Where I come from the snake refers to Jay “The Snake” Cutler, starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Here in Jackson, WY, it refers to a winding river that can be both tranquil and turbulent at the same time.
This morning we embarked on a whitewater rafting trip down eight miles of the Snake River. At the put-in point, the water was almost glassy in its calmness. The guide gave us and the other adventurers basic paddling and safety instructions that hardly seemed warranted. In fact, one paddler asked if we were going to get wet.
We didn’t have to wait long. Around the next bend were the first whitewater rapids, and our inflatable raft began to pitch as the guide called, “Paddle forward.” The idea is that the “guests” provide additional rowing power through the rapids as the guide, in the back of the raft, uses giant oars to keep us on course. Otherwise, instead of our being in charge the rapids take over and can push a raft into the wall of the canyon or onto some rock.
There are varying degrees of difficulty for whitewater rafting, ranging from one to six. Did I mention that Grade Six is so dangerous that rafts such as the one we were on would simply break apart in such waters? But since there were two small children on our raft, I assumed we wouldn’t be anywhere near a six.
In fact, because of the drought conditions the rapids we ran were graded no higher than three this summer. We’d seen more challenging waters when we were first introduced to whitewater rafting in Costa Rica. There we even wore helmets in addition to our life jackets. And the safety instructions were more detailed.
Nevertheless, it was a great way to spend a few hours in the outdoors. And, yes, we did get wet. Soaked, in fact.
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