One of the great things about summer, is the opportunity to be outdoors. We have not had many chances this summer with all the rain, but today we went white water rafting. We were going rain or shine, but thankfully it was the latter. About 2 hours from Sherman is the little town of Hartford, TN. It is home to several rafting companies, but the company of choice for our adventure was Rapid Expeditions. I would highly recommend this company to anyone looking to go white water rafting! The trip took about 1.5 hours from start to finish going down the Upper Pigeon River. Rapids ranged from class one to class four. I have included a chart that describes how rapids are classified for those that don't know.
- Class 1: Very small rough areas, requires no maneuvering. (Skill Level: None)
- Class 2: Some rough water, maybe some rocks, small drops, might require maneuvering. (Skill Level: Basic Paddling Skill)
- Class 3: Whitewater, medium waves, maybe a 3–5 ft drop, but not much considerable danger. May require significant maneuvering. (Skill Level: Experienced paddling skills)
- Class 4: Whitewater, large waves, long rapids, rocks, maybe a considerable drop, sharp maneuvers may be needed. (Skill Level: Advanced Whitewater Experience)
- Class 5: Whitewater, large waves, continuous rapids, large rocks and hazards, maybe a large drop, precise maneuvering. Often characterized by "must make" moves, i.e. failure to execute a specific maneuver at a specific point may result in serious injury or death. Class 5 is sometimes expanded to Class 5+ that describes the most extreme, runnable rapids (Skill Level: Expert)
Afterwards we went for a 3 mile hike round trip to the night whole. The night whole has crystal clear freezing cold mountain water with a couple of 10 ft rocks that people jump off. Fellow adventures Ryan Burkhart, Brad Marx, Chad Janes, Meagin Sumrall, and Paige Sigmon all jumped, but I like the old saying if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you go too? My answer is no! I think summer quarter might be the hardest not because the classes, but because I am less motiviated to study when we have long summer days and I want to be outside. Oh well, it was nice to enjoy this weekend before the class load gets to heavy. Monday is the start of another week, and time to get back to work.
