I first went rafting when I was in middle school. It was late summer in Maryland. 90+ degrees. 100% humidity. Full sun. No water. We could have carried the raft down the river faster than what we were doing…getting stuck on every rock in sight. It was awful! To make it worse, the other kid in my raft and her dad argued the entire time. Being forward thinking kid that I was, I thought to my self,” People pay to do this. It must get better!” The next year, I went either in the spring or early Summer and it was super fun! I’ve been going roughly twice a year since then, especially when I had any control over it.
Most of the early years rafting were on rivers near my home in Maryland. I went rafting in Colorado for the first time during the summer of 1997 on Brown’s Canyon. Since then, most of my rafting has been in Colorado on the Brown’s Canyon and Royal Gorge sections of the Arkansas River. I’ve done other sections of the Arkansas, other rivers across the US, and even across the world! Whenever I go somewhere, I look to see if there is whitewater rafting nearby and then whether I can get there in the time I have. If I can, then I make that happen. I’m not afraid to go by myself and be placed in a raft with another group.
You may ask, how can I live in Minnesota when I love rafting so much? Minnesota has it’s own natural beauty and I am learning to love the calm peace available on the many lakes here. However to be honest, I do miss the whitewater! I have found that I need at least two days of whitewater rafting a year to remain sane in Minnesota the rest of the year. A lot of that rafting happens in Colorado when I go to CU Boulder to meet/collaborate with my postdoc adviser. However, I do get the opportunity to go other places. Below is a catalog of rivers I have rafted. I don’t have pics from all of them, so there is a more complete list of rivers I had done at the bottom of this page.
List of Rivers
River |
Location |
Sections |
| Arkansas River | Colorado | Brown’s Canyon, Big Horn Sheep Canyon, The Narrows (a.k.a Wild Horse Canyon), The Numbers, Parkdale, Royal Gorge |
| Cache la Poudre River | Colorado | Mishawaka Falls Section |
| Chattooga River | Georgia | Standard Commercial Run |
| Clear Creek | Colorado | Black Rock, Standard Commercial Run (Lower Dumont?) |
| Colorado River | Colorado/Utah | Gore Canyon, Ruby Horse Thief Canyon, Westwater Canyon |
| Ganges River | India | Rishikesh (20 km Section) |
| Gauley River | West Virginia | Upper and Lower Sections (25 mile Marathon!) |
| Green River | Utah/Colorado | Gates of Lodore |
| Gunnison River | Colorado | 3-day Wilderness Trip |
| Klamath River | Oregon | Upper (prior to dam removal) |
| New River | West Virginia | Standard Commercial Run |
| Noce River | Italy | Standard Commercial Run |
| Ocoee River | Tennessee | Upper, Olympic, and Middle Sections |
| Penobscot River | Maine | Standard Commercial Run |
| Rogue River | Oregon | 4-day Wilderness Trip |
| Salmon River | Idaho | 5-day Main |
| Savage River | Maryland | Standard Commercial Run |
| Six Mile Creek | Alaska | Standard Commercial Run |
| Skykomish | Washington | Standard Commercial Run |
| South Platte River | Colorado | Deckers (Duckie Trip) |
| St. Louis River | Minnesota | Upper Section |
| Stranda River | Norway | Standard Commercial Run |
| Tummel River | Scotland | Standard Commercial Run |
| Wenatchee River | Washington | Standard Commercial Run |
| White Salmon River | Oregon | Standard Commercial Run |
| Yampa River | Colorado | Private Trip from Deerlodge Park to Split Mountain Canyon |
