June 21st, 2005

Ola. My friends and I went on a bit of an adventure weekend trip to West Virginia a couple of weekends ago. We had quite an adventure!

Ditch #1: On Friday, we nearly flipped the SUV we rented for the trip. It had rained in the morning and the primitive campsite we were holing up at had nothing but dirt paths for us to get our SUV to the site with. By the time we left for some fun on Friday, the dirt had been fully converted to mud. So, one of the guys gave it a bit too much gas and not enough brake shortly before a turn in the road with a ravine on either side. Of course, the SUV slid right into the far ravine and nearly flipped us all over, if it weren't for one tree stump that stabilized and stopped the fall. We needed a tow to get ourselves out of that one.

Ditch #2: Later that day, another friend was driving us up a mountain pass, while some young kids approached at a high speed behind us. He tried to pull the SUV over to a turnout, but caught a very muddy ditch instead. After a whole lot o rockin, we got the truck out of the ditch.

The next day, we headed off to the Lower New river for a whitewater rafting trip down class III to V rapids. We asked the guide to show us a good ride, a wild ride...which incidentally turned out to be an easy request to fulfill in the little dingy the four of us piled into. On average, each of us got launched out of the raft at least 4 times. Our guide, whom we affectionately call "W", even launched out of the raft once himself (in the middle of a class V rapid).

You begin to get a bit gunshy when you get put out of the dingy that many times in a matter of a few hours. Every set of rapids, you expect to get tossed...so, you paddle and brace with all your might in order to avoid the inevitible.

Before the day was over, two of us ended up somehow under the raft, two of us hyperventilated after some big spills, all of us got smacked around by paddles, elbows, legs and helmets and all of us swallowed enough water to keep us hydrated for the weekend. At the end, we all agreed that we would do it again...but we might reach for the sissy strap next time!