Ladies Only Canoe/Whitewater Trip

“I need help from all the TT ladies. My wife is feeling adventurous and would like to go on a ladies only canoe or white water trip sometime this summer. She would need something within a 6-8 hour drive of Indianapolis. I know there are several ladies in the Midwest area who enjoy this kind of thing, Dhutch, Lizs, Ruby, Sass I'm looking at you. ;) She needs someone that has some experience with this and who could help plan it, or maybe there's someone that already has something planned and it's just not posted on TT. She's open to anything but would prefer white water and would like it to be ladies only.
last edited: 5/09/07 10:53:45 AM”

“I could wear a dress...”

“I went on a all ladies plus Jon trip a year and a half ago to West Virginia. Even our guide was a woman. We didn't necessarily plan it that way, but we did absolutely fantastic! We used these outfitters: http://www.class-vi.com/ The best time to do the Gauley and New Rivers are in the late summer/fall when they open the dam.”

“I've had good experience with this outfitter in northeastern Wisconsin.

http://www.bearpawoutdoors.com/prog_touring.htm”

“maybe you could coordinate with the henhikers somehow and get a sponsorship with Lifetime and Midol”

“I don't have any white water experience, unfortunately. We don't have any after the spring melts in MI. =(
Sounds like fun though, excepting there won't be any boys there.”

“I'd love to do this but am pretty much booked until August or September. Have your wife send me an e-mail to the address on my profile and I will work with her to coordinate a location and post a trip.

p.s. HaHa CB”

“Hey Hutch - we are pretty booked until the beginning of August too. Do you think that would be too late?”

“LOLOLOL!

Naw - Early September would be awesome for a canoe/kayak trip. If that's what you are looking for I'll scope out some rivers and we can talk.

If you are truly looking for whitewater rafting I'd look at the link Ruby provided. I did the W.V. thing several years back and had a ball.”

“Yeah, canoes or kayaking would be great - kayaking for sure. Thanks for your help!

Oh, and August would be good - i would love if there was some swimming involved as well, not sure if that is possible.
last edited: 5/09/07 12:41:19 PM”

“...my gal's pretty funny”

“We did the Gauley River. The great thing about that location is because they open the dam each weekend (for about six weeks in the fall) you get to experience Class V rapids, which is pretty exhilerating. You are on the river for 5 or 6 hours for the day with an hour lunch stop (they bring a fantastic lunch to the location). During the whole day I think we hit about 15 sets of rapids. So you float, your guide explains to you what to expect, then you hit them. Afterwards, you float again. So it's not one after another after another rapid fire.

Out of our group of six, none of us had ever done any WW before. We did fine and all loved it. We didn't even lose a single person or ever tip our raft.”

“I'm dying to do the Gauley. I've done the Chattooga 2x in prep for the big water. New River might be a first step if she hasn't rafted. I'd try to do both on consecutive days. The guide on my Chattooga trip specifically recommended the guide that Ruby linked. Sept to mid Oct is prime Gauley season. Go for it.”

“thrifty - I keep meaning to email you. Plans are afoot.”

“Hey Becky! Let me know when you get something planned - I'd like to go.”

“Hey Becky! Let me know when you get something planned - I'd like to go

me too!
last edited: 5/09/07 10:40:06 PM”

“so i keep seeing people posting about guided trips, is this the way to go?...she really wasn't wanting to do something guided but is that advisable?...i know white water/rapids come in classes, could novices do some of the lower classes on their own?...i don't think she wants to go on a trip where everything is done for her...her motivation is more than just going on a rafting trip, she wants to actually do stuff for herself”

“I wouldn't do a kayak trip on whitewater as a novice. I think you still do all the work on guided trips, you just have someone experienced reading the river and telling you where to paddle.”

“From the weinie standpoint, many rivers have Class 1 rapids. I am scared of water, but did some of those without freaking out a couple weeks ago. Did not even freak out when the canoe banged into a big rock and started tipping - but then righted itself. (And I don't swim! But yes, had a life jacket on)

Course I had a canoe partner. But if you're totally comfortable on water and paddling, perhaps the Class 1s wouldn't be so bad??? Maybe someone else can better address that issue.”

“I don't think you're going to want to raft any river with Class IV and above water without a guide unless you're damn experienced. The Chattooga has IV's and V's. I was super impressed with how they'd shuttle through the rapids with different boats stopping and getting ready to throw ropes as needed. The back boards I noticed hidden in the woods at some of the bigger rapids were a bit ominous though.

Our guide basically gave us a nature, history, and geology explanation of the river as we rafted. He read the water and was the rudder while we paddled when told to paddle.

Remember what happened to those folks in Deliverance and then that Meryl Streep movie when they didn't use a guide!”

“Class 1-2 are easy, pretty much just ride the chute of water but above that can get sort of scarey. I'm afeared and I swim and paddle well. I've also almost drown under my kayak upside down in the water, so maybe I'm more hesitant than someone else would be. I've looked at class three (we have a set on the huron river about twenty miles from us in the spring only), and decided they aren't for me....at least in a 16 foot boat.”

“that's it, she's not going...she can ride my dingie in a kiddie pool in our back yard ;)”

“I would do white water on a raft with a guide, gladly. I'm hopeful that a trip comes of this and that all the stars and our bank account aline so I can go too!”

