Adventure Calls

We were feeling up for some adventure this weekend, so Saturday we decided to hit the road and visit Letchworth State Park, which is known as the Grand Canyon of the East.

The surroundings were well worth the 1 hour 45 minute drive. We started with a short hike to the lower falls. We were amazed at how close you can get to the edge of the gorge.

The view of the falls is great, but we wanted to get a little closer, so we hiked back up to Adventure Calls Outfitters and got into some wet suits.We quickly learned that wetsuits are not the most forgiving clothes in the world and are definitely meant to be worn wet. Notice that there are no picture that show our backsides :)

We had a short wait while things got set up, then made a quick hike down to the launch site where we had a short safety talk and got assigned to our rafts.It was a small group, so Susie and I were alone with our guide in our raft. We were very pleased to have been placed with the trip medic, who is also trained to be a swift water rescuer. Here is a picture of our guide, Brian.

As we headed out onto the Genesee River, we hit a set of class two rapids right away. There was no warm up as we quickly got hit by a solid dose of cold water. As we setted out into some calmer water, we had a chance to look around and snap a few pictures. We also used that time to get acclimated to our raft and paddles.

Paddling down the river and through the rapids was a lot harder than we anticipated, and we were pretty hot and winded by the time we reached our halfway point. Despite the fact that the water was only about 50 degrees, we stopped to do a little body surfing over some weak rapids. You can barely see in this picture, but the person to the far left side in the river is Rachel waving to the camera.

After a quick cool down we were back in the raft and into the rapids. We alternated between slow water, where we got a chance to take in the amazing scenery, and rapids that made us focus on our paddling. We couldn't balance, paddle, and take pictures while in the rapids, but here are a few of the pictures from the slower sections.

The trip was a great way to see parts of the park that you can't see from the land. As you can see, the gorge walls are high and steep, so the only way to see things from below is by riding the river. Our second stop was probably the best example of this. We pulled up at the mouth of Wolf Creek and got to walk up to a waterfall that you can't see from above.

You can see some of the trip leaders standing behind us. They are helping people out of "the leap of faith," which is a hole in the side/bottom of the rock that fills up with the rushing water. The people on the trip get to take turns jumping through the waterfall and into the hole. The water was cold, but Rachel couldn't resist taking the leap.

After we got back on the river, we hit a few more rapids. During one set we even got to spin our raft whirlpool style. By the end of the day we were exhausted (and today we are pretty sore), but as we beached the boats to catch the bus back up to the lodge, we felt pretty good about our first Whitewater Adventure!

If any of you want to try a trip down the river, just let us know when and we'll set it up!

Until then,

Rach and Suz