Humble Pie

I've never flipped a raft before. Well at least I don't remember flipping one. I've paddled a little bit of white water in rafts, but for the most part when I've been in the rough stuff, it's been in a duckie or a shredder and usually alongside someone that was better at paddling than me. A duckie is an inflatable kayak and a shredder is pretty much a catamaran that is made for white water and you can turn it on a dime. I remember getting pinned on the Meat Cleaver on the Upper Yough and swimming in a hole below a certain falls called, well I won't name it here, because it's not proper. But pretty much every rock and rapid on any adventure filled river has a name.

By now you're probably thinking that I flipped a raft recently and you're probably right.

Last week Jenelle and I took the kids on a rafting trip. It was a Christmas gift for the kids. Each Christmas we try to throw in a surprise family experience for the kids gifts and this year it was white water rafting. And since you don't do whitewater in December, last week was the time. 

Here was the plan.

We would camp in Ohiopyle State Park on Father's Day and then on Monday we would head down to the river and take a day trip down the Lower Yough. Jenelle thought we could just rent a raft and do it ourselves but I didn't agree. I really hadn't been paddling any whitewater in a long while. According to my kids that was way back in the nineteen hundreds! Even though we are on the water a good bit in our canoes, there's a big difference between a little ripple on a river and a class three+ rapid followed by several drop offs with boulders strewn about, and so I felt that we should get a guide. We came to an agreement somewhere in between those two. We would rent a raft and I would be the guide in our boat, but we'd be with a guided trip, so there would be other guides in the other boats plus a couple of safety guys for throwing ropes and pulling us out of the drink if need be and the master guide  would be in a kayak, forging ahead and showing us where to go. 

We put Caleb and Aiyana in the front since they would be our two power houses and pull us forward when needed. Jenelle and Blake would take the middle two slots and I would steer and try to guide the boat from the back.

We started out great! On the first rapid the kids didn't seem to mind my instructions very well but we made it through just fine. My "right side, two strokes forward" command seemed to fall on deaf ears. The kids must have known what they were doing and didn't need my instructions. I've been accused of being overly dramatic in the past and worrying too much about the little things and maybe this was one of those days! So I didn't get too excited when the kids in front ignored my commands. After all, they were pretty much adults, or at least in a few more years and a couple hard knocks they would be. 

We paddled through a bunch of rapids and did fine. When we got to dimple rock and we saw the big yellow signs along the river that suggested not running the rapid, we talked it over with the master guide and he felt that we were doing good enough that we could make it. He also offered to get in our raft and guide us through if we wanted or we do as the sign suggested and portage. We decided to go for it by ourselves and after discussing and getting instructions from the master guide, we had a plan in place and felt like we were ready for the action. The kids did exactly like we planned and we made it through with no problems. Talk about a confidence boost. We were now invincible!

We ran through several more rapids. Once Aiyana fell out of the boat and another time we lost Caleb but each time we were able to pull them back in without too much of a swim. Sometimes it seemed like the kids didn't pay any attention to my commands. Other times it seemed like they were dead on. Some of the rapids were tougher and trickier than others and for those the guide gave us instructions ahead of time. On one particular rapid I thought for sure we were going in because everyone was in the middle of the boat and I pretty much steered and powered through with all of my strength. Some of the other boats didn't fare so well and as we sat below the rapids and watched for and tried to recover the paddles and carnage from the other rafts that came floating by, I started to feel good about my abilities and our accomplishment. One of the guides gave me a fist bump and said, "man, you could probably work for us if you wanted to". Talk about a stroke of the ego!

It was a fun trip. The water and the scenery, watching Jenelle and the kids jump off of a high rock wall into the river, paddling through the rapids and especially just being together with the whole family, the whole thing was great!

We kind of drifted behind the rest of the group. It was the last rapid of the day and right below it was the takeout. Our day was about over but many memories were made. As we approached the last rapid the master guide was standing on a rock and pointing which direction we should go. We probably should have stayed closer to the group so we could have been in on the discussion as the guide gave specific instructions about this particular rapid. Oh well, we would be fine! The guide was on a big rock in the middle of the river and pointing for us to paddle to the right. We headed to the rock and then steered to the right, no problem. From there the current continued to the right but kinda split around a rock called Pharaoh’s Tomb. The channel to the left of the rock looked too narrow for a raft but three hard forward strokes would pull us forward past Pharaoh’s Tomb and then we would turn and float down the gravy train to the takeout no problem. "Everyone forward three hard strokes”, I commanded! The raft seemed to stall and got sucked into the left side of the rock. The downstream side of the boat went up. The upstream side went down. "High side" I yelled. Jenelle said, "what." And then we were all in the drink with a giant raft bearing down on us and grinding us into the rocks. When I popped up all I remember seeing was that Aiyana and Blake were safe on a rock and Jenelle was beside me and she was about to get smacked into a rock. At the same time the raft smacked us again. When I popped up again, Jenelle was swimming in the slower section below the rapid and Caleb was holding on to the tail of the master guide's raft. Everyone was safe! I grabbed the raft and swam it to shore. Everyone cheered! Aside from some bruises and bumps we were all fine with the exception that I wasn't feeling quite so proud anymore. But the humble pie really wasn't that bad. After all, it was a great day and we were all safe.

As we were riding the bus back to the put-in, Blake mentioned that when I said forward hard, the two older kids just kinda sat there. I asked the kids why they didn't paddle. It seemed like they listened most of the other times. Aiyana and Caleb's reply, "What? You were giving instructions? We never heard a word you said".  Blake, who was sitting right in front of me, pretty much nailed it down. "You were talking so quietly that I could barely hear you either". 

I guess I wasn't quite as in charge as I thought I was. The kids pretty much knew what to do. On the toughest rapids they had listened to the master guide’s instructions and we did fine. On the easier ones, well it all turned out ok anyways. 

Pretty much all of our stories are that way every day.

By the time you get this Aiyana and Caleb will be with their youth group in Thailand in a town close to the Myanmar border. It's a crossroads of sorts where many different people groups cross the border into Thailand to get away from the brutal things that are happening in Myanmar. The kids will be working with our friends at Outpour, helping to bring hope and a future to those who come to them. There's a part of me that is so excited for them and the adventure that they're on. The other dad-side of me sometimes worries about them. I just want to keep them safe and wish that I could shout instructions to them and tell them to be safe. Of course we feel like we've left them in safe hands while traveling abroad. 

Looking back I'll be thankful for this rafting story.

It's good to know that someone a lot more trustworthy than me is in charge of their boat. And if things go wrong, there's that master guide that will keep things safe.

As the kids continue to grow up and start leaving the nest it feels good to me to know that they know that the best guide in the world isn't always the one in the back of your boat. And talking things over with the Master Guide is always the best way to go.

Have a safe trip!