So far we’ve seen several of the most beautiful lakes. Lakes that are so crisp with the most amazing colors of blue or green that you almost feel like your eyes are deceiving you and your mind is playing tricks on you, and then we saw the grizzlies! Each day I woke thinking that there was no way that this day could top the previous day, but I was wrong. With the exception of the day we left, each day only became more amazing than the day before.
Since I was a teenager I have wanted to take a whitewater rafting trip. If you were born anytime before the early 80’s you may remember a movie called The River Wild staring Meryl Streep. I was fascinated with this movie so much so, that I remember ordering catalogs about whitewater rafting trips. I’m not sure what I was thinking at the grown up age of fifteen years old, like I was going to plan my own vacation with my part-time earnings as a McDonald’s employee. As I grew older I pushed this dream way down to the bottom of my list, for many reasons. I believe the older we get most of us begin to be more cautious in the things we do, and anytime I thought about rafting my anxiety would rise. A month before we left for Canada I called my husband and said, I just booked us a whitewater rafting trip on the Bow River with Chinook Rafting. I figured it was time I branched out of my comfort zone a little.
We woke up semi early on one of our final mornings in Banff, put on our swim suits, then bundled up because it was nearly freezing outside. After arriving and checking in, we sat and listened to all of the instructions about the trip. All I could think about was that I was currently freezing and I didn’t know how I was going to handle getting into this water that was about 39 degrees Fahrenheit, when the temperature outside wasn’t any warmer!
I can’t claim photo credit here since I was in the raft! Chinook provides a photographer to capture these amazing moments.
We were all given a wet suit, booties, a fleece pullover and a splash jacket, then directed to a tent to change. Okay, now it was really cold as I removed everything but my swimsuit and changed into this awkward get-up. Next we were given a helmet and life-jacket and ushered onto a bus to travel about 10 minutes to where our rafts waited at the riverside. The bus could only take us so far before we had to exit and walk about 100 yards down hill to the river. On the walk down my husband kept talking to me but all I could hear was that voice from Charlie Brown, “wah wah wah wah”. This is when my anxiety began to really build, and I was doing my best not to chicken out. When we all finally made our way down to the rivers edge we were split into groups and assigned river guides. All of the guides were amazing, and I’m pretty sure they doubled as comedians in the off season.
The next thirty minutes were filled with some of my most extreme anxiety as the river guides went through all of the safety guidelines. What to do it the raft flips over, what to do if you get trapped under the raft when it flips over, what to do if you fall out, what to do if you fall out and drift away. None of these things I wanted to even imagine, but I know happen. I’m sure I had a look of complete horror on my face by the time we piled into the raft and began the decent down river. After about five minutes on the river and after going through a few mild rapids my anxiety was easing.
The Bow River trip that we booked consisted of level 3-4 rapids, which for a first timer I would say was perfect. Once we made it through the roughest rapid, which was the most fun, we pulled over and exited the rafts so that anyone who wanted to could do a cliff jump into the river. I had been mentally preparing myself for this since I booked the trip. Heights are not my thing, so this was way outside of my comfort zone. You had the option for a 7 ft jump or a nearly 30 ft jump into the glacier river. I got in line for the 7 ft jump and my heart was racing as my time to jump approached. When I got up to the edge of the cliff and looked over at the raging river below. I turned to the river guide standing next to me and said “nope!” I just couldn’t do it. I then waited and watched as my husband took the nearly thirty foot plunge into the ice cold glacier river!
Once everyone had the opportunity to jump we then piled back into our rafts to enjoy the remainder of the trip down the Bow River. At this point I didn’t want it to end, but unfortunately it did and it seemed sooner than later.
If you are an adventure seeker even in the slightest I would highly recommend this trip. Everything was so well organized from start to finish, and the guides were fantastic.