Yesterday I experienced something #freelancers generally don’t: a company outing/team building event. As a #freelancer, it was merely an outing, something fun to do with friends or just something fun to do. Haunted kayak tour down the Chicago River. An Amazing Race scavenger hunt throughout Chicago. Just two examples that spring readily to mind.
Yesterday, I went river rafting with the company. It was fun! And a perfect day, which as you have figured out, is a rare thing in Vancouver. Sometimes I think Vancouver is trying to convince me that 60 degree summers, even with rain, are better than 90-100 degree summers.
Anyway. River rafting. I haven’t been river rafting since I was about 12. Down the Colorado River. There’s a very nice family photo of the event, and I have vague but good memories of it. Wetsuits weren’t involved, and neither were helmets. Just life jackets.
All three were required to go down the Chiliwack River yesterday.
Yep. All three. Wetsuit. Helmet. Life jacket. And I was damn glad for the wetsuit. The water was cold! Very cold. And water sits in the boat so your feet are continually wet. Factor in rafts full of guys who start splashing wars with each other and cold showers are guaranteed.
The coldest part though was walking through a water fall.
Walking. Through. Waterfall.
Pretty awesome. We pulled off after the first set of rapids, and went for a hike. I was glad I wore my older pair of New Balance Vibram soled shoes. They’re quite sturdy, can get wet and dirty and not feel heavy. So we hiked through some streams, up some inclines to a waterfall. It was beautiful and loud.
Bit of a herd mentality, we all had to walk single file, so when the people in front of me kept going, so did I so I didn’t hold up those behind me. The line went straight through the waterfall, behind it and over to the other side.
If coffee hadn’t woken me up yet, that certainly did! Quite exhilarating. And then we had to cross back over, in front of the water fall, hike up another incline and then back down and through the streams to the rafts.
Hop back in and start paddling. I sat second from the front, on the left side and ended up with a pretty good workout. Paddling. Ducking. Hanging on. Good stuff.
The river was a bit swollen so the rapids were pretty good. They had us skip the Olympic section. We hiked down past that to the last section and met the guides, who shot through the Olympic section. The last section was intense but fun. Big rapids. Frickin cold water. Excellent guide and a team that worked together. None of us fell out. Whew!
Once we got back to camp, there was the option to go again, and do the Olympic section. The adrenaline was pumping, but by the time the other teams made it up and out, the feeling ebbed so I hung out with the others who had their fill, soaked up some sun and rehydrated.
Pretty content after that.
And the scenery!
Absolutely gorgeous. I may have to invest in a water proof camera. The sky was blue. There were cloud wisps and mountains all around the time down the river. Caught a really nice one after dinner:
A very memorable 4th of July.
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