Alpine Rafting in Golden, BC

Friday, June 12th, 2009
Jenn and I packed up the jeep and left Regina late morning, then met up with Julie and Michelle in Swift Current.  Hauling all the way to Golden, BC, we arrived in time for an overturned semi to back up the highway a good 30 kms.  Of course the end of the line was 8 kms before our turnoff into our campsite...

Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Shane planned out this weekend of uber awesome rafting goodness, it really was a heart racing kickass time.  I'd recommend others to go for sure, and I would certainly go again.  Hosted by Alpine Rafting, they had a campsite in the area and provided all of the equipment and training.

Chris, Erin, Michelle, Julie, Jenn and I and a couple other strangers were in the raft with the guide with the yellow helmet (wooden, actually), the guide was pretty much the greatest ever.  He's been rafting with his friends down the grand canyon, and only guides during the peak season as an extra.  He normally runs a mountain firefighting company and does some heli-ski guiding in the winters.  Shane and co. were in the other pictures here, their guide with the black helmet.

One of the rafts behind us flipped right at the start of the class 4 rapids, so we pulled off to the side into a nook out of the current, then when they couldn't catch the rope-bags we were on the chase!  It's one hell of an adrenaline rush getting yourself through class 4 rapids on your first time rafting, but something completely different when you're chasing a flipped raft, knowing there was still people in the water!

Catching up to them, the few of them who were sitting on top of their upside down raft jumped into ours, then Chris Shewchuck and I pulled their guide over the front and into our boat.  Two from their boat swam to shore as soon as they flipped, so counting heads, everyone was ok.  Divvy'ing up what paddles we had, we rounded out the bottom leg of the river checking out the scenery and laughing off the adrenaline.

It's just one of those things, it was pretty mellow at the top while we learned to coordinate, then serious and purposeful through the rapids.  Maybe a bit easy at first, but something fun and handleable can get dangerous in a hurry when something goes wrong.  But that's why it's fun, if you just want to ride a dinghy at the beach then don't come rafting the Kicking Horse River!

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Sunday morning, we packed and cleaned up the campsite, took a few last breaths of the awesome BC air and headed home.  Another solid weekend... if only it wasn't an 11 hr drive home for a weekend away!