River Floating, Part 1

While is Washington I was able to take a few river floats.  We go down the Toutle River.  It is pretty calm and easy.  There are a few fun rapids that splash you and even get your heart racing a bit.  Some in our company that goes has flipped one way or another on some of these rapids.  Although sometimes people in our company just flip out of their tubes when it is calm... normally there is someone else assisting in that too. 

I braved it this time and not only took Emily down but also took my cell phone to take pictures.  I wanted to get a water proof camera, but never did.  I double bagged my phone and then blew air into the second bag in hopes to keep it afloat if it did fall out of my swim suit.  I must admit it looked pretty funny with this inflated bag in my swimsuit.  It worked good.  For the whole time we were floating I had Emily tied to my tube so we would stay together. 

My sister in law took these pictures, while we went down. 

The picture above and below are the same, one is just zoomed in.  This was our second time going down this rapid.  We all did it once and then Kelly went alone without the kids and then we all decided to do it again too.  I was pretty nervous with Emily to go again, but she was all in favor of it.  I warned her that I might not be able to keep her out of the rapids as well as I did the first time.  She was okay with it and the second time she got into it much more than the first but she thought it was really fun!

This is our first time.  Again the pictures are the same just one is zoomed in more.  I was trying to keep her out of the rapids, and she did mostly miss them.  She just slid right to the side of them.

This is my brother Kelly and his son Thomas.  Also with them is Kaitlyn, Summer's daughter.  Kelly manuvered pretty good through the river in his little boat.  He had Thomas and Kaitlyn tied to him most of the time.  (But you will find out later what happened to his boat.)

Kelly took a tube once he got to the bottom of the rapids and went for it.  Too bad he missed most of the rapids.  Then we all decided to do it again.  We walked along the bank back up to the top before the rapids start again.  You can kind of see how the rapids are in size compared to Kelly as he is approaching them.

This is Natalie's second run.  She is a friend of the family, and I don't think anyone goes floating without her.  Emily said she is like the River Guide... she knows everything! 

This is Summer and Natalie going their first time.  They were hanging on to each other's ropes to stay together.  You can only see Summer's feet in the air.  Hilliarious!!

This is all of us back in the water for the second time... all of us except Sarah who had my phone taking pictures of us all.  Kelly and the kids are coming down first, then Emily and me, last is Summer and Natalie.

This is Summer in her second attempt, but by herself this time.  The tube coming next is Natalie.  Again Summer was engulfed by the rapids and there isn't much to see of her.  Summer is a long family friend also.  This was her first time floating the river.

And then this is the rapids alone, with no one on them.  The very first time I came down the river last year, (yeah when I didn't wear sunscreen and got really burned) we were approaching this and I thought we were going to sink or go under!  Natalie, Sarah, and I were coming from the far side down on it and it felt like a HUGE drop off.  Now we take it on the closer side.  You can't really tell from this picture but the river splits just a bit before this and then comes back together at this rapid.

That was the end of part one of our river float. 

To be continued......