“wow, wow, wow...you mean this could end up costing a lot of money, we may need to rethink this one”

“It all depends on whether it's whitewater, or much lower rated rapids you want. Decide that, then go from there. And know your biotch's skill level. LOL! For paddling! ;-P”

“I don't think it's too expensive in WV. Birch and I looked into going out west when I broke my foot, thinking we could still do the Grand Canyon somehow this spring. It was about $1200/each! Probably worth every single penny.”

“I've been talking about canoe/kayak for class I to II. If you are talking about higher classed rapids I concur with a guided trip rafting and do suggest WV. But I've been there and done that so I'd be out.”

“Do you want to go guideless over this sort of water?








last edited: 5/10/07 7:54:18 AM”

“Wait a minute!! Guided on whitewater is not what you think. You really need to have someone with you. The person who takes you out is a professional water reader, which is imperative! WW guided trips are not like backpacking guided trips. You're not a wuss for using one. In fact, one of the other rafts was composed of a group of 7 or 9 guys. They were all seasoned ww rafters. They had been doing an annual trip to the Gauley for 15 years or so. They had their own gear including the helmets with the video cameras strapped to the top. And they only used guides. They also told us that after trying a number of the services that Class VI was the best in the area.

When you put in the water, it is a very slow flow at first. There your boat of 6 - 8 people plus a guide will get accustomed to responding to the commands your guide will be shouting out to you. Your group learns to work together. This is a team sport most definitely. It's really cool to see the raft respond the way you want it to when you all work together. Even when you think it doesn't make sense, you HAVE TO do what your guide tells you to do. The guide has the extremely important role of steering and will sit in the middle rear position. He/she will maneuver you through the rapids.

This isn't something you want to do on your own. It's a sport that can be risky, but if done correctly can be extremely exhilerating and enjoyable and empowering, much like so many other "dangerous" sports (motorcycle riding, rock climbing, backbacking).

Other than canoeing, I have no water experience. Don't shy away from something like class V with a guide if you are in the same position. The most important factors in doing this are listen to your guide, do what he tells you to do, and don't try to do this if you are an obese and unfit person. You need to be able to paddle and have a little bit of flexibility and strength.

On our trip, another raft in our group (you go with a group of 4 or 5 rafts) was composed of a family who were also newbies. But every member of the family was quite overweight and obviously physical fitness wasn't something that was part of their life in the least. They did not listen to their guide (they were redneck know-it-alls). Their raft dumped, everyone fell out plus the guide. The other rafts fished them out of the river and helped get everyone back into place. But the very large aunt who we pulled from the river broke her ankle in the process. The woman couldn't touch her knees if you asked her to. She had no business being out there. It was kind of funny though. Jon was trying to help her into our raft and trying not to touch her anywhere improperly to pull her in. One of the women in our group was a professional football player. She finally said, "Sorry I have to do this" and reached over the raft and grabbed the woman across her chest and through her crotch and heaved her in. Everyone (including the rescued woman) laughed about it for the rest of the weekend.”

“Thrifty - Get off the thread, you aren't invited...:) you get to stay home with Max

I really don't care if it is guided or not. I figured with white water it would have to be, as I am no expert.
last edited: 5/10/07 8:01:19 AM”

“Hey, this looks great:

http://www.class-vi.com/

now, how can I go about putting a trip together on here? Anyone want to help the trail talk virgin?”

“I loved that they took video of us. A woman in a ww kayak accommpanied us the whole day. She was videotaping us each time we shot the rapids. Then she edited it all together and added some funky music. We still watch the DVD every once in a while.”

“I love your name! LOLOL Lizs will be proud!


Hmmmm....it sounds so tempting. We have always said that we would go back in a heartbeat. I don't know if I could get Jon to stay home with the kids if he knew I was going to WV without him. :)”

“...oh that's it, i'm going over to the "other side", there's not room enough for both of us here”

“If I get to do the Gauley this fall I think I'm going to opt for the marathon option. You do all 26 miles in one day. If I'm going to do 18 hrs of roundtrip driving I might as well hit the home run. I tried to put a backpacking trip together with Nigal, birch and I where we also rafted the Gauley. Nigal is going to Boundary Waters is mid Sept so the trip crapped out on us. Oh well.”

“You are a glutton, Dayhiker!! I'd do it all in a weekend perhaps. I loved that at the end of the day we all got together with our guides at their bar and watched our video on the big screen.”

“Has anyone mentioned the Wolf river in Wisconson? You can take a 6 to 9 hour self-guided tour over something like 8 or so class 2 rapids.

We used to go up all the time. Camp at a nearby campground and hit Shotgun Eddy's first thing on Saturday morn.

check them out:
http://www.shotguneddy.com/

Check out some of the rapids
http://www.gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/bigsmokey.shtml”

“A local friend went 5 straight seasons and did the marathon on 2 consecutive days. He'd drive 9 hrs on Sat, raft 26 on Sun, raft 26 on Mon, drive 9 hrs on Tues, go to work on Wed. He was probably early 40's when he started doing this. Now that's a glutton for punishment.
last edited: 5/10/07 10:29:39 AM”

“OMG -- this is a loaded question...”

“I am durned tootin' proud. LOL!”