It was Saturday morning. I woke up at 5 am that day and a long Memorial Day weekend was waiting for me. As I watched out of my window it was pouring down. But, nonetheless, the trip would go on as per schedule. So, after a light meal at my home I left for my college where a group of nine others waited for me. We packed our vehicles with all the necessities for a camping trip and the ten of us left at 6 am. We took two vehicles, a truck and a van. The destination was Wisconsin, a state bordering Iowa on the east. Our intensions were laid out at a pre-trip meeting on Thursday. We would be camping at a Boy Scout campground and our rafting adventures are going to take us down the white waters of the Wolf and Peshtigo River. We stopped at few places on way for meals. After a brief detour we reached the campgrounds at 4 pm at the conclusion of an anxious 10 hour journey. The sky was overcast and the river was up, a perfect condition for rafting. Half of us stayed back at the grounds while the remaining drove to the Wolf River with our rafting materials. On any rafting trip what you would need apart from rafts are paddles, personal floatation device (PFD) or life jacket, helmet, wetsuits, paddle jackets and items to carry on the boat include water bottles, cameras, sun-block lotion and something to bite on when hungry. Once we reached the river we unloaded the truck, inflated the raft, put on our PFD and were all set. We did not have to put on our wet suits as the weather was pleasant and the water was not chilly. There were five of us on the raft. We encountered few minor rapids which are called Class 1 rapids. The river was clearly high owing to rains. We rolled over the rapids though we were stuck on some of them due to the rocks. Nevertheless, it was quick perhaps an hour down the river. We reached the drop off point where we were picked up by Jerry, our trip leader, who was already there with the truck. After loading our truck we headed back to the camp. The rest of us who did not raft that afternoon got the campground ready. They set up the tents along with the kitchen. The ground had all facilities like bathrooms, a videogame parlor, a pool table and a shop to buy camera which are waterproof and are ideal to carry on the rafts. It was gradually getting dark and we decided to cook dinner. We ate pasta that night. We sat by the campfire and chatted for a while.
The next morning we had an early breakfast and left for the Peshtigo River, a 45 minute drive from the grounds. There was already a party that arrived before us. Unlike us they brought kayaks with them and they set out before us. Our party of ten took two boats down the river. This time we encountered the Class 2 rapids. It was a long day for rafting. The weather was perfect with clouds covering the sky until the sun came out at noon. There were stopover points at the rocks where we planned our strategy to stumble upon the next rapid as well as take pictures. The rapids have their own common name. For instance, a race course rapid which is quite a long stress will allow you to race through the obstacles until you are out of it. It was fun to see the kayakers who breezed through the rapids maneuvering their kayak much better than we controlling our raft. Once we were through all the rapids we had a smooth stress of shallow water where we hopped off our boat for a swim. We reached our drop off point where we had parked the one of the vehicles. By the time we reached there it was four in the afternoon. We realized that we rafted for six hours. We had a late lunch and headed back to the campgrounds. After we washed ourselves off we got ready for some charcoal cooking. There was grilled salmon and steak that night. As darkness fell we sat besides the fire. We chatted that night with another experienced camping party who told us weird tales of past camping trips. We retired that night early as the next day we had to pack off our tents.
The next day was our last day of camping. So, we woke up early and after a quick breakfast we packed our belongings and dismantled the tents and the kitchen. It was not over yet. We still had some more action in Class 3 rapids. So, we went up to the Menominee Reservation inhabited by American Indians. There we had to use their rafts which were smaller and lighter than our rafts. But, the biggest surprise of all was the last rapid which was essentially a twelve foot fall. The Indians call it The Great Smokey Falls and bear a daring adventure for rafters and kayakers. Ten of us divided ourselves into groups of three so that we could fit in to the smaller size boat. There were two rapids that we came across before we reached the falls. The second rapid was a beauty as we glided between two cliffs. Speaking of cliffs, we did little bit of cliff jumping off a 15 feet cliff. The next 30 minutes was a smooth ride till we got close to the fall where we could hear the sound water flowing down. It was as if a giant monster was waiting for us. We scouted the fall which looked pretty scary at first until we planned our strategy. To describe the fall a little bit, it consists of a sprout of water called the “rooster’s tail” on its left. The goal is the hit the rooster’s tail right in the center. The current on the rapid would drive the boat away from the tail but proper steering techniques would keep it on its course. None of the three boats made it to the rooster’s tail. Fortunately or unfortunately, my boat hit the edge of the tail and was skewed by 45 degrees which threw my out off the boat. Not to worry! I had my PFD and eventually swam to the shore. After everything was over we got off the boats at the drop off point. That was the end of our rafting adventures. After changing our clothes we straight away headed for lunch. Thereafter, we left for our home. It was a pleasant experience for me.
by-(Satyam K Bhuyan lives in Iowa, USA)
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