Lower Yough Rafting 2011

I think this is my 8th trip down the river, and it never gets old. Chrissie and I look forward to this trip every year. We've had as many as 24 (too many unless a lot of them are experienced), and as few as 6! This year we had a good turn out of 12 total. The night of camping was incredible as always. There are few things I like more than cooking around a campfire.

We set a new standard for youngest attendee, with Tony bringing his son, Andrew, who I think was 15.

We also had a new experience this trip in that it pretty much rained the entire time we were on the water. You might think, "gee that stinks". Well, you'd be wrong. We had a great time. First, you're already in the water, what's a little rain? Second, it made for some very cool views of the river with some of it being totally shrouded in mist.

This next one is eerie. You can hear the rapids ahead, but you can't see them. There are about 8 other people in front of Chrissie in the picture below:

I took a lot of VIDEO in the water on this trip. I posted 13 short videos (most less than a minute) on youtube of folks going through dimple, getting dumped at Cucumber and Take Out Rapids, and me jumping in at Swimmers Rapids. The first video shows Chrissie getting dumped. :)

Here's a link to the playlist that will go through each one automatically. Lower Yough 2011 Play List

A lot of folks ask how I get the videos. I have a waterproof camera I bring with me, and I usually go ahead of everybody else through a couple of the rapids and then paddle and hike back up to get video.

In the end we all survived and had a great time as always.