Rowing and Riding

Side Trip – Cotopaxi to Rafting Office and Cotopaxi to Canon City – 67 miles roundtrip

This morning our alarm went off early at 6:00 AM. After several snooze button hits we finally got up.  We had a busy day planned ahead of us.  We had to report to the river rafting office at 8:45 AM – half day rafting and half day on the train through the Gorge. 

We arrived at Arkansas River Tours right at 8:45.  Upon check in we saw the temp of the water was still 60 degrees with the air being a little cooler today at 80.  We all decided a pair of booties would be a good idea to keep our feet warm during our rafting adventure. 

It was just Al, Blake, myself, and our guide, Blake in one boat.  The second boat consisted of a couple from Iowa, a couple from Germany, a guy from Arkansas, and their guide, Abbey.  We were off to conquer the Upper Big Sheep Horn Canyon. 

Our route took us right by the KOA and we passed our RV, which was pretty cool. 

As I mentioned yesterday, the river is running high so the water is moving pretty quick.  We still managed to paddle 8-10 category III and IV rapids with nobody falling into the water.

After a two hour raft trip, we retuned to the office in Cotopaxi where our guide, Blake cooked us lunch on the grill.  It was nice to talk to him and learn about the life of a Raft Guide.  Blake is 23 years old and is a fifth year guide from Kansas.  Interestingly enough, he told us that in order to conquer his fears he goes all out and does whatever scares him to get over that fear.  He was terrified of heights so he took on rock climbing.  His second fear was the water so he took on whitewater rafting.  He also said he tends to be shy so he thought becoming a raft guide would give him opportunities to open up and force him to come out of his shell. It was his brother who worked as a raft guide at Arkansas River Trails who got him to come on board right after high school.

It isn’t easy to become a raft guide.  He explained to us the process that leads up the final check off.  Newcomers interested in being a guide must be on the water 6-8 weeks daily to learn the river, be put through situations that may happen on the river, and learn CPR and other first-aid necessary to being responsible for guests while on a whitewater adventure.  After the 6-8 week training period, each guide goes through a final check off with a master guide.  Not all pass the first time around, but after they do, they become raft guides. 

The interesting thing about the river is it is constantly changing.  Every trip down the river is different.  Because of that, it requires a lot of knowledge on how to read the river and what to avoid keeping the passengers safe.

After our lunch, it was time to head back to the RV to change and head up to Canon City to catch the train.

We quickly discovered there was cell service while in Canon City.  While sitting at the train station, texts started rolling in.  Braden had been trying to get ahold of us for days and was concerned we had fallen off a cliff or something.  Ha Ha… now he knows how we feel when he never returns our calls!  We had time for a quick conversation with him before boarding the train.

Our train ride took us through the Royal Gorge.  At times we were right next to the rock walls of the canyon with the Arkansas River running next to us.  The rapids were raging high.  I can’t imagine rafting through there.  We also went under the highest suspension bridges in North America and saw the gondolas crossing over top.  Tomorrow we will go to the top to see it from that level – today we looked up from the bottom.

We returned home around 8:00 PM.  Our menu for the evening was supposed to be Hobo Dinners but we were too tired so we put together a “Kitchen Sink” Nachos for our appetizer, finished our game of Phase Ten and ate homemade ice cream for dinner.  By 9:30 we were in bed and asleep.