Whitewater Rafting!!

You can tell from the title that I'm stoked. Yesterday, I went on the "mixer" event with my company's interns. It was fun!

I've been whitewater rafting twice before on the New River in Hico, West Virginia with the North American River Runners company. My university offered a 1-credit hour pass/fail class for white-water rafting, and I took the trip twice. The first year, it *snowed* (in April, nonetheless), although the adrenaline kept us warm until nighttime. The second year, it was just really really cold (and I went in the fall, when the rapids aren't quite as thrilling).

I'm happy to say, however, that this time, the weather couldn't have been more gorgeous. It was warm and sunny, and the water of the American River was clear and fit for swimming. I even had the chance to SWIM one of the smaller rapids. On the previous trips, we'd had to wear wetsuits since it was so cold. This trip, I could wear just my swimsuit - it was divine.

The American River, as you may not know, was where gold was first discovered in California and started the California Gold Rush. In fact, we still saw people panning for gold along the way. The more advanced had little boats with complex vacuum-and-filter systems that could separate the gold from the sand and rocks.

The company we rafted with on the South Fork of the American River was the American River Rafting company. Our guide, Dave, was very knowledgeable and encouraging and friendly. He's definitely my favorite guide I've had. We didn't lose anybody, didn't flip, and only got stuck on one rock for just a moment. My raft-mates weren't half-bad either :-)

I didn't take my camera with me for fear of the water, but I did find a video on YouTube of another company's white-water rafting trip on the South Fork of the American River, the same stretch that we took. Of course, it's fast-forwarded. Our trip took about 6 hours.