Rafting on the American River

Never did rafting? Thinking about trying it? Consider doing it like we did!
This was our first rafting experience and it was a rather excellent one - a weekend trip with a day-long white-water-rafting-tour on the south fork of the American River near Coloma.

We arrived Friday night after a long, long ride through the usual Friday afternoon bay area traffic which prolong the usual 2:30 h ride to a 4 h one, but it was all worth it. We had a nice campsite near the water, where we could already glimpse some passing rafts. Setting up the tents, getting fire wood, preparing dinner over the camp fire and watching the stars while waiting for our friends to arrive, slowed us down into river time.

Arrived.

Camp fires are the best.

Early next morning, after a quick cereal breakfast, we got ready to get wet. Each equipped with a life jacket, helmet and paddle, we boarded a school bus which brought us up to the raft landing site and after a few training strokes off we went down the river. The tour had some nice 2 - 3+ rapids. We were 8 on the raft plus guide. The guide was awesome, she knew the tour by heart and we had lots of fun riding the waves. The boys taking turns bull-riding up in front or ducking and holding on at the more challenging rapids.
Around noon we stopped for some lunch, provided by the guides. And it is amazing how hungry you can get paddling the river.

And down and down we go.

Here we come.

Hold on!

Soaking wet :) 1.

Soaking wet :) 2.

Fun times.

The second half of the day, the tour went through a gorge with one rapid after the other, real fun -ending in Folsom Lake.  Thanks to Kbar Photo, we have some nice pics from along the way.
In the end no one went over board unintended and everyone had a blast. The bus took us back to the camp and we happily digged into a very German Weisswurst dinner with all the necessary ingredients - Pretzels and sweet bavarian mustard and Hefeweizen.

Weisswurst dinner.

On Sunday we experienced some gold rush, panning at the River after learning about the historic Coloma site and the beginning of the Californian gold rush at the American River. It was fun and since it was really hot the cool water felt soooooo good.

Gold rush.

All in all, the American Whitewater Expeditions did a great job! Cady was an awesome guide providing a sensational first rafting experience for the Schubert family. The camp site was wonderful and most importantly we shared all this with amazing friends!