Whitewater Rafting Research Paper

Jessica McDowell
Ms. Cohen
AP English: Language and Composition
25 September 2011
Please, Get a Guide Sometimes, a guide is needed, especially when you are going on a whitewater rafting adventure on which you have not been. Guides are paid to help you and other newcomers learn what to do. Without a guide, things can go wrong very quickly. One July Fourth, my family, a friend, and I were at my mountain house, as we are every July Fourth. A few years ago, we decided that we were going whitewater rafting down the Nantahala River, in Western North Carolina, on a category 3 course. It was a gorgeous day, but it had drizzled a little that morning; the temperature was perfect, around 70°. The sky was a beautiful Carolina blue and the
clouds were perfectly white. There was a little bit of a breeze, and all you could hear was the whistling wind and the song of the birds. This was the perfect day to be out on the water. There were five of us, so my father thought that we could all handle the new situation. After begging and pleading with my dad, he decided to go alone at this new, hard course. My friend, Laura Coker, my mom, and I were all upset by my dad’s decision, but my brother was content with it. We walked out of the building to get life jackets, paddles, and pick out our boat. We then got on a bus and rode for 30 minutes to the drop point. At the drop point, we carried the boat to the freezing cold water and had our final lesson. McDowell 2 We had finished the training and we were now on our own. Within the first hour, we got stuck on two rocks. Another raft had to hit our raft to get us off the rocks. This was not a good start to our fun day on the water. My brother had already started getting bored and complaining, making this trip so much worse. After about two hours, we saw this huge rock on the right side of the river.
It was coming out of the water about ten feet high and about fifteen feet wide. Somehow, we ended up on top of this rock. After about a minute, water started rushing in right where my little brother was sitting. I was right beside him, so when he started falling into the water, I leaned over to try to pull him back in. I was unsuccessful; I fell into the water on top of him and was about ten feet ahead of him within 30 seconds. My mother jumped in after us, but she could only get to my brother because he was closer and floating a lot slower than I was. My dad jumped out and ran up the bank of the river to get to the road so he could see where I was. Little to his knowledge, I was picked up after about 2 minutes by some complete stranger in a kayak and was heading down the river toward a little resting spot.
However, my friend was still in the raft. As soon as everyone else left the raft, she fell off the rock, started going very fast down the river, and passed me very quickly. We were both sobbing in hysterics. I was worried about my whole family, because I couldn’t see them and I was worried that one of them had drowned or gotten frostbite since the water was almost at
freezing.
Finally, I get to a raft with people from our group, but I had no clue who any of them were. I was weeping because I was so scared for my family. My mom and brother got in the boat shortly after I did. I have never been so happy to see them in my life. However, I saw my dad up at the road. He had seen Laura Coker and said that she was coming to the boat. On the way down the bank, he fell and I thought that he had really hurt himself. Thankfully, everyone was fine, just a little shaken up and very cold.
McDowell 3 They found the raft down the river and brought it back to us. This time when we got back in our raft, we had two paddles, for five people. We all knew that it was going to take a very long time to get to the end. One of the guides for another raft told us that there was an earlier place we could get out, but we would have to carry our raft about a quarter of a mile. At that point, no one really cared if we had to do anything after we got out of the water. Since we did not have enough paddles, we took turns paddling, but my dad was always steering. Another boat gave us one of their paddles so we could have someone steering. We made it to the end in about an hour. That was the longest hour of my life. We had to go through one more rough spot, but the rest was very calm. The rough part was called the Bump. It sounds very simple and not too dangerous. This was a very big bump. The Bump looks like a small waterfall. There is a rock in the middle of the river, which creates the Bump. The water cascades around this rock creating a ton of waves and turbulence in the water. Before we got to the Bump, my mom and I were paddling and screaming at my dad to straighten the boat. We had been warned many times of the consequences of the boat being slightly imbalanced or tilted. If you went over a slight bit tilted and not on a straight line, you would be in the water. We had been going in a crooked line and at the last possible second, we got the boat completely straight. My family was very worried about this part because no one wanted to get back in the water.
McDowell 4 We finally got to the ending point. When I got out of the water, my legs were numb. My parents started carrying the raft while my friend and I were in charge of making sure my brother was okay. About 15 minutes later, we began the journey to the real ending point about a quarter mile away. We started out running, but our legs were so numb that it felt more like a chicken run than anything else. My brother, friend, and I met up with my parents a few minutes later. My friend and I took the raft from my parents and we started carrying it for the rest of the way. When we got back to the busses and our group, we boarded them and headed to the company building 30 minutes away. There were no blankets on the bus and we were all so cold. We huddled together to try to warm up. I was so ready to get in a heated area that when we got to the company building, I sprinted to the showers, put the water on the hottest setting, and sat for 10 minutes under the water. My mom brought me a change of clothes so we could go back to the house. We got in our car, turned on the seat heaters, and cranked the heat. When we got home, my grandparents started asking us many questions. I was too exhausted to talk or answer them. My dad was very embarrassed since his stupidity caused all of our problems. After talking to them for a while, Laura Coker and I went into my room, got in bed, and turned on the TV, in a failed attempt to warm up. To this day, I have never been so cold in my life. I have not been rafting again because this experience was so traumatizing. All of this happened because my dad did not hire a guide. I can now laugh about this horrible experience because everything that could go wrong, went horribly wrong. That was a very cathartic experience, since I McDowell 5 bawled my eyes out and concluded that the next time I do anything like this, I am hiring a guide and wearing a wetsuit.