Our Vow To Rally!

June 21st, the summer solstice...and, more importantly, the day of our 2nd annual rafting trip down the Stanislaus River. I tell people, "we're going white water rafting." But really it is considered a still water beer guzzling. We camped at Moccasin Point by Don Pedro lake on an insanely hot weekend (temps reached 106). Nick and I arrived on Friday afternoon, he set up everything while I complained about how much this weather sucked. I used to think I just hated the cold weather but now I am starting to think I am just "temperature sensitive." He was very sympathetic and let me sit there in my misery.

Nick's college friends arrived later in the evening. Wally, Jessica and Jeff all arrived in good spirits and somewhere in the middle of a cooler of beer we all promised to "rally" after the rafting trip the next day...

The boat consisted of Nick & me, Wally & Jessica, Brie, Melisa & Daniel and Jeff. We lost Melisa within the first 10 minutes, just as we were preparing (securing our beers) for the only Class II rapid on the river. Daniel made his first rescue of the day by pulling her into the boat just in time for the photographer to capture the beginning of the end for boat #133. It took us 3 hours and 5 minutes to float the first 4 miles of the river. At lunch, we learned to shotgun beers, and ate food that was really bad for us. We lost 2 rowers, to "heat exhaustion", we had to continue the trip without them. For being a notoriously weak rower, I found it deep down inside, the ability to pound through the last 4 miles. We only stopped to chug, to drag our draper's and have Daniel push us over the rocks and out of the branches that hindered our progression. We managed to finish the last 4 miles of our trip in just under 90 minutes!

Our Vow to Rally!

Everybody pulled through the day! We bought more beer in Chinese Camp. Some popped No-Doz and drank Red Bull. And while I ate myself out of the alcohol coma, everyone managed to rally through the night! I cannot wait for the 3rd Annual.

It was an amazing weekend! Paddle on my friends...