We woke up at 5AM. The jamboree had messed up on breakfast so all we had to eat was dry cereal and a few bags of trail mix and cookies. The scouts took it in stride and devoured the cereal. We left our campsite at 5:15 AM. We had to hike for about 40 minutes to reach the check in site. At the check in site the staff reviewed our release forms. One of the scouts had forgotten to bring his epipen. They would not let him go without it. He hiked back to camp and returned with it. He was unable to go with our group but was able to join up with other scouts later in the day.
Following medicals our group was ushered into a tent where we watched a short safety and instructional video. The video reviewed safety procedures and a lot of what if types of situations. One demonstration showed you how to put your helmet on correctly.
We then boarded a bus and headed to the River Gorge. It took about 30 minutes of winding mountain roads to reach our destination. Upon arrival we met our guides. The raft I rode was guided by Sam. A long blonde haired guy about 25 years of age.Sam gave us our life jackets and helmets to put on. Of course, I was the one guy in the group who put his helmet on backwards. Fortunately, one of the younger scouts noticed that the old guy (me) had his helmet on backwards. Everyone got a good laugh. Sam really knew his rafting and was a fun guide.
We entered the river, which we were informed was high due to recent rain. We quickly hit a class 2 rapid. As we continued down the river we encountered more class 2 and class 3 rapids.
A few of the boys claimed to have been tossed out of the boat. No one on our boat experienced this so I guess I will leave the "big fish" stories to the boys when they get back home.
Along the river we were able to do a lot of swimming. The guide also showed us a game to play with the boats which was a lot of fun. The basics of the game was for one of the scouts to stand on the front of the raft and maintain his balance while everyone paddled the boat causing the boat to spin in a circle. The longer a person was able to maintain their balance the faster the paddlers were able to spin the boat. Which eventually caused the person to lose their balance and fall into the water.
At the conclusion of our rafting experience we had to wait for about 45 minutes for the bus. Then we took a 30 minute winding mountain road to our camp and had to hike back about 45 minutes to the campsite.
After returning to the campsite many of the boys went to other areas to explore, trade patches and visit new friends.
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