Our experience with River Expeditions continues to be a wonderful and exciting time. We decided to do the Lower New River during the Memorial Day Weekend package. I thought it would be a great idea to raft on my birthday (Sunday May 30th). I got my b/f, his cousin and my good friend to come with me.
I never have been in a small raft besides the time in PA. I thought well I have done a smaller raft, this should not be as bad. Was I ever mistaken. We got the ride of a lifetime. With the guidance from our awesome Guide Joe (dirty Joe), he promised us a safe but a extreme ride down the Lower New.
Before any major rapids, Joe let us out and did some swimming rapids to get everyone ready in case of a fall. That proved to be good because at Surprise that is actually what happened. We started to paddle hard to the wave. I have never in my life seen something so huge… I was like here we go guys…. once we hit it, both my b/f and his cousin where thrown out of the raft. We quickly got both of them in. Next was lunch and was it ever so good.
Once we got back in we headed to Upper Railroad. We passed through that with flying colors. We were just talking about how what happens if your boat flips and you’re under it when we hit Lower Railroad. Everything looked fine until we hit the second wave, and not even a chance to think we were flipped over. Joe was able to get the raft over in just a few seconds. Once out of the rapid I pumped my fist and screamed and cheered as I was like that was freaking awesome! Though when I was pulled to saftey, I saw that my digital water camera was gone. Little upset but it was all worth the ride. Still nerves were a little up only cause especially being in a small raft anything can happen.
One of the other parts I loved was jumping off the 15 foot Jump Rock. I never jumped that high ever in my life. Still it was a blast. We tried to surf once, only on something small especially with the raft we had. We were also going to do some bull riding, but with our small boat and with the water level, we decided to take it safe. Overall the trip went very well. Two times did we have some carnage, but it was worth it.
We took our showers and headed over with Joe our guide and all sat together and watched the video that Tom took. He did one heck of a job with the video. We also hung out with Tyler, my guide from last year as well. When we come back for Gauley season, we are requesting both Joe and Tyler to be our guides. I can not express how much of a wonderful job Joe did with us on our trip.
Once again River Expeditions, there is a reason why we keep coming back year after year. The facility is clean and also very friendly staff. I also picked up my River Expeditions Swim Team Shirt as I now am officially part of that. The bathhouse was clean at all times and really felt good after our trip.
We can not wait for our next trip in Sept to Tackle the Upper Gauley. You will be hearing from my sister or her husband for our booking. Thanks again! KG in Ohio
