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Shawn took the boys rafting while he was here visiting us.  They opted to raft the upper part of the South Fork of the Payette River in Idaho.  As you can see from the pictures it is a bit more exciting that the middle fork of the Payette River which is what we floated down in my last post.  Can you tell that Jarom and Logan are in the front and Shawn and the guide are in the back?

They decided to do the upper part of the river, because it has class 4-5 rapids instead of the lower part with 2-3 class rapids.  They invited me along, but I politely declined on behalf of my younger children who still need at least one parent alive to take care of them.

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Yep, that’s Shawn going in the water head first!

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They had a great time and said it wasn’t as scary as the pictures make it seem.  They did have to get out of the raft at one point though, and portage (walk) around some waterfalls.  Also, Shawn was not hurt when he went head first into the water, (pause for a special thank you to Jarom for pulling him back into the boat.)  Shawn said that as soon as he went into the water, the lines from the safety video they watched with the guides before setting out, came immediately to his mind, “You are responsible for saving yourself.”  And, I’m certainly glad he did just that by feeling his way out from under the boat and getting to where Jarom could pull him up.  There are kyakers following the raft and they along with the guides do the best they can to help rescue you, but they want you to do all you can to help yourself as well.

Photos courtesy of the rafting company.  The rafting company said I could go out with the camera crew and take pictures if I wanted to, which would have been fun, but I really didn’t have the right equipment and I didn’t want to leave the younger kids all day.  When I saw the pictures of Shawn going in the water I was glad I hadn’t been there to witness it first hand, I would have freaked out, especially since I wouldn’t have been able to help.

They all said it was a great experience, and would do it again in a heartbeat.  I, on the other hand, will stick to the middle fork.

 

 

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