Last weekend I went on a whitewater rafting adventure on the Nahatlatch river with my nephew. I felt the need to get away from the crap that bogs down our lives and really experience life and nature the way we should be, and have been meaning to do this for many years as it was an incredible experience the last time I went rafting on the Nahatlatch river at the awesome REO resort in Boston Bar, BC.
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The reason this river is so fantastic for rafting is it’s like it was perfectly designed as a natural amusement park, gradually building in excitement with more intense sections of rapids and natural obstacles… I can’t really describe it more than that, you just have to escape and do it for yourself!

We had a little more adventure than planned this time on the river though, being that the river water levels are starting to drop. There are a lot of rocks showing in the river, but the rafts usually slide around them or over. But in a section of particularly rapid whitewater, we slid sideways up a large rock, and instead of sliding down, the raft stayed on the rock and the right side began filling with water rapidly. The rafts have a brilliant water drainage system preventing them from filling, but the river was so fast in this part, 50 tons of water coming at the boat, that it was totally pinned against the rock. As soon as this happened, the guide told us to jump left, which in this case meant hanging off the side of the boat so as not to be swept away by the river. Our guide, Cody, suggested people either get in the front of the boat, or get up onto the rock which I did somehow. He couldn’t latch his line onto the side of the boat in the water though to pull it back out, and it was looking bleak. All the other rafts had passed us by now, so there weren’t many rescue options. Suddenly, he was able to move the front of the raft enough for the rapids to grab the front of the boat, and we had a split second to jump into the boat, or be left in the middle of the rapids on a rock, having to later float down, bouncing in between rocks! I opted for jumping, but neither of us made it into the boat, and ended up hanging on the side as it went down the river. Luckily, safety training paid off and one of my crew mates pulled me in, and we were off again, but with only half of our paddles!

The other 5 rafts said we put on quite a show, and all were talking about, including the guides. This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often usually in rafting, and I was glad to have had the experience and come out of a situation that in the moment, I could see no easy outcome for.

I highly recommend next summer you take a whitewater rafting trip, on the right river, it is the most fun and exciting thing I can say I have ever experienced. I’m committing to go more regularly, so if your game, get in touch.