Tag Archives: man about river

Man About River by Ken Thibado

Meaty, beaty, big & bouncy: Locals raft adventure comes in waves

I’d never been whitewater rafting before and the invitation took me completely by surprise.

A.R.O. Adventures was offering a “Locals Day” package to Old Forge. Our last-minute crew consisted of ring-leaders Brita Down & Doug Markel, Brian Morgan, Kathy Rivet and myself.

As luck would have it our A.R.O. guide was John Eddy, also of Old Forge.

The picture of our party of five, snapped on Brita Down’s “Bad Ass Blackberry,” shows us strapped into our wet suits and life jackets.

We appear confident and ready, having just been lectured on the possible perils of rafting and what to do should we be ejected from the boat and sent on our own “mini-adventure.”

This term “mini-adventure” would be referenced regularly throughout the trip by our guide, John Eddy.

John would remind us each time we entered a new set of large rapids, where the possibility of winding up in the savage stew became a distinct reality.

Intrepid Architect Brian Morgan and myself shared the front of the raft, becoming the hood ornament of our craft as we slammed our way down a small stretch of The Indian River and into The Hudson.

The five of us laughed and screamed at the huge waves that would erupt in front of us.

Craters opened beneath the raft, and we would plunge down into them, all while our guide hollered instructions.

Spring is “big water” season, and the weather provided us with huge rapids.

Our raft rumbled through Class III rapids and was up-ended in a particularly frothy stretch of Class V whitewater about two thirds of the way through the 17 mile trip.

Happily, no one was seriously injured and we all washed up on the same side of the river.

Our guide and I had managed to haul in our upturned raft and anchor it, and ourselves, by the side of a large boulder in shallow water.

The search for our party was brief—three of us had washed up just beyond the raft.

A quick and nervous search for missing restaurateur Kathy Rivet found her wide-eyed and smiling safely behind us in a small pool.

With our innocence lost, we continued our excursion.

We joked our way through the lingering effects of having been whirled through a mini-adventure.

And then, for good measure, we dabbled with what our guide called a “meaty hole” in the last of the whitewater we would see that day.

Having been assured that we had experienced some of the meanest water in the Adiron-dacks, the rafting company rewarded us with a barbecued meal.

Safe and dry, we swapped rafting stories with other Old Forge area locals, relating our particular tale of visiting the bottom side of the Hudson.

Now bonded by white water, we drove back to Old Forge, making plans to return and challenge the rapids again as representatives of the area next Spring.

You can rapidly write to Ken Thibado at HalfStache@me.com

Share Button