White Water Rafting

Saturday we went up to Idaho Springs to raft Clear Creek with our next door neighbors, Jaime & Susan. We first stopped in Blackhawk, which is a casino town up in the mountains. We ate lunch and then had about a half hour to kill gambling. I put my first $20 bill in a $1 video poker slot machine (I NEVER play dollars!) and BAM! I won $825 on the second hand dealt!! Made my YEAR!!! I promptly cashed out and we headed off to raft. Susan won $80 so it was a great day for us gamblers!

Back to rafting. Ryan and I have been a couple times before but this was our first time on a raging creek. It was SO much fun! We knew it was going to be entertaining when we found out we had to wear helmets! We had to share our raft with these two umm.. well.. interesting girls. It would have been nice if they could have fallen out along the way but they didn't. Don't worry.. they would have been fine. We wore life vests!

There was a spot along the route where we were able to get out of the rafts and swim. We had to climb these huge rocks and then "slide" down a rock right into the creek. It was so cold but so fun. You would slide in, get shoved under water, pop back up and then haul butt down the creek, but the way the current was going, the water took you right back to where the rafts were!!

Here we are at the very beginning.. all calm, cool, and collected

Let's paddle! A big one's coming!!
I think my face says it all about the first 6 foot drop we went down.. YEEHAW!!

We almost lost Jaime and Susan. I can't remember if Jaime lost his paddle on this one or the next drop..

This shot was taken after we got stuck on a rock and had to go down the chute another way (not an easy way!). Our guide had to make the 2 annoying girls get way up front and duck down so our boat wouldn't flip. It was classic!! They were SOAKED!!

See what I mean?? HAHA!!!

Paddle "high 5!"



There was a point along the trip that our guide told us to pose for the camera guy up on the hill. So of course we put on some goofy pose. You'll see what happened with Ryan while he was putting his best pose on... Check out the guide! He was a crackup!
Umm.. Ryan.. I don't think it's working out too great for you...

There he goes!!! He barely held on. Ryan was totally set up by the guide. Kills me!! HAH!!

They say the wildest rafting is in June after the spring runoff. I can't imagine it any wilder than it was on Saturday so we may just stick to July rafting.