the next morning, we were woken up to the sounds of many birds chirping in various chirps and squeaks, got the Ace breakfast buffet (too much food) and went to the raft area. the Trip leader was kind of funny with the instructions, so if you get thrown in the water do the following once you emerge up
1. take a big breath, 2 wipe your boogers (there is a photographer), lift your legs,, the rest of the boring stuff.
we were in a raft with 5 guys on a bachelor party, no stripper on the boat and the 1st calmer par began, some nice rapids and a lot of easy sailing. after healthy burger lunch.. oh almost forgot, there was a rock, called jump rock, about 10 ft high and you can jump to the rushing river from it, I love these things.. back to the burger, it was too close to the 2nd part with many fun rapids class 3,4, and 5. in some of the smaller rapids we were allowed to leave the boat and swim through the rapid, that is fun, but not so much when your rafting partner stays on the raft with the guide, chatting and distracting her making her and the boat land on my head! after 2 seconds of underwater panic and not very clean water down my throat I emerged from the side of the boat rasping for air. the rest of the rapid swim were safer as i made sure to say away from the boat. the rapids were great, just scary enough to keep us paddling and obeying the guides orders. after one big rapid we picked up a rafter from another raft that fell over board, their boat completely flipped. in our group of 4 boats, 3 people fell over, (the flipped boat was from another company). we tried raft surfing (new activity:) you bring the raft to an eddy , keep it here and the raft kind of glides and half of it is filled with water, nice thing, but I was on the side edging down and actually started to fall over, i would have fallen over but tony, the guy on the other side also fell, inwards and landed on my legs, keeping me in the boat. we also tried the princess. since we were 7 people + the guide, the person on the back seat next to the guide is redundant, but what you can do is to go forward, kneel down, lifting your hands to the side, like the titanic scene (this is how it got the name princess, though not sure why, there is no princess in that scene) and this is really fun, staring the rapid in the white of the white water.
on the way the guide told us that once she had a rafter asking her weather the green you see upwards was mountains (which are covered in trees) or really tall trees , some idiots are born to fall off the boat.
after the day trip ended, we went on a pig out session, dinner buffet, they actually roasted a whole pig, with the snout, hooves and everything, there was also chicken, ribs, a huge leg of cow (roast beef) but they had the hooves in there, after pigging out we crashed to sleep.
the next morning we got up early to the sounds of birds.. and went repelling and climbing. we got a private group tour, since we were the only people to sign up. this guide was also funny.
we have 3 kinds of poisonous plants here , poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac, if you don't know what they look like, don't touch anything green, don't touch the moving sticks (snakes).
I repelled once before and recall that being the most extreme activity ever (scarier then bungee and sky diving), something to do with trusting that thin rope. I was scared here as well but some how not as much. I hugged the tree while the guide was hooking me up to the ropes, i tugged a few times to test the ropes. in the repelling I did before, i went 2nd, I don't want to be the one testing the ropes, but now I was and few nervous seconds ended with the rush of being suspended in mid air. we repelled a couple times and then went for the climb. Now the one that roped me in went first and was height jittery which slowed here down, and slow is bad in climbing since you get super tired very fast, I had a long time to observe where to hold and what not to do, and Alla made it almost to the top. I was breathing hard all the way and tried hard not to use my hands as much as possible (its not really possible) and made it to the top, a great feeling. we repelled again then i tried a harder wall, I made it passed the 1st big hurdle, you have to push against the wall to climb up on something and made it 2/3 of the way up but I had not energy for the other hurdle, legs shaking, hands stiff, no air ... we'll have to come back again for this wall. after this climb my arms were cramped , but the spirit was high, we returned to camp for a healthy lunch that did not include a burger , packed the tent, and then went to the lake, this resort has a tiny lake , big pond actually filled with various floating fun devices for kids and those with kid spirit. they are slides, trampolines, swings, all on the water and all hard to climb, some with foot holds for kids sizes, some with high hand holds in which you have to pull yourselves upwards. after the repelling with our sore arms, this proved difficult, but we pulled through and jumped from various devices in to the water. they also have special devices, a fun zip line into the water, a very big slide made of some fabric that ends 2 meters over the lake so you have a nice plunge after the sliding part and a blob. the blob is a big cushion. you jump on it from 10 feet high, then crawl to the end, and the next person jumps on the blob, the force of the land launches the other person into the water, you are suppose to land on your butt for maximum launching speed but for what ever reason i was unable to do so, i like landing on my feet, twice i landed and slid to the water and the last try i landed feet first but enough to launch my co pilot into the lake.
after over 2 hours of lake jumping and kidding around, we left this great resort and drove back through one of the gems of west Virginia, summer vile and decided that this gem was fake. not quaint at all.
that was a fun weekend and a great 42nd state... Next on the list Montana in august...
cheers and have a happy Jerusalem day
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