The boat splashed on the rough waves, heading towards the bottom of the vicious rapids “Rock ‘n Roll”. My mouth filled with ice cold, numbing water from the Clackamas River near Portland, Oregon. I kept paddling when the raft guide yelled “forward!”. Most of my body, I couldn’t feel, including my feet, hands, arms and legs. We landed in a calm area, floating to the next bumpy rapids called “Toilet Bowl”. The Blue Sky rafting company, who we were riding with, had a name for every rapid on Clackamas River. I’m glad I was going white water rafting, especially on my birthday. On the next waves, I got excited, but that died down when we hit a calmer area, because as I sat still, I would realize how cold I am. For me, the first half of the two and a half hours was fun; the second half, I was just freezing cold. At one of the last rapids, one of the other boats hit a huge rock and flipped over. Everyone in it fell out and floated down the rapids in OK condition. Our funny raft guide, Dillon, saved one person that didn’t really need to be saved. When we left, I was wrapped in a towel for an hour on the way back to Portland. That was my first rafting trip, and it made me want to do it many times more.

The End

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