Wild, whitewater adventure awaited us as I and several friends awoke from our campground slumber on a June whitewater Wednesday to raft the New River. It's been a few years, but I remember it like it was yesterday. It had rained torrents the night before, and the New River had swelled to a gushing seven feet. Not deep by many standards, but for the New it meant we were in for some big waves. We could tell from the exuberance displayed in the eyes of the guides, for even they knew they were in for a ride that day.
After a hearty breakfast, we were bused to the launch site where we received instructions and another reminder that we were in for a good ride today. Myself, my three friends, and another couple were grouped in a 14-foot raft with a great guide. The first words out of his mouth were, "are you the gung-ho group?" to which we quickly replied that we were all novices, since we had already overheard that "gung-ho" meant to raft the most challenging route through a rapid. Being beginners, we weren't quite ready to volunteer.
As we pushed out into the river, our apprehension soon dissipated in the calm upper portion of the New River. Our first fun was at Jump Rock, where we all took a swim and jumped off this rock that many of you may have seen in some TV commercials. We were now acclimated to the water and heading down stream to our first rapid, Surprise. And a surprise it was, for we could hear it up stream, but we couldn't see much, that is until we were right up on it. Our guide was yelling, "paddle, paddle" as the first wave sent us air-borne, and I turned to see our guide sitting on an imaginary seat some two feet above the raft, his paddle stroking furiously, which he later explained is what kept him in the raft.
We ate a great shore lunch prepared by our outfitters (we went with Ace Whitewater), before heading down stream to even more heart pounding rapids. As we skimmed its brink, Greyhound Bus Stopper, a huge siphoning funnel, jerked our raft hard towards its suck hole, but we skated through as we were all paddling hard to the drone of our guide's persistent "paddle, paddle, paddle!" In the calm below the rapid we all raised our paddles in a high-five salute to rejoice our successful navigation of a "gung-ho" route. Yup, our guide had tricked us, as he smiled and said to us, "I thought you didn't want to gung-ho?" From that point on we said, "hey, take us wherever you want," and he did, and we had a wonderful adventure!
Our trip ended at New River Gorge Bridge, where we loaded up the bus and headed back to the outfitters to review pictures and movies taken during the trip and to relive the day once more before departing for home. I wish I could remember our guide's name. Besides being an excellent oarsman, he knew the history and folklore of the mountains and kept us in fits with all his jokes, all of which added to the overall enjoyment of the trip.
It doesn't matter whether you are into primitive camping, the convenience of llama trekking, advanced sport climbing, rugged hiking or mountain biking, excellent bass and trout fishing, or some of the best whitewater paddling in the country, you'll find that the New River Gorge has something for you. To make plans for a West Virginia outdoor adventure, check out the Web site:
