Aborted Hitchhiker

A week ago Tuesday while Josh was viewing the crown jewels in London, Evie and I were on the road from our campground to Ohiopyle PA for a 7.5 mile rafting trip to tackle class III and IV rapids. You could not ask for a better day, clear blue sky, hot temperatures, and refreshingly cool water.

In our party there were a little more than a dozen rafts. Though some were experienced rafters many more were novices. Many a raft team over-steered or under-paddled at crucial moments only to find themselves lodged upon a rock. The methods for dislodging from a rock vary from rocking, to shifting from the lodged side to the stream exposed end, to when all else failed, having a crew member jump out and push the raft off. All of these methods were employed repeatedly throughout the day. Over the course of the trip all but one or two groups lost a member or more from their raft. Two crews found their rafts leaving all their crew members behind in the water. One crew had all but one member thrown out into the water.

When dislodged from the boat, most were quickly pulled back into their boat or another one passing by. Some found themselves being pulled to shore by ropes thrown to them by escort guides. A few scampered upon the boulders in the river to be rescued by a following raft for transfer back to the original raft on the calmer parts of the river.

The attached pics go with the title of the blog. One fellow fell out of his raft and scurried to a large boulder. As we shot by he attempted to hitch a ride. As you can see, his attempt misfired. He landed in the back with such momentum that he bounced back out into the river. As he did so, he almost took me and the fellow in the back of the boat with him.

Overall, it was a great trip. Evie is ready to take a class V and VI trip.