When Jeff asked me if I wanted to take a river rafting trip on my visit to Denver this June I was a little leery. You here the stories all the time of how dangerous it is. Well I survived my first experience without a scratch. The original plans included a Class IV route but high river levels had us change our minds. We settled for an all day Class III route down the Arkansas river. As it turns out the river levels had subsided by the time of our trip. That did not make the trip through Wildhorse Canyon and Browns Canyon that we booked with Four Corners Rafting any less exiting. We where instantly thrown into Class III rapids the moment we put in the river at about 9:30am. The picture below was taken as the adrenaline began to kick in, and the water began to pick up pace crashing around the rocks in front of us. Shortly after the photo myself and Jeff where drenched in the 58 degree mountain water. This was just a prelude to why we where wearing the splash coats at that point. We took the front of the boat for the morning and the two young girls sitting behind us where going to switch to the front for the afternoon.

After a long morning we stopped at the river side for lunch. Our guides cooked us up some corn on the cob and some of the best steak I ever had. Your appetite gets really worked up by the physical workout on the river. That and the fresh mountain air made the steaks taste even better. As we promised we gave up our front of the boat seats to the girls after lunch. To our surprise (pause, pause, NOT!) they no longer wanted the front of the boat after they saw how much work it was and how often you almost get tossed in the drink. So we gladly took the spot again as we hit some great rapids in the afternoon. We proceeded through Browns canyon where we where over taken by a thunderstorm for about ten minutes. Talk about a rush! Tall walls of stone on either side, thunder and lighting, blowing rain, and a 10 foot drop in front of us called the zoom chute. We could hear the water rumbling in front of us but could not see the river beyond. It looked like the world was flat for a moment and the river just disappeared over the edge. With the rain still coming down we crashed over the lip and into zoom chute where we encountered 4-6 foot waves for the next 20 to 30 yards. Wow! A few more stairs and the toilet bowl (technical names for parts of the river) was all that was left before we finished up and pulled the boats back to shore about 5:00pm.

I am definitely doing this again. Thanks to my second brother Jeff for suggesting the trip. It will be one to always be remembered.