down the thompson river

i am so incredibly tired.

a couple of my friends and i drove 3 hours into the interior to conquer the rapids of the thompson river with Kumsheen Rafting this morning at 5am.

DJ JW and i took a wrong turn at Hope but were able to get back on track with no problems whatsoever. On our way to the Kumsheen office, we stopped at a deserted ghostly convenience store / gas station. there were cars around so we knew someone had to be there, but there was not a soul in sight. we quickly hopped into our car and drove off, looking for another place to make a pit stop.

we finally found a quaint little cafe. there was a tall white dude with long hair and a long beard, apparently serving customers and two of his friends (they looked like natives or something) with the same fashionable hairdo :b having a friendly conversation. i thought to myself,

we're either going to be lynched or forced to join their biker gang

:b luckily they were the most friendly people we had talked to all morning and reassured me that we were going the right way on the highway. :D

that eased DJ JW's mind and he quickly fell asleep once we got back onto the highway :b

we got there early :D, checked in my group, handed our waivers in, and proceeded to head to the restaurant for a second breakfast :D at just before 9am, we grabbed our wetsuits, changed into them, and hopped onto the bus. i was on the other bus and was stuck between 3 hot guys from Denmark (!!!). they wanted some sunscreen so i passed it around not knowing if i'd get it back :b

20 minutes later we arrived at the put-in, proceeded to grab our life jackets, helmets, and paddles, then was introduced to our guide, Willis :D -- another hot dude -- too bad he's 19 ;)

the morning was full of beautiful scenary, calm waters, and tame rapids. Willis was knowledgable and told us many stories as we paddled our way down the river. i sat at the bow on the right side and got my first taste of freshwater as we hit a pretty big wave. THE WATER WAS COLD!

after a great lunch, we headed back onto the water. this time i was sitting on the left side in #2 position (closer to the bow). we were going to be heading into large rapids, so we had the 2 largest guys (hahahaha) at the front setting the paddling pace. the rapids were pretty big (level 3 and 4+). we were soaked the entire afternoon. we had one big wave where JW was thrown to the front of the boat collapsing on top of the girl in front of him. i was bumped up in the air a bit -- luckily i had my foot firmly under my foothold.

we also passed by the site of the recent train derailment in Lytton. there are at least 7 cars still sitting on the bottom of the river. on the rockbed, you could see a whole section of black coal and a few containers, mangled and destroyed from the big fall. its definitely something to see if you ever do the full day Thompson raft with Kumsheen. even parts of the bridge above was damaged. reminded me of the train derailment in mississauga on the day of my birthday party when i was little...

in more calmer waters, i swam the tiny waves and got a whole dose of water right up my nose :b and in my mouth. we climbed back into the raft and i was lucky enough to sit right at the front of the raft, with my legs dangling over the bow side, hanging on to the ropes for dear life. we ran into a couple more rapids and i took a couple of big waves face on, for the team! :b THAT was EXHILARATING!

i wore my keens today and THANK GOD I DID... they are THE BEST :D i'll definitely use them for rowing :)

after rafting, we all bussed back to the office, hopped into the welcoming hot tub, laughed at our rafting pictures, and slowly headed home. J kept me awake most of the way down, and i entertained him with my awesome impersonation of the dancing Jackie Cheung hahahaha. i hope i didn't scare him...

its almost 11pm and i just got home 20 minutes ago (had dinner with the big JayDoubleU). I AM POOPED.

i'll definitely raft again. maybe next time i'll go to Golden to raft the Kicking Horse!