Action, Adrenaline, Adventure, Oh My!

June 4th, 2009

Guest Blogger, Sara Boehm

When our group of friends asked Kelly how she would like to celebrate her 29th birthday this year, without hesitation she said “Whitewater Rafting!” This was the first whitewater experience for many of us, in our group of 15, and the anticipation of this adventure set in immediately after her suggestion for celebration. Our group met up early Sunday morning, and set off from Pittsburgh into the horizon of the Laurel Highlands. We didn’t know what to expect or what we would experience in the coming hours.

The morning was beautiful, and as we crested the mountain at Summit Hill, a thick fog set in. It was surreal, and we slowed our vehicle so that we could make out the road ahead of us. As we dipped off the mountain, the beauty of nature was revealed. The city folk have made it to nature! Look out Laurel Highlands, here we come!

The staff at Laurel Highlands River Tours prepared us with a safety video. We then strapped on our helmets and life jackets and climbed onto a big school bus that took us to our drop off point. Our rafting guide instructed us on paddling techniques, “forward right, forward left, back right, back left.” Then the ultimate commands, “all right, all left” where everyone in the group, depending on the position would need to get up off their butts and to that side of the raft as quickly as possible to avoid tipping. And if someone falls in, “Pull Them Out!”

At this point, the anxiety set it, we all stared at our teammates and wondered who was going to fall out first on the Lower Yough Guide Escorted Tour. We should have placed bets, because at launch Kelly took a spill right into the water, then teammate Lizzie followed next just over the Cucumber rapid. Other than that our technique seemed good at best. We handled each rapid along The Loop just fine, splashed eachother, and listened to the commands of our captains, who yelled “two knots to the right, three knots to the left.”

The guides hollered for us to pull in for lunch, paddling works up quite an appetite. We got out of our rafts, Kelly fell into the water again. We enjoyed a deli lunch, shivered in the shade, then met the guides to launch off again. I should have sensed at this point that the rapids of Ohiopyle had more in store for us. The guides warned us about the upcoming rapid, Dimple, and to pull no stops in conquering this whitewater beast. Here we go!

Captains Log: The adrenaline set in as soon as we approached the beast. The force of the whitewater pushed our raft vertical, as the guide on the rock screamed “ALL LEFT!” Our group of five quickly jumped to the left side and it felt like ages as we were hung up on the rock. Our teammate Kim was half out of the raft at this time and as we pulled away from the rock, she dropped into the water. Without hesitation our teammates reached in and pulled her into the safety of the raft. Phew! Kim lost her shoe and her paddle. As we made our way towards shore to wait for the other rats, we saw more paddles floating by, as well as teammates from other rafts. Dimple is no joke.


Once we all regained our composure it was off again, to complete our journey. Since overcoming Dimple, we felt like experts on the remaining rapids. We all felt a sense of accomplishment at take out, and there before us on the rock was Kim’s shoe. We celebrated, high fives all around, while legs and arms shaky from the great exercise. We carried our rafts up the hill to the bus and made our way back on a chatter-filled school bus. It was such a great day! We asked Kelly, “next year how would you like to celebrate”? Kelly batted her eyes and said, “How about skydiving?”

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