Nenana River, Alaska

[grizz1]

This was actually the first thing we did after arriving in the Denali region. In all these pics I'm sitting in the back with my wife hanging on for dear life, while our friend is in the front with some young women from China. I got an older dry suit and Jake our guide apologized later for the mistake but the cuffs would not seal on the gloves, so the first wave we hit filled my gloves full of water. Problem with that was the water temperature was 36 degrees, the air temps were 39 and it was raining and 11 miles to go downriver. This was as cold as I've been since last winter bowhunting but back home I would have been able to do something about it, on this day, kinda had to ride it out.

You probably won't see any big smiles on my face in these pics, heck I'll admit it, was a little scary for this old land lover.

In the case of white water rafting, as long as it is full of air, what goes down will come back up , sometimes nearly straight up, so you just hang on to that dang rope. Reminded me of my bull riding days as a teenager except for the 36 degree water.

[Kt29]

Some great pics here Steve.  Who was taking the pics?  I'd say from the looks of things, it was really exciting.  Must say, I'd probably be the one sitting on shore taking pics.  Burr,  good thing you all didn't get dumped.

[grizz1]

Well Terry to tell the truth, the rafting company had a guy waiting for us at one point and he shot them with a 100-400. We bought the photos on a flash drive and the rights with them. I took a water proof disposable with me and shot until it was empty, hard to get quality pics though with water on the lens most of the trip.

Toward the very end of our trip I asked our guide Jake if the reason for turning sideways after going through a rapids was for catching people from the raft behind us and he said it definitely was the case. There were two rafts on this run, those following us were paddling themselves. Jake said it was easier for a raft downstream to throw a line to someone then it was to keep up with a person that fell from your raft. That made me feel even better knowing I was in the first raft, so there was no one waiting for Grizz if I fell out. Jake said he averages about 6 people a year that fall or are thrown out but so far no serious injuries.