Whitewater Rafting on the White Salmon River with Wet Planet
SALMON RIVER | WASHINGTON
Finally, the blog about the whitewater rafting trip down the White Salmon River is posted! We decided to go with Wet Planet as they seemed to have the best reviews. They did not disappoint! When we arrived, you can't miss the excitement around the shop. There is a snack/beer bar next door but that would have to wait as we were there just in time to join our group. The first thing that you do is meet your guide or guides, depending on how many are in your group. There are six guests per boat and one guide, our guide was Devin. After the safety briefing, you get outfitted with gear. This includes, a wetsuit, jacket, life vest, helmet and paddle. I made sure to get a helmet with a GoPro attachment.
Next up is a short walk to the final waterfall that you will end up going through to watch some of the earlier groups try their luck. This is also where the bus picks up the group for the fifteen minute ride upriver to their private boat launch spot. This is where the guides unload the boats and transport them down to the water. It is also where you become an expert whitewater rafter. Standing on the banks of the river, it doesn't look to bad. You are told to load into your respective boats. My dad and I got to be the front men for the boat. That means that you basically set the rhythm for the boat. Off we go.
The guide will show give a few commands to get a feel for the crew and teach you a few tricks to help you navigate the rapids, such as, "Get Down!" More on that later. After that, it is down river you go. The rapids range anywhere from a class three to class four. The trip on the river lasted quite a while and our guide was a lot of fun. He kept the down times between the rapids interesting.
During one of the rapids sections, we came into a rock from the left side of the boat, I was on the right, and it caused the boat to lunge and me to fall backwards into the river. Luckily, being in the front two spots of the boat, there is a foot hold on each side. Devin had told us to keep our foot in it for leverage. I guess I had been listening because when we fell backwards, I was able to use that to pull myself back upright and I never even got wet!
You eventually come to a point where they will not let you go over a 20 foot waterfall and instead you have to get out of the boat and walk along the shore about 200 yards. This is also where you have the opportunity to jump off a 20 foot cliff into the water. When he asked for volunteers to be the first and show the others how it is done, I gladly raised my hand and took the leap! The water was cold but plenty deep and I just barely touched the bottom. After the people that wanted to jump did so, it was back into the boats and more rapids down the river.
It just so happened that the day that we went, one of the other rafting companies had lost their bus down the side of the cliff and it was barely hanging on by a tree from sliding into the river. It was a pretty wild sight to see a school bus sitting sideways at 45 degrees on the side of a cliff!
This is the part where you have one final choice to make, the decision to go down the final waterfall or walk around. Everyone in our boat decided that we were going down it. The guide spent the next fifteen minutes having us prove to him that we were ready to go. He didn't want to be the one boat to flip the boat! We practiced the art of getting down and he was sufficiently satisfied with our progress. We queued up by a giant rock waiting on the other two boats in our group to catch up with us. We were the first to go.
We approached the rock as Devin shouted, "Forward two! Forward three! Forward One!" We were positioned right above the falls when the command came, "Get Down!" Over the falls we went and before you knew it we were at the bottom and looking back, that twelve foot waterfall didn't seem so bad. We paddled a little further to the exit point and hauled the boat up the hill and across the road to the shop. It was time to take off all of our gear and relax, we had made the trip down the White Salmon successfully for our first whitewater rafting trip.
The photos below are ones that Wet Planet took of us at a couple points on the river, including coming down the final waterfall.
These photos below are pictures that I took of other rafting groups while we sat reliving the experience. I am very happy with the service the Wet Planet provided. They were very professional and the experience was well worth the cost of the trip.
