{"id":840,"date":"2005-08-08T15:07:29","date_gmt":"2005-08-08T22:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=840"},"modified":"2008-01-22T23:42:47","modified_gmt":"2008-01-23T06:42:47","slug":"rafting-the-south-fork-of-the-american-river-in-a-single-day-august-6-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=840","title":{"rendered":"Rafting The South Fork Of The American River In A Single Day – August 6, 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven’t been river rafting since 1985 when I took a trip to the Grand Tetons with my brother.<\/p>\n

Since I have been such a stellar help with John’s SCUBA diving classes, I was invited to go on his almost yearly (depending on rainfall) trip to raft the American River.<\/p>\n

John was a river guide twenty years ago and has all his own equipment.<\/p>\n

We left Torrance Friday morning and drove the entire day to Sacramento airport to pick up a rental car that we could use for the ride back up river.<\/p>\n

Our only stop was at the Catfish House in Modesto for some down home cookin’.<\/p>\n

Going cheap, we rented a couple nice rooms at a Super-8 Motel in El Dorado County.<\/p>\n

The next morning we dropped our return vehicle at the bottom of the river and headed up to ChiliBar to launch the raft…<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John inflates the raft as the others supervise.<\/p>\n

\"Group<\/p>\n

Our group shot for insurance purposes!<\/p>\n

From left to right – Jeff W, John, Me and Allan – John’s son.<\/p>\n

We were soon off on our one day adventure that most commercial rafters break up in to a two day trip.<\/p>\n

One the first day, most commercial outfits start in the middle of the river and raft down the lower portion as it’s a lot calmer.<\/p>\n

The second day is when they start at ChileBar and end in the middle.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

There’s me looking as macho as ever.<\/p>\n

We see the next set of approaching rapids and John and Jeff laugh…<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

Forgive me, but I don’t know the names of any of these rapids…<\/p>\n

\"Approaching<\/p>\n

\"Avoiding<\/p>\n

After shooting through the top half of the river, we ate lunch under the bridge at River Park Village…<\/p>\n

\"9k1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"River<\/p>\n

Some ducks try and crash our lunch…<\/p>\n

\"Ducks<\/p>\n

Back on the river we went…<\/p>\n

\"Allan<\/p>\n

Historical mining replicas are all along the river.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The stretch after lunch is rather flat… and boring…<\/p>\n

\"Taking<\/p>\n

…I ended up taking a swim to cool off.<\/p>\n

I know it looks like I’m trying to fart, but I’m actually trying to hold the camera still for a self portrait.<\/p>\n

…and we eventually reach another potentially lethal rapid…<\/p>\n

\"Entering<\/p>\n

\"Oh<\/p>\n

\"Through<\/p>\n

Up and over!<\/p>\n

\"Up<\/p>\n

The day is winding down and we are all tired…<\/p>\n

\"Allan<\/p>\n

Luckily when we reach the mouth of the lake, a bunch of jet skis are willing to tow us to the parking lot… for $10 cash…<\/p>\n

\"Towing<\/p>\n

We packed up the raft and all the equipment and drove back up river to pick up the other vehicle…<\/p>\n

\"Rolling<\/p>\n

We left early that morning for an uneventful trip back – that is until we broke down near Gorman…<\/p>\n

\"Broken<\/p>\n

We were on the side of the road for hours until we got a tow to Gorman to await a flatbed for the ride back to the South Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I haven’t been river rafting since 1985 when I took a trip to the Grand Tetons with my brother. Since I have been such a stellar help with John’s SCUBA diving classes, I was invited to go on his almost yearly (depending on rainfall) trip to raft the American River. John was a river guide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}