October 4th 2014: White Water Rafting on the Dead River

After waking up in Maine, my friends and I made our way to North Country Rivers in Bingham ME, where we were to embark on a whitewater rafting trip down the Dead River. Like all the other times I have gone whitewater rafting, we had to get our wetsuits, booties, helmets, paddles and safety jackets before going onto the bus which would take us to the start point of the rafting trip in Northwest Somerset ME. We had to walk a little further to get to our rafts,

and after putting it into the water,

we were off.

The fall foliage along the river was beautiful today,

and although we got terribly wet several times today in the rapids,

I still think Penobscot was better, mainly because there were only rapids here and no major falls.

One of my friends was a first timer, so I got him to sit in front most of the trip, and he pretty much shielded me from getting wet half the time. In order to get him to go in the water, I had to go in as well,  and he ended up staying in longer than I did. I even got pushed into the river at one point by my friend.

When it was finally over, we took the bus ride back to the base, where we had a small lunch.

Even then, we were still hungry, so on our trip back, we stopped at the rest stop on I-95 exit 25 in Kennebunk ME for a quick snack,

and for more in Massachusetts, continued on here.

August 30th 2014: White Water Rafting on the Penobscot River, Maine

I had to pick my friends up really early this morning in order to drive all the way to the Penobscot Outdoor Center in Northeast Piscataquis ME, where we were to embark on some white water rafting on the Penobscot River with New England Outdoor Center. This place is pretty hard to find, with no proper address. Thankfully, we knew it was below the Pockwockamus Pond, and we had the coordinates for the place as well, so we managed to arrive at the place uneventfully and early. We took a short nap before we had to meet up with everyone else. Just like my first white water rafting experience, we had to get our wetsuits, helmets, paddles and safety jackets before getting on to the bus to the lower portion of the river to start our rafting.

The views of Katahdin along the way were beautiful.

At the start point, our guide taught us how to paddle in the raft, and before long we carried the raft down to the river.

It was definitely perfect weather for rafting today.

After getting through the first set of falls,

we did our share of surfing (keeping the raft in the falls without paddling)

and only moved on to the next spot when we were finally done.

The next fun thing we did was a rock slide, where we were to do a leap of faith backwards into the water, then ride the water down the smooth rock surface. It was fun to say the least, although the water was really cold, so I was glad to be out of there when it was over.

As we moved on down the river, we spotted bald eagles in the trees,

and we were allowed to swim in the water for a bit.

The views were beautiful as always.

especially as we approached the final set of falls

where my friend actually lost her paddle as a result. I was to tease her about it for the rest of the day.

Lunch was much like the last time, consisting of Hot Chocolate

and steak for me.

After lunch, we took the bus further up the river, where we were to embark on the second portion of the rafting. After a short walk

to the McKay hydroelectric station,

we waited in line to carry our boat into the water,

and off we went.

We somehow survived our first Class 5 falls, mostly thanks to our experienced guide.

At the next Class 5 falls, there were actually people sitting on the ledges above, watching for people to fall out the raft.

We made it out alright, but one raft actually got stuck on the rocks for quite some time.

We finally moved on after they found their way out, but not before I took pictures of people fly fishing in the river.

All good things have to come to an end though, and we were sad when we finally left the river, and began the long drive back to Massachusetts after returning all our gear. I'm glad my friend got her first taste of rafting though.

August 16th 2014: Ziplining in Hillsdale, NY

This morning, I headed with my friend into Hillsdale NY to do some ziplining at Catamount Aerial Adventure Park, which is also Catamount Ski Area in the winter.

We were early, so we decided to find something to eat, settling for Four Brothers Pizza Inn in town.

The restaurant itself looked pretty nice, but the turkey sandwich my friend got was just alright.

He should have gotten the pizza instead. Oh well.

When we got back, everyone else had arrived, so we went to get our tickets, discounted if one of the participants is a AAA member. We received our harness and gloves,

and after putting them on, we were subjected to a live tutorial as to how to traverse obstacles in the course,

including how to use our alternatingly locking carabiners and ziplining trolleys,

which ensures that we stay attached to the lines while up in the trees. Unlike my last ziplining experience which was guided, we had to do everything by ourselves today, which made everything much more exciting.

Each route has a different grade of difficulty as well, with yellow being the easiest, and the double black diamond being the hardest. In order to climb to the upper level to do the harder courses,

we had to do a green or a yellow first, so we decided to go with a green first. The bridges we had to traverse were tough enough though.

When we got to the blue level, I almost gave up on my first obstacle, but somehow I made it through,

sometimes just barely.

Our final course was the black one, which had its challenges too, but somehow we had grown used to it all, and even though it took a while, we managed to finish it in its entirety, ignoring all the quick exits along the way.

After the last course, we decided to call it a day. We missed out on the Green Rapids path though, which had a lot of ziplining across the open ski slope. Next time I guess.

With that, we headed back into Massachusetts for the day. More details about stuff I did after follow here.