my first time white water rafting

Even though I’m well into my 4th century decade of life, there are still many things I haven’t done. There’ll probably be many more firsts to come. Yesterday was my first time with white water rafting, what a rush!

Our team-building group of 9 went with the excellent family-run Zoller’s Outdoor Odysseys to raft down the White Salmon River (near Stevenson, WA). Towards the end of our 8-mile run, our guide Zak gave us a choice to opt-out as he described Husum Falls to be a 16 foot drop, with a 4 foot slide and 12 foot vertical drop, which amounted to a Class 5 rapid! My conflicted self quickly battled between its in-bred timidity with its adventurous wild-at-heart. The wild side won out, and we dipped into the rapid with a full immersion, pictured below — as you can see, we were entirely submerged. No one tossed out, and the raft didn’t tip over. Whew! (I’m in the 2nd row to the left.)