Wilderness And Whitewater
Oh what a night! As promised in the Wikipedia definition of Altitude Sickness, the insomnia was relentless last night and we continued to feel the effects of the altitude sickness all through to the wee hours, only managing to sneak a couple of hours of sleep. It might have been my imagination but I was sure I could hear growling outside the door, which was also not very conducive to a sound slumber. We had left the heating on and were all sweating up a storm in our little log cabin. We dosed up on some more medication and hoped the headaches and headspins would settle down!
After some breakfast Ross, Sam, Molly and Maisy all started to pick up and it was just Toby and I that were dragging the chain in the recovery stakes. We popped in to South Park for a coffee in a very cute little old-fashioned coffee shop. Ross ordered his usual but this time was astonished to be handed back his huge take away “macchiato” topped with a tower of whipped cream and caramel sauce drizzled over the top. The only thing missing was the cherry. You just never know what to expect! Sam was salivating over his raspberry cheesecake milkshake and we were mesmerised by the delicious looking home made delights on offer in the cabinet. They had great big chocolate brownies, peanut butter cookies and a huge all-American looking apple pie, with thick lattice work pastry on the top, just like the ones Marion Cunningham used to put on the window sill to cool. We actually got out of there, with 6 drinks, 2 cookies and a lollipop for under $20!
On the road again, heading down the mountain slightly to Buena Vista, we were again amazed at the sense of space out here. There is green land and plains stretched out as far as you can see just with the occasional farm house (ranch) dotting the landscape. The sky seems so big as well and today it was dotted with fluffy cotton wool clouds. We were looking for shapes in the clouds as we drove and Molly came up with a bird, Toby a ship – just the usual things, when Maisy said she could clearly see “a man in a dress holding a crab claw” and “a dancing fish with sunglasses and a mohawk”. Got to love an 8 year old imagination!
We’d decided to get wet today and in order to get out amongst this beautiful part of God’s creation Ross had signed us up for a whitewater rapids adventure in Brown’s Canyon. He and Sam had been whitewater rafting in New Zealand and they wanted to show us how much fun it was. As you’ve probably guessed, being the adrenalin junkie that I’m not, I was a tad hesitant about the whole thing. I kept thinking, well if they’re letting Maisy come it can’t be TOO bad, right?
We had to get kitted out in our booties, helmets, life jackets and spray jackets – feeling like the Michelin Family – and then we boarded an old school bus to the place where the raft would be launched into the Arkansas River. We passed part of the river that looked to me like it was worthy of riding but the guide told us that was nothing and wasn’t even classified as rapids! Our guides were all great, and gave us the mandatory safety talk all about what to do if you fall out, get caught under a rock or hit a “strainer”! I was a little bit nervous before the safety talk but after the safety talk I was petrified! Our guide, the very buff, very capable Alan, assured us he knew exactly what he was doing and knew this river like the back of his hand (let’s just hope he was well-acquainted with his hands). He’d had an Australian girlfriend and had been to Australia 3 times so he had a soft spot for us. That was comforting.
Alan dished out his commands with military precision – FORWARD ONE (pronounced “FORD ONE”), FORWARD TWO, ONE MORE etc. He ran a tight ship (excuse the pun) and we were on fire, paddling our hearts out in perfect unison, even if we do say so ourselves. Alan kept an eye on Maisy and rigged something up for her to hang onto. She had also been a little hesitant beforehand but after we’d safely negotiated the first rapid she was hooting and hollering with the rest of us. It was actually so much fun (and only once or twice did I really think we were going to drown).
Each rapid had a name, some harmless ones like Red Ruby, Seven Steps, Canyon Doors 1 & 2 and then the ones that were a bit ominous like Raft Ripper, Widow Maker and Pinball! Alan gave us the heads up each time one was approaching and we had to wedge our feet in so tightly they went numb! We all got saturated, Sam and Ross our fearless leaders at the head of the raft copping the brunt of most of the whitewater. We took on one rapid backwards just so Maisy could get wet! There were some intense moments – like in the midst of Pinball – when the commands were coming ceaselessly,loud and strong and we were frantically going “ALL FORWARDS, ALL BACKWARDS, FORWARD TWO, ONE MORE, FORWARD ONE..!” all within a matter of seconds! Alan sure did know what he was doing, he wasn’t lying. We were whipping in and out of those rocks like a fiddler’s elbow! We were under the false illusion that we were the ones doing all the great work but it would be fair to say (an understatement) that Alan was holding up his end up the back of the boat! The 2 other boats in our “pod” were coming a cropper, getting smashed on the rocks and they had a few men overboard. I think we were really lucky to score Alan as our guide!
The canyon was absolutely stunning. It was like we were going through a ride in a theme park; it all looked too good to be true. There were soaring cliffs on either side of us that looked like boulders sitting on top of boulders. We were expecting the Road Runner and Coyote to pop out any moment! That’s EXACTLY what it looked like. We could’ve been on the set of a western movie! It was just gorgeous. There were fly fishermen on the side of the river, trout jumping and we even saw a guy prospecting for gold. An abandoned railway line ran along the length of the canyon and there were famous rocks that Alan pointed out along the way, like the Elvis Rock, Smokin’ Joe and the Sleeping Lion. We may have looked like drowned rats, with soggy booties and soggy boots but nothing could have dampened our spirits and we were on such a high afterwards!
Alan had suggested we get ourselves along to one of the hot springs here in Colorado. We all had visions of sitting around a little steaming pool in the wilderness, surrounded by tall pine trees, river stones forming a barrier around the springs… ahhh the serenity! It sounded like a great way to warm up. He’d also mentioned that the Princeton Mountain Springs had a waterslide. Huh? Oh, it must have been a natural slide, carved out of the rock. It was sounding even better. So it was with great surprise that we arrived there to find they had built 2 large concrete pools over the top of the natural springs and were simply pumping the spring water into these manmade resort pools! It didn’t quite fit our expectations. The pools were really hot and nice to swim in so we had a quick warm up and came back to the cabin. We asked about the waterslide but it was closing in 5 minutes and was a 10 minute walk up the hill!
Coming into our driveway, there seemed to be a big pile of something on our doorstep that hadn’t been there this morning. Molly loudly exclaimed “Is that SNOW??!! On closer inspection we realised she was right! There was much commotion indeed! Molly had seen snow quite recently but Sam’s last encounter with the cold white stuff was eleven years ago and he was struggling to remember it. Toby was just a baby back then so he’d never really seen it either. Maisy had always wanted to see snow so this was a dream come true! God had given us this random little patch of snow, literally right on the doorstep, in the middle of SUMMER! It was so exciting! Some hectic snowball fights followed and Sam even lay down and tried to make a snow angel! Maisy excitedly exclaimed that this was “the best day of her life!” Toby kept on going out and just touching it to make sure it was still there. He jumped in it and forgot how slippery it was, falling flat on his face! Molly suggested that watching Toby discover the joys of snow was like watching a baby discover something new for the first time. What a great day!
