Rafting the Yough

As many times as we've come to see Allen kayak the Yough, we've never actually been on the river.  We take a great hike to Cucumber and take pics of the kayakers at a rapid, love the natural water slides, cliff jumping, etc.  So when Joe offered to take us in his raft, we were very excited!  Allen loves this river and has told us about every inch I think, so we looked forward to seeing it up close.  And we loved it!
(Thanks to Kathy and Joe for these pics from their waterproof cameras!)

 

With all the rain and weather changes, it was cold, but we were ready!

Joe steered us true and we had a great day on the water!

We stopped at Swimmer's Rapid to watch Allen and the other kayakers play, and to swim of course.  The boys did anyway. It was cold! 

On the rare boring stretch of the Yough (the Doldrums), our "pirate crew" boarded other vessels and claimed them "in the name of the Pope!"  (Aka Joe, the Paddling Pope.)  Michelle's crew was pretty nice about it, but Kathy's made them swim! 

 

The only time I swam was when Joe declared a practice flip. Ugh was it cold!  But it did give us all great pleasure when he actually fell out when he was trying to flip us!  :) 

But then he managed it, so we swam for our lives. 

Well, while we smiled for the cameras.

Then he demonstrated how to pull in two boaters at once while he flipped the raft back over. 

Josh and Lizzy enjoyed pulling me back in too, quite gracefully.  Kinda.

It was a wonderful day on the Yough!  Of course they (often) say a bad day on the river is better than a good day in the office.  We sure had a great time with the Dayton Outdoor Adventure Club!