip with Erin was mostly consumed by whitewater rafting. We woke up nice and early because we had to be at the whitewater rafting place by 9:00, and it was three hours away. We went with a company that we've used before, Performance Tours. After suiting up and taking a picture of our awesome get-up, we were ready to go.

The first half of our day consisted of minor rapids and a good amount of downtime between them. Jo did manage to spot some Bighorn sheep out on the rock ledges as we passed by. Unfortunately for us, it was low water, with the river only running about 521 CFS. Still, we managed to work up an appetite, so lunch tasted mighty good...

After playing a round of horseshoes, where we learned that Jo is the best player of the three of us and that Chelsea thinks horseshoes are frisbees, we hit the river again, this time hitting up some bigger rapids and some spectacular scenery. The Arkansas heads down through the breathtaking Royal Gorge, providing some amazing scenery along with the whitewater. Our crazy half-blind guide Robby stopped and showed us a rock we could jump off of into the river, which was a blast and one of the highlites of the day.
And then, all too soon, it was over and we were back at headquarters.
Of course, we weren't quite ready to get out of our wetsuits. Not before we modeled them with some dead-sexy poses, that is...


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But after one final group hug, we took off. Actually, that's not quite true. We actually waited around for 45 min. to get some pics of all of us on the river, which the guide was going to get to us for free. But when they didn't show up, we decided to take off. They said they'd mail the pics once they got in, but who knows if that'll happen or not.

Ummm............
We followed Highway 50 outside of Canon City. We missed our turnoff for Highway 24, but since it was starting to get late we decided to just camp close to where we were, which was just outside of Maysville. Jo and I have camped there before and were somewhat familiar with the area. There's a little campground called The Angel of Shavano (named after the mountain whose shadow it's under) that we really like, which is back on a country road, but we decided to forgo that campsite for a free one we found off the road.
As Jo will be sure to tell you, this campsite violates the "leave no trace" wilderness etiquette by being far too close to the stream, but this is the first time we've ever broken that rule and this was really the only good place for the tent, so we made an exception.

There's nothing quite like going to sleep to the sound of running water.


That night, Jo was nice enough to be fire master and make Erin and I a fire. I really enjoy having a fire, but I hatehatehate making them. I feel like it's so much hassle to get it going, and just as much hassle to keep it going. After this trip, however, I've decided to learn how to make a proper fire, so maybe it won't seem like such a chore to me. Anyway, the good thing about fire is that they lead to....
Weenie roasts!
Erin and I had gathered some sticks to use as skewers while Jo was making the fire, and we used them to roast tofu pups and, later on, marshmallows. It was a great ending to the day.

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