Upper Trinity

Our trip started out today with another episode of “its a small world.”  We met our guide/raft/etc at the Big Flat take out point and  were joined by a father/son duo on an adult male walk-about. Where are they from?  Eden Prairie, MN.

The put in was at Pigeon Point.

where we were able to start right away with brisk water

This section of the river has a number of Class I rapids, some lovely sections of Class II and then there are some Class III rapids (which is my limit as you might have guessed). I have this thing about staying in the freaking raft. If I wanted to go swimming – I would go swimming. I am going rafting. That involves rafts, paddles and forward motion, not bobbing around like a cork, hitting rocks and finding out that river water is not breathable.

Again, left the good camera in favor of risking the cell phone inside our water proof bag inside the guide’s waterproof bag. His seventh year on this river, Teamo’s family has apple orchards where he spends most of the rest of the year. As it turns out, there is an extremely high demand for some one good at pruning commercial apple trees.

raft, guide protected from the sun and a bit of gear

Part way down the river we stopped to make a climb up to a small water fall:

Then there was the Class III rapid referred to as Hell’s Hole.  The photos were taken from the road bed above after the fact. We were a bit too busy at the time to even think about risking cameras…..

which doesn’t do it justice

that drop is about 2 meters

which means that there is a lot of air below the raft at the “tipping downwards point.” With lots of enthusiasm nowhere near as much skill we brushed the left side as we launched down. The front two guys went for a swim and George landed over on my right side of the raft attempting to add me to the water as well. I managed to stay in, shoving him back. He lost his paddle. Past the eddies, we pulled to the side and reboarded the two guys and three paddles….

Lunch after that was anti-climatic.

lovely rollups, fresh fruit

I think we were all pretty tired once back at the pull-out point having only a few Class II and one good Class III after that on the journey.

Our evening was quiet – a stop at Bigfoot Books where an incredible number of books are crammed and piled into what I think was once a house and dinner at the local Bigfoot Dinner.

China Creek Cottages

FYI – my preferred method of camping…