Consider the Excitement Found on Rafting Tours
Whitewater Rafting Trips Into Whitewater Rafting Tours
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Whitewater rafting tours are one of the most popular sports and leisure activities for people vacationing within the US. Since the 1970s, thousands of people have navigated choppy, churning rivers, covered with white foam, aboard tough, inflatable multi-person rafts, usually under the guidance of an experienced guide. Yet, this popular form of leisure is also one of the oldest known ways of traversing long sections of undeveloped land.
The First Rafting Tours In North America
The first whitewater rafting trips in North America did not occur for leisure, but for a reason. In 1842, US Army Lt. John Fremont wrote the first description of a whitewater rafting trip, after a trip down the Platte River in Nebraska. He used a raft that was made out of four pieces of rubber lashed together, and a rudimentary "floor" that connected the rubber "pontoons." Later expeditions attempted to navigate more dangerous rivers, such as the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Lack of knowledge about the river, and lack of technology, caused many expeditions of professional explorers to perish. These days, however, whitewater rafting tours routinely take complete novices down that same section of river.
Modern Whitewater Rafting Tours And Their Guides
A guide who knows the river and knows the techniques of rafting can get even people who've never been whitewater rafting before to navigate a relatively difficult section of water. The fact is, maneuvering a boat downstream is not very difficult, if eight or ten people with oars are rowing in a coordinated fashion. It isn't possible for a team of ten rowers to navigate rocks, waterfalls, whirlpools, trees in the water, and miniature dams, in most rivers. That is, the task isn't difficult as long as the rowers are acting in concert, and as long as there is an experienced person telling them which direction to row. On commercial whitewater rafting trips undertaken today, that's the job of the guide.
Who Can Paddle During Modern Whitewater Rafting Trips?
While the guide looks ahead of the raft and tries to figure out where the rowers should steer the boat, the people who are rowing need only concentrate on the immediate thrill and pleasure of physically batting their oars against the roiling and churning water. Depending no how difficult and choppy the river is, this task can get physically demanding, of course. Yet, on most rivers where rafting tours operate, a person in good health should ultimately be able to successfully keep paddling for the entire duration of the trip.
For these rowers, a great deal of the pleasure comes, not just from the exercise, but also from the thrill of being on top of all that fast-moving water, of harnessing its incredible energy and speed. Many people love getting splashed during whitewater rafting trips. Some even enjoy the occasions on which the raft's violent movement accidentally tosses them overboard. Because everyone who goes rafting with a professional provider whitewater rafting tours has to wear a life jacket, even non-swimmers can join the fun (not to mention some young children).
