gqlamoreaux

Gene and I just went on a short camping trip this past Friday thru Sunday. It actually was a Whitewater rafting trip through a remote river canyon on the Upper Cache Creek in Northern California. Its about two hours Northeast of San Francisco, out past Vallejo. Upper Cache Creek is a river that runs thru a steep canyon, and consequently mountains, that was pretty nice to float thru on the Raft. We went with my group of friends and there were 19 of us in all that managed to make it up for the trip.

The normal trip was supposed to be from Saturday morning to Sunday evening, but Gene and my friend Sarah and I decided to go up there the night before and camp over on Friday night as well. It was just us and a few others there the first night. It was hot but it was beautiful and quiet.

Saturday morning after an orientation we were off for a fun-filled day of adventure on the river.

Our raft had Me, Gene, Sarah, Marie and her husband Trung. I sat on the left side of the raft, Marie was on the other side of me, Trung is behind me and Sarah on the other side of Trung and Gene was in the back doing all the padding and attempting to control the direction of our raft.

Some of the comments of the website selling the trip are “There were various birds of prey and a host of other wildlife that make their home in and around the river banks. The majestic canyon walls towering above us are actually million year old tilted sea beds carved by molten lava from the Mt. Konocti eruption during prehistoric times. We were venture through rapids such as Widow Maker, The Elevator, Mad Mike, Mario Andretti, and many other thrilling rapids.”

Lunch was served as a riverside picnic with hard crusty rolls and some turkey slices and cheese slices… also some bags of chips.

Oh, did I mentrion that the Upper Cache Creek is a class 3 whitewater run through a volcanic canyon, mostly accessible only by water. (meaning we put in and theres no way to get to those on the river unless they also put in up stream and flow down to the place you are located at, there are only some 2-3 places where one can put into the river.) We were pretty good on most of the rapids that we went through. There were a couple times that Gene got thrown out of the raft. We went thru the class 3 rapid (called “the mother”) just fine even though it was pretty scary and then when we were almost to the last part of the journey where the river was mostly calm and we thought “glad we made it thru the tuff part ok, must be smooth sailing from here to the take out location” Boy we were wrong, there was a another rapid that we didn’t see, our raft went into the rapid sideways with only Gene trying to straighten our raft out to go into the rapid bow first, but it was too late. I saw Gene flew past me into the river and I was pulled under right below him. Next thing I knew my head went down into the river. I turned myself upright and hit the raft, I tried to find something to grap a hold on, but I could not and I drank so much water. I was in the rapids undercurrent that I could not get out of. I tried to pull myself out but the current kept me under and tossed me into a circle and was banging me against the rocks underwater... I started to panick, drowning thoughts running through my mind and I was thinking that I could not die like this I have to see my kids again....So I fought harder and I got my head out of the water for just a little bit so I could gasp for a little air before the current pulled me right back into the water.

This time I use the rest of the strenght that I got left in me, I used my arms and my knees to push against the rock and was able to get out of that current and bobbed to the surface to sorta float exhaustedly down the river.

Meanwhile Gene and my friends were worried that I did not come up after we all got thrown off the raft. I was under that current for at least 30-45 seconds (tho it felt like 2-3 minutes or longer). Gene tried to swim against the river current to get to me, but the river current was too strong for him to do that. I saw Gene standing trying to hold the raft and himself in place while I tried to swim to him....and I did and he pushed me up into the raft....my knees were bruised up pretty good from banging against the rock and got ragged from swimming to Gene.

At day's end we were rejoined with the group at our campsite. Here we could take a nature hike, explore the abundant wildlife, play horseshoes, basketball, volleyball, though most of us just relaxed around the camp, sharing our day's adventures with each other.

Dinner was a first-class feast served in a tiki-torch setting. (tho it being the longest day of the year, there was no need for the torches) Our dinner choices consisted of a mesquite grilled NY steak, a free range breast of chicken, or a veggie burger, with a 1 lb Idaho baked potato, sweet corn on the cob, pasta, sauteed mushrooms, artichoke hearts, fresh sourdough french bread, shrimp and spinach dip, guacamole and chips, also a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese and tons of appetizers all served under the stars, or at least that was the marketing tagline haha. The steaks were pretty tuff from being overcooked but fortunately Gene and I had the Chicken, and the potatoes and corn were good. Better than what we’d expect for only $145/person two day rafting trip.

The canyon evening at our riverside camp was very pleasant and starlit with nothing but the whisper of the water to lull you to sleep. At least that was the first night. The second night with all those who came up for the 2day trip was much more riotous as the entire field was populated with tents for all that came to camp.

Day Two:
We awoke on the second day to crisp morning air and a hot breakfast of eggs with ham and the leftover potatoes from the night before having been turned into hash browns. They also had granola, fresh strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, rolls and pastries with juice, coffee, hot cocoa, tea, apple cider and milk though the hot water went to fast and we missed out on a hot cocoa.

Given the events of the day prior, both Sarah and myself were exhausted and somewhat intrepid as to what we might experience on this second day on the river. I did not have the strenght to go on the second day trip. We decided to forego the second half of the rafting trip and head home early. All in all it was a good experience as we had a nice time with all the group who came and found out how badly out of shape we all were.

For picture of our trip please see the link on the right corner below About Me.