River Rafting on the Wenatchee river (Eastern Washington)

Sunday, August 4th, 2013

First time river rafting for Sarah!  And it started by getting out of bed early :(  However, we made it, packed up swimwear and dry clothes for the way home and headed out toward Monroe, following Highway 2 over Steven's Pass into Eastern Washington all the way to Cashmere, WA.  Leaving the cloudy sky behind in Western Washington, the eastern side of the Cascades greeted us with a 90 degrees sunny day - 90 degrees Fahrenheit that is (leaving you with a little puzzle on how to convert that into degrees C).

The drive was about 2:30 hours long and we arrived at Cashmere, WA, just in time to get a sandwich for lunch and get changed for the trip.  Everybody grabs a life vest and a paddle and jumps on the school bus that carries paddlers up the river to the launch site.  A quick safety briefing, a few practice turns in calm waters, and down the river we go in a small boat that holds six people.  Five more boats follow in our group, but we are in the lead boat and get to explore every bump, every wave, every eddy before the others get there.  The water is cold when it splashes at us, but it is even colder when we attack another boat during a calm stretch of the river and soak them with river water :)

This isn't our boat but it is on the same stretch of the river that we were on - so much fun.

The trip goes for about 2:30 hours on the river and we enjoy several rapids, go underneath bridges, watch Ospreys in their nest, see one Bold Eagle sitting in the trees, and take a break at a beach to take a swim.  Peter is soaking Sarah in the cold river to compensate for skipping a shower that day.  The trip ends after some really tricky but most fun rapids.  Dinner is served by the rafting team in form of grilled steak and tasty sweet corn - yum.

Every fun day comes to an end and ours closes by the long drive home, this time using HW 97 and Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.  The only sad part of the day was saying good bye to Sarah's favorite pair of Jeans who eventually burst at the seams and are beyond repair :(