August 17, 2012 | Tips from Travellers >
Terrace, River Rafting
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After we finished our rafting rodeo, and everyone was once again soaked to the bone but having a truly grand time! We had a bit of a tight spot to raft through which took us rather close to some rocks, but we paddled our hardest and our guide took us through without so much as a pebble even hitting the raft! It was an easy rest of the way with some easier rapids and white water. Nothing like the spot we went through earlier that got us completely drenched and was a wild ride! During this trip we saw two Bald Eagles and unfourtunetly no other wildlife. Our guide, Hatha, informed us though that usually there is a large diversity to the animals seen. The water was a gorgeous jade colour, and as I said before a perfect British Columbian summer day!
We got to our stop and pulled the rafts out and carried the gear back up to the truck. Once there we got back into nice dry and sun warmed clothes and helped with some of the packing up! Then, Guido, our driver had set us up a great meal! Taco's with veggies and cheeses and meats! I ate two and it was a great meal after a great float! We mingled and chatted with everyone after and heard about some great stories and had a few laughs. Then we all piled on the bus and headed back home!
I learned some great stuff on this adventure! If you'd like to experience the awesomeness of a day on some white water you can go to www.skeenavalleyexpeditions.com and find out more about this company and contact. Or you can contact the New Hazelton or Terrace visitor centres and gather information from there! If there is one thing in your life you do, let it be floating down one of British Columbia's gorgeous rivers because it is so worth it!
August 17, 2012 | Tips from Travellers >
Terrace, River Rafting
View a larger image on flickr.com
It didn't take long after we'd launched for us to get into white water! Eric, from Kermode Tourism had his Go-Pro camera on and was hopeful he had it working since it was his first time using it! Eric and I were the first to get hit with the water, it was chilly but luckily our wetsuits kept us warm! There were two rafts, ours was first with all of us Visitor Councellors and then also a kayak in case something happened. We got so drenched! As we went through the white water we helped out our guide by paddling! However, once through the white water we took breaks and chatted away. It was so much fun! We went through so many spots of white water and we got so drenched!
After a while, when we were decidedly soaked our guides decided to take a quick break on a sand bar to stretch our legs. We hopped out and my co-worker and I made some sand castles in the sand and I searched for interesting stones. One of our guides decided he was hot and walked up the sand bar and jumped into some of the fast water! He floated down and then swamp and got caught in the eddy and swam back to shore! The guides then asked us of we'd like to take a dip and we did! One by one all of hopped into the water and copied what our guide had shown us! We cooled off in the glacial water and then warmed up fast in the sun which beat down on us. After a while we hopped back in the rafts and launched again into the water!
Seeing as there was not as much white water in this part of the river we proceeded to have awesome water fights by splashing the other rafts with our paddles! We went through a little more rapids and amng the water fights we'd have a Paddle Rally. This is where our guide counted to three and then we all pointed our paddles into the air and yelled at the top of our lungs to try and be the loudest! As it slowed down a bit we had a raft rodeo! We'd take a rope the connected across to the back of the raft and then we stood on the front and tried to balance as we floated. However, we'd go crashing in the water when our guide made sudden movements or our guide in the kayak bumped into us! We all took our turns, and would be rescued by Eric because the rest of us weren't strong enough to pull the others in and would often burst into a fit of giggles at our failures!
Read my last blog to here the end to our awesome adventure!!
August 17, 2012 | Tips from Travellers >
Terrace, River Rafting
View a larger image on flickr.com
This was not my first raft trip. I've been down the Kispiox river practically five times in a summer, and I've had my share of raft trips down the Skeena. However, though both these rivers are exciting and offer diverse wildlife sightings and bucket loads of fun neither can compare to the fantastic time i had white water rafting on the Copper River in Terrace B.C. My co-worker and I started the day early to get ready to meet the employee's from the Terrace Visitor Centre and make our way to Skeena Valley Expeditions.
Meeting the others at the Kermode Tourism in Terrace we had lively conversation as we waited for the rest of our group. Kermode Tourism is a lovely stop and I would definitely reccomend it if you ae visiting the Terrace area. Myself and Ashley, my co-worker, rode with the employee's from Kermode Tourism to our guides. Once there we mingled with other folks that would be on this trip with us. In total there were five visitor councellors and seven others, not including our three guides.
To start there were introductions and a safety talk as well as instructions on wetsuits and booties and splash tops. After signing wavers we got dressed in our wetsuits etc and then loaded up on the bus and made our way to the launch site. On the way our lovely guides mingled and told us about what our day could hold and our excitement grew! Our day would be: Safety talk and preparation of rafting at the launch site, quick check of life-jackets and helmuts and other equipment, get out and raft, take a small break on a sand bar, continue on with some water fun, then finish by taking out our equipment and rafts and take off our wetsuits and then eat before travelling back!
The sun was out and it was a gorgeous day, not a single cloud in the sky! We had to change our launch site because of how much higher the river was. We continued on our way to the launch site and once we arrived we unloaded all the equipment and rafts. We were given our life-jackets and helmuts and we helped take the boats down to the river. Once everything was ready we had a quick drink and snack then our guides went through the safety talk and what to do in emergencies, though, we had none on our adventure!
We were organized into our boats and then we were off! I was lucky enough to be at the front with Eric from Kermode Tourism!
Check out part 2 to hear how much fun we had!