On our first day of boating my Mom, Dad, and I decided to do the Numbers and Browns canyon. As we got into Buena Vista I started counting the boats. I saw no Sparcs like mine, but I saw a few RPM's and Max's but the vast majority was made up of EZs. They were everywhere; I guess it is the play boat to own these days. When we got to the Numbers we started suiting up and man was it horrible to wearing a black wet suit on such a hot day. When we put in the water was freezing cold and I was a bit worried about rolling. Finally we started down. I thought it was a very easy river and began to wonder if it was over-rated. Then we got to Number 1. It was a non-stop roller coaster ride over rocks, holes, and other boaters. I loved it.
After Number 1 we pulled over at a beach. My mom was worried and didn't want to do any more so she decided to go up and get the car and meet us at Number 5. Dad and I went down rapid after rapid having a great time then in the middle of Number 4 we pulled over at Pyramid rock. My dad told me that this was a great place for doing endos so I paddled up and stuck my nose in the water coming down the right side of the rock. I was immediately shoved to the right and nearly flipped on the eddy line. So I tried again; this time I paddled hard and really shoved into it. Next thing I knew I was going up and my nose was going down. Then I hit the eddy line and promptly spun around and fell over sideways. After that I did a few more - I think mine were better than anyone else there. They were way better than my dad was doing.
After I had enough playing, we headed on down. Dad told me that I had to surf a wave he just missed so I paddled hard and caught it. I was immediately turned left and flipped half way and spit out. I really tried to stay up; I kept on bracing but I eventually went all the way over. Then I had to try three times before I rolled up and even then I had to brace a lot. As soon as I was up I smashed into a rock and flipped again. So I rolled up braced a lot then fell right back over, so I gave it another try and I stayed up. Then I hit a hole and before I started to paddle I was sucked in backwards and I flipped. (Same story as last roll.) I guess I was tired after playing so much at Pyramid rock. Finally I pulled over above Number 5. I had to tell Dad what happened because he never noticed me flipping and swearing. So we sat and watched people run Number 5 and decided that we were chickens and we went up to the road.
After the Numbers we still had a good amount of the day left so we decided to do Browns. We had a quick snack and drove to the put in. We quickly jumped into our wet gear and before I could realize how cold and slimy my paddling jacket was I was in the water. So we paddled for a few miles and talked and passed a bunch of rubber busses (rafts) and we finally got to zoom flume. Dad went down first smashing wave after wave, then I went down on the right side, I was going to paddle left but I didn't want to risk hitting anything sideways. Then Mom went down the middle. As I watched I realized that I took the absolute easiest route and Dad would call me a weenie for a month. After that we went down some more rapids having fun, then we got to Toilet Bowl. Dad said I should try and lead so I sat there and looked for a while. It all looked pretty squirrelly so I took the one path I was sure of: about an inch of water going over the rock that forms the toilet bowl. I paddled as hard as I could, scraped over the edge, and went splat into the eddy. As I watched my parents run it I realized that it was easy just to run the chute and I would be called a weenie for 2 months. So we paddled some more and surfed a bit, until we got to a big pool with a cliff above it. We decided that Mom would go ahead and run the shuttle and Dad and I would stay for a while and play at the cliffs. So while we waited I did some cliff jumping then I decide to do a cliff launch. As we set up some rafters drifted in and watched me slide off. The guide offered to help me set up my boat again so they could take pictures of the launch. After I launched a few more times we called it a day.
We paddled against the wind for a while until we came to Disaster Falls. We went down the these without much trouble but at Hells Half Mile we had problems. I nearly flipped. Then came Henrik in the raft. He went down the top drop then bumped a rock and got of course. He rowed hard but he hit a partially submerged rock and the raft started flipping upstream as it tipped. Henrik jumped out and swam down. The absence of his weight did something weird and the raft tipped back down and floated off. After that there was a big scramble to get him back in and a paddle floated away and got sucked under a rock and it cost us a lot of money to replace it. Luckily the raft had a spare.
So we paddled to camp set up tents and ate a great dinner. The next day we packed up and went down paddling into the wind again and the rapids were fairly boring but I had fun playing in the waterfall at Jones Hole.
Next morning we set of again paddling on through Island Park. As we went Dad felt something hopping in his boat, so he opened up and fetched out a big frog from under his leg and let it go. I caught it and put it on my skirt and went down the rest of the flat with my good friend "Fred". I let him go at the start of Split Mountain. In the rapids the raft got stuck in SOB but eventually we made it down.
Our trip ended when we smashed our car and the boats flew off. Someone stole all the wetsuits and skirts and we had to leave my boat (and all the others) in Edmonton. But it was a fun summer.