Well it is Aug 7th and since my last blog on July 24th I have done another eight trips down the Red Deer River. I have had a chance too experience the pressure's of being trip leader twice now. Most of our trips have been on gorgious sunny HOT days.
On July 25th we ran the river with 5 rafts taking 34 ppl with us. It was a beautiful sunny day and also my first day as trip leader. We had no major misshaps and throurly enjoyed the day.
July 26th I ran saftey kayak for Braydon as he took a group of three half dayers down the river. We where joined by Mary, Paul, Sam and Spencer. When we finished the half day trip the six of us guides re-launched further down the river and enjoyed the rest of the day on the Lower Red. The Lower Red has lots of great play holes and ledges. We all ran Double Ledge and it was sooooo great too watch Paul biff it in his little digger 1 man canoe. ( like I would even have half a chance of doing as well as that man does in that thing!) And Spencer did an awsume job in his hardshell kayak. You would never have known he haden't ran fast water very much.
July 25th I got a chance to take my kids down the river again. We shared the trip with a farm family from Wetaskewin. Although I truley enjoyed taking my kids down the river and would do so again in an instant it wasen't the same as the many trips the kids and I have done in our 10' Canadian Tire special, but it was a great learning experience for the three of us. The kids learned that when they are rafting with daddy as a river guide the customers always come first. I explained this concept to them the night before and bless their little hearts they behaved quite well. And they had a blast aswell! They where rodeo riding the bow, they both jumped off Jumping Rock and they both swam @ Swimming Chanel allbeit @ the end of their Dads arms! LMAO
July 29th was another awsum day on the water! Braydon and I took 7 ppl down the river. We all enjoyed a great shore lunch. We both had great customers!
July 31 was another fun fun day! we got some awsum pictures this day. One was of me and my crew moterboating along the Nationals, Braydon got a picture of us at about an 70 degree angle with the bow up in the air. Then i got a great picture of Braydon moterboating through the Dirty Hole. He was at about 80 degrees when I got the picture then the raft caught the wind and floped right over backwards. It truley was a sight to see. Thankfuly no one was hurt and all went home with a great story to tell!
Aug. 1st we did yet another trip. I had a family from Calgary in my raft and we all had an absolute blast! ( with the exception of mabey the mother ) After lunch she developed a migrane that caused her to be phisicaly sick the rest of the afternoon. She was a good sport about it all and I don't think I ever once herd her complain.( she even managed to keep her head over the side of the raft if you know what I mean) She just kinda stayed in her own world while we made the trip. Her daughter jumped off of headwall. ( a cliff about 30 - 45 feet tall )Now there is a chick with big cahoonas! (And she was quite the hottie aswell!!)
Aug 2nd we made another trip down. And once again I had an awsom family group of ppl in my raft. I managed to dump 5 of them in Eddie Turn! Before we went in I switched some ppl around I had a 60+ gentenman in and really didn't want to dump him. So I dumped the two I was trying too dump, we played around a bit in the eddie then I switched them back too their original spots. When we excited the eddie I managed to "crack the whip" exceptionaly well and cleared off the whole right side of the raft! I tried my very best too keep Bill (the 60 + gentelman) in the boat but he went out anyway. ( though I had a good hold on his pfd the whole time ) I told him I was so sorry and I explained how hard I tried to keep him in and he replied " in a pigs ass you did " laughing the whole time. They all got even with me at the end of the trip though, as I was bailing the last of the water out, they picked up the bow and dumped me off the back. A dunking I truley deserved (and appreciated);-) It was to bad Jeffery fell at the end of our day and managed to gash his hand open requiring 4 or 5 stitches.
Aug 5th was another milestone for me. It was the first time I took a group down the river without another guide along. It was kind of a spooky thing to do, although I believe in my ability to handle the situations the river can throw at us at times, I was never the less a nervous man. Thankfully the family I got to take down this day was very outdoors savy. They all had considerable experience in survival situations. It was a cold wet dreary day in Sundre and it didn't get any better up at our launch site but we made the most of it! This was the first time I had experienced customers that didn't want to get wet, we ran everything straight on, paddeled most of the way down the river ( mostly just trying to stay warm) and we didn't stop and play anywhere. We stoped for a long leisurly lunch and had a very nice fire. We made record time down the river that day. You shuda seen the look on Dave's face when we walked into the shop at 4:00 pm.
I am totaly enjoying my summer here at Otter Rafting though I was told today my days guiding on the river this summer are getting numbered. So if any of you know of any jobs coming up that would suit me I seem to be in the market for one yet again. Could you please e-mail me @ devon2009@live.ca thanx in advance
Remember you gotta keep it wet to keep it happy
your rafting guide friend
Devon
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