Your #1 Source Of Dirt On The Crumm's: Memorial Day Weekend Adventure

Luck was on our side on Sunday. After a full day of rain Saturday, and a gloomy forecast for the rest of the weekend, we awoke to clear blue skies. The storm had unexpectedly fizzled out during the night, leaving us with perfect rafting weather. The trip itinerary had us scheduled to go rafting around 11 or 12, depending on when the water got to us. Surprisingly, its not really even through nature, but through man that we get the rapids we were about to ride. Unbeknownst to us, the water level of the American River fluctuates on a daily basis. Although the rocks in the river create the rapids and turbulent water, the water level in the river is determined by man, and the surrounding populations hydro-electric needs. There are a series of dams up river that let out water sporadically throughout the day depending on how much power Sacramento is using. Therefore, the time that we would go on the rapids, depended solely on this water release. Weird (and probably boring to read) isn't it? By the way, I found all of this out from our rafting guide. Anyways, the time was upon us to get into our wet suits and gear up for the trip. Myself, my girlfriend and a few other of us water savvy people brought our own wet suits so we didn't have to rent them. As for the other unlucky friends of ours who had to rent, have fun catching crabs and pinworms! (I'm only kidding.) One really funny thing happened to Cop Dawg during this whole process. He thought he was all ready to go when a rafting guide walked by and shot him a funny look. The guide then asked him if he knew that he not only had his wet suit on inside out, but on backwards as well! Cop Dawg got embarrassed and we all laughed our asses off! It was pretty ridiculous to say the least. After he got his wet suit adjusted we walked to the meeting point for a short and pretty basic safety lecture. We then paired up in groups, got our life vests, had our river guides assigned to us, and walked down to the boats. Our group consisted of Me, My Girlfriend, Bruce Brewster, His Girlfriend, Cop Dawg, and MM3. Our guide, who was an ex-Vietnam vet, lawyer hater, local historian, and machine gun enthusiast, turned out to be a pretty cool dude as well. It was just about 12 noon when we set off on our river adventure. The first half of the river was pretty tame, and only Class 1 rapids. I guess they use this part to get everyone acclimated to rafting and the guides rowing commands so that after lunch you can hit the Class 2 and 3 stuff. During this part of the trip the hi-lights included all of us jumping in the water and swimming around, MM3 doing a backflip into the water and almost smacking his face on his oar, and me and MM3 swimming a portion of some Class 1 Rapids. Then we stopped for lunch, which consisted of a make your own sandwich and cookie buffet. It was amazing how delicious lunch tasted for being such a basic meal. I guess anything will taste good when you are tired and hungry though. Also the port-o-potties were clutch here since I had to take a major whiz after 3 hours of being on the river with no bathroom in sight. After the meal and bathroom break all of us were about to return to the boats and begin the second half of our voyage, when one of the rafting guides came up with a brilliant idea. We still had a full igloo cooler full of ice water and he wanted us to dump it on Ross the Birthday Boy's head. We all agreed that it was a great idea and set the plan in motion. Jorge would stand by with the camera ready to take a pic, as someone else distracted Ross. Meanwhile Bruce and I would sneak up behind him and douse him like a coach who just won the Superbowl, with some ice water so cold it made the river water seem like a bathtub. We almost got caught sneaking up on the first pass so we temporarily aborted the mission, but a minute later we got a clean shot and totally drenched him. It was hilarious and Jorge got a great picture of it. After that it was time to hit the "real" rapids. The class 2 and 3 stuff that is supposed to strike fear in your heart, put hair on your chest, and leave skidmarks in your shorts. Unfortunately as fun as it was, and it was TONS OF FUN, I was never scared at any point, which I was hoping to be the entire ride. I was thinking before we embarked that our boat would flip or we would take a huge drop over a waterfall or do something to that effect, but that sketchy situation I was planning for never materialized. Maybe it was for the better though since it would have been horrible if any of us got injured or drowned... Anyways the hi-light of this second part of the trip was for me, the part where I got to sit on the end of the boat and ride down the biggest Class 3 drop of the American River's South Fork and get totally plunged into the rapids. It was pretty cool. Everyone else took their turns "riding the bull" on the end of the boat, and before we knew it the rapids had come to an end and we were back on shore getting on the bus to return to the camp site. Anyways, here are the action pictures the rafting company took for us, as well as some pictures my other friends took that day. Enjoy!