Extreme rafting and more!

Back on Aug. 2nd Mark and I headed 3 hrs west to Ohiopyle, PA with our good friends Tiff & Jed Link and Matt Maurer. The Links had invited us to join them on a whitewater rafting trip down the Youghiogheny River. Jed's super-skilled whitewater kayaking friend Adam would be guiding us from his kayak. The five of us, along with one of Adam's friends, Drew, climbed aboard our raft and went through some basic paddling skills, then set out on the Lower Yough (pronounced "yock") with Tiff delivering commands from the back.

Parts of the river were pretty calm, but the class III rapids definitely got our hearts pumping! "Hard left! Right side! Paddle, paddle!!!" Adam was impressed by how we had mastered the first few rapids, and he believed we would do just as well on the feared class III/IV Dimple Rapid - named for an indentation in the rock responsible for trapping capsized rafters and causing at least nine deaths. We got out and scouted the rapid and Adam told us that we would need to go hard on a 45-degree angle. We were pretty nervous, but confident that we would make it through. Well, things didn't go according to plan. In all of our eagerness, we paddled HARD. Perhaps a little too hard. We got on that 45-degree angle a tad too soon, and ended up hitting a different rock - causing our raft to spin around backward. Suddenly disoriented, lefts and rights became meaningless. In our confusion, the raft struck Dimple Rock head-on (well, butt-on) and flipped. We all got tossed into the river... it wasn't pretty. Drew and I were pinned underneath the raft, but managed to get out and climb up on the bank. Jed, Tiff, and Mark got hammered by the rocks but made it to the river's edge. Mark lost a paddle, but gained a few nasty cuts and bruises on his knees. Matt floated way down the river. The raft was long gone, but our trusty guide wrangled it back for us. We were shaken, and disappointed that we didn't conquer Dimple. Adam said we couldn't have done it any worse! But at least we can truthfully say "we nailed it" and we were happy to be alive :)

The rest of the river was pretty smooth (save a wee Snaggletooth Rapid - but we finagled our way out of that one) and we it to the take-out. We turned in all of our gear, and were looking forward to some food after a hard day's work. Well, that plan was foiled as well. Just as we got on the road, the lights started flashing at the railroad crossing. So, as any good driver would do, Jed stopped for the train. But the lady behind us didn't. Bam! She rear-ended his car and pushed us out onto the tracks. OK, maybe not directly on the tracks, but too close for comfort with a train zipping around the bend. We frantically signalled for her to back up her car, but she was still angrily trying to process why we had decided to come to a complete stop in front of her. As we didn't have time to wait for her to figure things out, Jed floored it in reverse and kindly pushed her out of the way so we could back up off the tracks.

Anyhow, everything turned out fine. The Links' bumper was alright and we finally got our dinner. Overall, it was a really fun day ... just a little scary here and there - haha! We look forward to successfully maneuvering through Dimple next time.