Sunday, August 8, 2010

A River Runs Through It

Another mountain day trip to escape the August heat & humidity. This time with my wife's family - all 14 of us - to go river rafting. Fun and safe trip for all ages, Class I-II, nothing too wild and turbulent.

We went with High Mountain Expeditions and they did a great job of keeping us fed, transported, and entertained. We met at their shop in Banner Elk, then they drove us on a bus about 45 minutes into Tennessee, and we rafted the Watauga River.

Each day between 1-6pm, they release water through the dam from the bottom of the reservoir. This makes the water very cold - around 45 degrees. All the rafting guide companies get to take advantage of this daily dam release. Everyone got wet by either jumping in or by virtue of the water gun fights between boats. After a while, the crazy cold water became comfortable. Once again, the air temps were almost 20 degrees cooler than back at home. I took video but didn't realize I had it set on audio only setting....DOH!! So here's a couple of pics....doesn't do it justice.

High recommended for a fun family outdoor adventure.







Stole the title of this post from the movie, "A River Runs Through It"...great movie. Incidentally, I actually met Craig Sheffer, the lead actor who starred opposite Brad Pitt, in Wrightsville Beach around 15 years ago while he was there filming another movie in the Wilmington area. Nice guy.

2 comments:

PeconicPuffin said...

The kids look like happy campers!

Raul Gonzales said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.