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Lehigh River Sojourn Journal Day 2 —
Greg A. June 23, 2002 Again, we woke up early. This morning, we went whitewater rafting with Pocono Whitewater, where we ate breakfast. White Haven bakery makes delicious sticky buns! After breakfast, we had a safety briefing which was suspiciously similar to yesterday's safety briefing. We then picked our raft crews. Mr. Mauser, Nick, and I went with Chris Kocher, director of the rivers program, and Rick "Snakebite" Sherry, our raft captain. After disembarking from the busses, we hiked past a cold mountain stream in a pristin e forest. In a clearing, we boarded the rafts and put in. I was seated in the front, which proved to be a wet seat. After we cleared the mass of rafts that were clogging the river near the put-in point, we practiced maneuvers in a flat stretch of the river. The rapids came up fast after that, and we successfully navigated the first group of rapids. Since we encountered many rapids today, I will give you a sample dialogue from a typical rapid navigation:  Me: There's a rock ahead! Mr. Mauser: Paddle left side! I mean right side! Oh, just forget it. Chris: Left side paddle hard, we need to miss this rock! Rick: What rock? THUD Me: That rock. Nick: Rock ahead! Yes, even through all this, we successfully navigated the rapids with only one serious hang-up. As we sat atop the rock, boats passing left and right, a friendly raft crew came from behind and bumped us off. As we rafted happily down the river, we heard cries for help from the shore. We pulled over and saw an older woman laying in the water. Chris and Snakebite jumped out and helped her into our raft. She told us that her name was Jill, and that she had fallen out of her raft when it hit a rock. As we came around a bend, all the rafts were lined up to wait for stragglers. We paddled along, asking if anyone was missing a crewmember. At the end of the line, we found her raft, and they took her aboard.  We
pulled into a grove of trees for lunch, and I (being soaked to the skin)
got a chill. Thankfully, Alice MacNow, who had docked next to us, loaned
me a shirt for the duration of the stop. After we ate, we heard a presentation
by Kelly Pollack about the treasures and history of the Lehigh Gorge. She
talked about preserving the environment so that many people could enjoy
it. We rafted through some larger Class III rapids after lunch, and our
crew sailed (metaphorically of course) to the front of the pack. The feeling
of the water rushing under the boat as we rafted through the rapids was
exhilarating! A few rapids and much more water later, we pulled into a cove lined by huge stone walls, reminiscent of Mayan ruins. Just as I was taking this in, another rafter doused me from behind. Mr. Mauser (who got hit as well) retaliated, and before we knew it, an all-out water war had broken out. Eventually, it died down, and we moved onward, soaring over waves (yes, waves on the Lehigh) and splashing down into gaps between rocks, our expert paddling saving us from many hang-ups. After one last stretch of rapids, our raft came around a bend and saw many rafts along the shore. We steered and docked, then boarded the busses. When we returned to Pocono Whitewater Headquarters, Nick and I recorded everything that had happened, because we didn't bring our notebooks on the trip. We boarded the busses, and returned to camp, where we are typing now.  |
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