After parking, paying and getting our tubes we got on a rickety old converted school bus which took us at breakneck speed to the put-in area. It was actually a bit frightening! This early in the season the driver warned us that "the water is 68 degrees and there WILL be shrinkage." Good to know. After the initial shock of the cold water we drifted lazily down the river. Until we hit the first rapids. Rapids? That wasn't in the brochure! Actually we had gone tubing for the first time on the river last year so we knew what to expect. During the first rapids Ross got caught in a back current and had to fight to get out. Eventually we all linked up again and continued on.
The next couple of rapids were pretty tame and fun. Then we came to the last rapids before our take-out point. Not fun! We really had to fight to keep from getting thrown out of our tubes while trying not to run into the branches hanging out over the river. As we raced through the narrowest part we saw a woman on shore yelling for help. She was OK but badly frightened. She was stranded on the wrong side of the river after having lost her tube in the rapids. Not much we could do but we did report her to the next people we saw on shore. They turned out to be part of her party. After getting out we ran into her husband who also reported her to a company vehicle that was near the river. They came back a short time later and told him the sheriff's department had been notified. I'm sure incidents like that happen frequently. But I'm also sure those people won't be tubing there anytime soon either.
Karen on a tame part of the river.
The Salt River with Red Mountain in the background.
Ah yes, reminds me of my 1st rafting trip...south of Manila in the Philippenes, to the "majestic Pagsanjan Falls" while on break from duty in 'Nam.
ReplyDeleteOne thought...could we just jump off some place along the river and escape from civilization.
Pete