Kicking Horses down the river

A whole day of white water rafting! The day began with a drive to the upper canyon of the Kicking Horse River in real American-style yellow ex-schoolbuses, which was a huge novelty for me (not just seeing one, but RIDING in one?!?) and completely underwhelming for Rylan, who used to get one to school every day anyway.

We were eased into rafting on the calm upper canyon, and then stopped for a barbeque lunch. We then headed to the middle canyon, which flowed slightly faster with several runs of Class 3 and 4 white water along the way. During another break, we mentally prepared ourselves for the lower canyon, a stretch of mostly Class 4 rapids. It was hard work, and we had several man-overboards, but the highlight was a stretch of rapids that our guide assured us was "totally safe" for us to jump out of the raft and swim through. The only warning: "oh, by the way, your head will definitely be underwater...just ride with it".

After a freezing cold yellow schoolbus ride back to base in Golden, we headed to our campground at Canyon Hot Springs, between Glacier and Mount Revelstoke National Parks. We recovered from rafting with a visit to the hot springs, and then cooked sausages on skewers over the campfire.

written by

lucy3119 on August 14, 2012 from Golden, Canada

from the travel blog: Canada and a little USA 2012

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