If it's Sunday, it must be whitewater rafting. What a whirlwind schedule we have planned for Connor's visit! So yesterday Connor and I (Marie opted out) moseyed up to the Taos County line - I say moseyed because we didn't have to meet up with our rafting party until 1:45 pm - that's PM. I had booked our trip with Kokopelli Rafting after speaking to the owner on the phone, and my choice turned out to be a good one. We met up with our fellow rafters and guide and piled into a van for the ride up to Pilar, where our trip would commence. Once there, we were told not to bring anything along that we "didn't want to give up to the river". Since my camera was NOT one of those things, I was limited to taking photos before and after.
Our rafts were ready and waiting for us as our guide took care of last minute preps.
The peacefulness of the river belied what awaited us.
Our first order of business was getting outfitted with life vests and helmets. Add whitewater helmets to the long list of dorky headgear (bike helmets, hiking hats, etc) in dire need of a fashion intervention. I'll let Connor model for you.
As usual, he took it all in stride and instantly made a new friend.
At that point the camera went into the backpack, the backpack went into the van and we all paid attention to the safety talk. Most of it addressed what to do if you or someone else fell overboard; just as important was how to keep that from happening. Turns out that you sit on the sides of the raft with one foot wedged under the cushion in front of you and the other wedged under the one behind you. The idea is that you could lean all the way back horizontal and not fall out of the raft.
Soon we piled into the raft - Connor and the lone woman in our boat wanted front row, so I sat directly behind Connor. Our guide was a bit concerned about Connor being in front, since those positions set the cadence for the paddling and have the most influence on the direction of the raft. Connor was the youngest in the raft by at least 15 years, not to mention he's just coming off a broken arm. Not to worry - he did great and it was never an issue. After a bit of practice at paddling and following orders, we were off. I immediately found a big disadvantage to Connor being in front of the raft - every wave that hit us from the front washed right over him and nailed me! Did they say we were going to get wet? You betcha!
We were on the river for around an hour and 15 minutes, traveling about 5 miles. Whitewater rapids are rated on a scale from Class I to Class V, with V being the most difficult; we encountered a mix of Class II and Class III, with one Class III+ thrown in. There was plenty of action for Connor's first whitewater experience, and he had a ball. The last half mile or so was dead into wind gusts of over 40 mph, and we paddled our butts off. We were soaked to the bone, and Connor was shivering big time. But once we got our life vests off, the wind and low humidity had us dried off in no time. Chips, salsa, oranges, sodas and ... OREOS awaited us on shore. Connor introduced everyone to oreos dipped in salsa - actually there were no takers - and everyone eventually drifted off to their cars.
Connor noticed some kids playing in the river at the bottom of the boat ramp, and decided to join them. There was a nice calm pool of water and an island to wade to.
Eventually there were several kids, a parent or two, a couple of dogs splashing around - as I sat watching, I had one of those out of body experiences where you feel like you're watching a movie, and everything kind of slows down. It was magical.
At one point a little Hispanic girl came up to me and asked why I wasn't in the water - "It's warm!" So I stepped into the movie and waded in myself. Even better.
Soon we had to head back to Santa Fe, but not before driving back upstream to check out a few things. First was a visit to our biggest rapids, which had quite a drop to it.
Next we drove to a part of the river with an interesting story. When we rafted through this part, our guide pointed out that the river was constricted by big boulders here, causing it to speed up. The boulder on the left in the picture below had crashed down from the cliffs across the river, bounced off the road and landed on the opposite shore.
Connor wanted to see where the road had been repaired. You can also see the path the boulder took coming down the mountain.
On our way back to Santa Fe, we were amazed by the extent of the smoke from the Pacheco wildfire. The wind gusted up to 50 mph most of the day on the ridgetops, and the fire exploded from 900 to 3000 acres. When the wind blows that hard, fires expand quickly via crowning - the fire leaps along the tops of the trees - and spotting, where the wind blows embers far ahead to ignite additional areas. The fire was burning so intensely that the smoke plume rose 30,000 feet in the air.
So far the fire has been a source of interest and excitement for us, but no threat. It's heading for the Pecos Wilderness and, at this time, poses no threat to Santa Fe. It is, however, a reminder how dry this area is and how susceptible it is to man-made and natural ignition. Unfortunately, most of the fires in Arizona and New Mexico this year have been caused by humans. The huge Wallow fire in Arizona was caused by an untended campfire. I understand John McCain is blaming fires in Arizona on illegal immigrants. Turns out the Track fire near Raton, NM was caused by exhaust from an ATV that was trespassing on railroad land. Perhaps we should ban ATV's. Another fire in New Mexico was caused by overheated vehicle brakes. Perhaps we should outlaw brakes on vehicles. And so it goes.
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