On Saturday, June 12th we went on a Whitewater Rafting trip down the Tatshenshini River, or TAT as the guides refer to it.
Let me back up just a little................
We made reservations to go on this Whitewater Rafting trip on Thursday, June 10th while we were in Whitehorse, which is the capitol city of the Yukon Territory. The day was sunny, warm (about 70) and the sky was that deep blue northern sky with huge white puffy clouds. We were having an awesome day, and had walked for over an hour on the river trail marveling at the beauty of the swiftly running Yukon River and wondering how the salmon can actually swim upstream against that current. There were beautiful wild flowers blooming all along the trail in many different colors, a tangerine orange, Easter egg purple and of course bright yellow (my favorite) just to name a few. Groups of women were walking on their lunch hour just chatting away as they did, Mom's were walking with other Mom's pushing children in strollers, pointing out all the different sights they didn't want the children to miss and butterflies and honey bees were flitting from flower to flower. The day was stunning. Oh, did I mention the birds? There were gulls of different varieties and a Bald Eagle. When we got in our car to head into town to have lunch I noticed a huge flock of gulls flying erratically in circles. As I continued to watch I noticed the Eagle in the center of the flock. It appeared the Eagle was where it should not have been and the gulls were letting it know. Because we had been driving Chip pulled over so we could watch and see what transpired. As luck would have it the Eagle flew right over our heads. I got some awesome pictures this time!! So you can imagine the euphoria we were feeling from such a beautiful day in its entirety. We had not had such a beautiful day since we were in Redding, Ca. in May.
We made the reservations and then started the preparation. Because the river is a glacier fed, the trip required we wear wet suits. The instructions for the trip were to wear something under the wet suit that was NOT in any way cotton. So we went shopping, looking for some under garments (thermal) that were not cotton and wool socks. We found what we were looking and now were ready for our trip.
The put in site was about 160 miles from where we were in Whitehorse and a little off the path we had planned to take on our way to Alaska but that didn't matter we just changed our plans. I love this being retired!!! We left Whitehorse on Friday and drove 130 miles to Dezadeash Lake Government Campground. Dezadeash (dez-dee-ash) translated from Indian means "windy lake". That was no exaggeration! When we went to bed Friday night it was windy, cold, cloudy, raining and when we woke up on Saturday morning my prayers had been answered and the sun was shining. But the mountain tops all around us had gotten a dusting of snow over night. By the time we left to go to the put in site it was cloudy, cold and drizzly again. Our first thought was "will they still go out in this weather?" and "DO WE WANT TO GO OUT IN THIS WEATHER?"....... Yes, was the answer to both questions! We got to the put in site right on time and were given wet suits to put on. We should have realized at that point this was going to be a day of WORK!!!!! Putting the wet suit on was in itself exhausting. Once I got mine on I felt like I had been put in one of those food savers that sucks all the air out of a plastic bag. I not only could barely move but, breath.... hardly! AND there was one girl and Chip that were both having trouble getting into their suits and no one was around to help. So I did the running back and forth from the wet suit bus to the changing huts giving them different sizes hoping one would fit. I finally got the right size for the girl I was helping and Chip settled on one that was not perfect but do-able, even though he now is a soprano! We were the first ones to the put in site and now the last ones to the safety talk (we missed it). Oh well! We were ready to get wet! Well our rafts anyway! Chip and I were on the raft that carried the lunch because (I will be honest) I didn't want to be in one of the rafts that could and probably would get flipped over or someone thrown out. THAT WATER IS COLD, wet suit or not !!! I felt bad for Chip that maybe I was holding him back but he didn't mind. In fact the decision turned out to be the best one. We did everything the other rafts did (rapids wise) but didn't go in the water and we were not having to fight for space to paddle or try to keep rhythm with someone who had none. We were in control of our raft. The rapids were rated between 2 and 4 but the river was flowing very swiftly the entire way. At one point we were stuck on a rock but as it turned out it was a great vantage point to watch the other 2 rafts do one of the tricks I had seen pictures of and didn't want to do. The trick was where the paddlers go full speed ahead and ram an exposed rock causing the raft to shoot straight up in the air and become horizontal with the paddlers hanging on to keep from going in. Sounds fun but not in 40 degree water. Both rafts did the "trick" but not to the extent where anyone fell out. The big dunking came about 40 minutes before we were to take out. One of the rafts with 6 French speaking 30 something's and Jim, a 65 year old lawyer from Denver, Colo. bumped a rock that we found out after, has a reputation for bumping passengers out into the water. Well, this time everyone in the raft went swimming including the guide. The 30 something's loved it but Jim was scared half to death. By the time he actually made it to shore he was exhausted. I am sure part of the exhaustion was caused by his panicking while in the water. It was his very first whitewater rafting trip and according to him, will be his last. We were asked if one of us would be willing to change places with him so he could catch his breath and get his pulse back down to normal. Chip said he would change. By this time the trip was within 20 minutes of being over so the ride for Chip was no different than what we had been through already. As excited as we were to get on the water by now we were ready to get off and get out of the vacuum packaging we had been in for 5 hours and into some warm comfortable clothes. We didn't see any wildlife on the trip like the brochure says is common. But we did see was a porcupine from the bus on our way back to where our cars were parked. That was pretty interesting, I have never seen a porcupine before. What an awesome day!!!
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