A Real Oar-deal

For one of my latest day-off adventures, me and a friend embarked on a popular Jasper tourist activity: whitewater rafting!

It was my first time ever rafting, and we had two options: the Athabasca River, a Class II and slightly calmer river, or the Sunwapta, a Class III and a slightly more exciting trip. We went for, as the raft guides call it, the ‘wapta!

Our trip down the river took us through beautiful mountains the whole way. The water was an icy 4 degrees Celsius, but luckily we were given wetsuits and jackets to wear. Our guide steered us through rapids with names like “Wake Up Call”, “Rollercoaster”, and “Katie’s Corner” (the corner being where a boatload of tourists didn’t listen to their guide, Katie, and paddled themselves into a rock wall). Through the whole ride we had to listen to our guide’s yelled-out instructions: “forward paddle, back paddle, back paddle HARD, forward paddle HARD, lean in.” When we went through the most intense rapids, he would yell out the most exciting instruction, “GET DOWN!” which meant jump into the bottom of the boat so you don’t get throw off.

Our group approaching a rapid:

Aaaand getting soaked:

We were all completely soaked in the first five minutes, and soaked several many times throughout the trip. Despite that, we didn’t get as cold as I thought we would… maybe because we were paddling hard, and (definitely) laughing harder.