August 17, 2012 | Tips from Travellers >
Terrace, River Rafting

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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!