Photo #6/17 - Our river guide, a girl from Santa Cruz,
snapped this pic. She was a real Santa Cruzian - hairy armpits and all. =) She
seemed to like Lani.
I got bounced out of the raft on the first rapid - aptly named The Rock Garden - 1st and only time I had this happen. We hit a big rock just as I reached to paddle. Ba-da-boom -> next thing i know my feet are up over my head & I'm splashing in the cold water. I musta landed on a rock, cuz the back of my left, upper-thigh had a nasty bruise the size of a grapefruit & I walked with a little limp. Wendy said that she woulda been proud of a bruise like that.
One old, gramma rafted down with us - took her 15-yr-old grandson. She got bounced out on a gnarly rapid, but was cool. They teac you to align yourself feet first and that you wanna be able to see your toes - never try to stand up, cuz that's how legs gets snapped -> you stand up & legs get wedged in underwater rocks/logs -> force of the water pushes you over & -> suh_nap! When you get bounced out of the raft, they call you a swimmer and they toast you during the dinner that night.
Olga, a Russian girl from Siberia with arms the size of my legs, ran the oar-boat with the food. Olga snapped two oars in a nasty rapid like they were toothpicks. She said, 'This would not have happened with Russian oars; American oars break too easy." =)
Next photo, #7/17 -> Campsite at Yosemite Creek campground