Whiteriver rafting fun for everyone

I spent my summer around and about Montana and Idaho, learning about just a few of the fantastic outdoor sports and adventures that are possible there. I went hiking, camping, kayaking and biking, but whitewater rafting was by far the most exhilarating activity of the summer. Not only is it a blast to ride down the river with a bunch of friends, but rafting is the main, commercialized outdoor adventure available to the public.

There are two main factors that have made this sport available to the public via outfitters. The first factor is the growing public interest in outdoor extreme adventures. I believe that this is due to technological advances and the ease of information being spread. There have always been sports men and women who frequent the outdoors, but the extremes have become more popular. Large communities of people have shown interest in outdoor activities, and being a group exercise, rafting has gained popularity as a relatively safe outdoor commercial sport.

The second is the invention of the self-bailing raft. Before the early 80s, rafts had only two inflatable chambers and an inflatable floor. After running a rapid, rafters would have to pull over to bail out the boat. Then came the invention of the multi-chambered, self-bailing raft. This new generation of rafts features multiple inflatable chambers, so that if one deflates, the rest will keep it afloat. These boats also include an inflatable floor, which is attached to the outside tubes. The edges around the floor have holes in them that allow the boat to be bailed out as they make their way down the river. These two factors made whitewater rafting available for public enjoyment.

Whitewater rafting also is made possible to the public through the intensive training of the guides. This is what I had to go through in order to work as a guide. The weeklong training was difficult but necessary to prepare us guides for the river. The only other way to get into rafting is to grow up with it. For any river that exceeds Class II rapids, it is not safe to rent a raft and tackle the river without a professional who has run the river before.

Guide school taught us how to navigate the river. It takes some 憀ive and learn?moments to really get to know how river water behaves with a raft. This, at times, involved being stuck between a cliff and a rock with the river rushing around us. It was up to us to think about how to get off the rock. After a few failed attempts, I soon learned how to 憆ead?the water. There is a difference between the way water moves over a rock and the way it moves as a wave, but it takes a trained eye to recognize this and avoid the rock or hit the wave.

Taking paying customers down the river was a fantastic experience. To introduce people to whitewater rafting was a privilege and also a ton of fun. The enthusiasm of each new group kept my own interest for the sport going, despite running the same stretch of river every day. Without these people, I would not have the opportunity to run the river on my own.

For those who would like to check out whitewater rafting, but don抰 want to take it up as a job, you can go with an outfitter. By September most of the rivers in Idaho and Montana will have dropped to water levels that are no longer raftable. The Clark Fork River in Montana might have some outfitters active until the first week of September. The Tieton River near Yakima runs through September. If nothing else, there抯 a good reason to look forward to spring run-off rivers in May.