I finally find time to fill up my blog about my rafting trip. Its been 3 days since but I can still feel the adrenaline pumping in. I can still feel the pressure of water while I move the paddle in. I can still feel the sweet pain in my muscles. It's all sooooo good. But wellll..... it didn't start that way.....!!!

It all started two weeks back with my friend telling me about Rafting trip by our University and me backing out immediately knowing my non-swimming skills. The Water phobia/hydrophobia whatever people call it, crept in me again and I was almost ready to say no when suddenly I said Yes !!!.It did take some amount convincing but a "Yes" it was. I like doing adventurous stuff but anything involving water usually doesn't go well with me and so even though water was the only thing involved here, there was this some part of me which always wanted to feel the water in its entirety(and it did !! Read on..). So there I was on the D-day, August 4 on the bus to Laurel Highlands for Ohiopyle White Water River-Rafting trip.

The bus after an hour and a half drive from Pittsburgh reached Ohiopyle Park spot where we signed the life risk forms and got our stuff going like getting the Head-gear and coast guard approved Life vest or Personal Flotation device(PFD). I like calling it PFD to Life-vest.:D

That was followed by getting into the bus again to go to the "put in" where we put our rafts into the river. At one point one of my friends in the bus commented that with all the head gear and PFD we looked like one of those Starship Troopers going to kill the aliens. A funny line at that point but so true. There once we reached the designated rendezvous our trip began with meeting the Trip leader. There he gave us a vital 10 minute safety talk about how to be safe on water and explained us what we should prepare for and do in the event we fall out of the raft. Later, we formed groups of 6 and chose a raft for us and jumped in.

After that it was the time to head to the river and have the time of our life.

I could see its all coming. We were on a Class IV Rafting. There was so much to explore in the 7 miles of Lower Youghioghney[yaw-ki-GAY-nee] river from quiet river passes to Class IV rapids and the beautiful scenery all along.

But the first thing playing in my mind was to get the first rapid off the course. Well there in as the bard would tell us lies the rub. [Inside Man]

The start was smooth and 10 minutes into the rafting I could see the first rapid and hear the gush of white water. We were somewhere in the middle of the whole crew of rafts with rescuers on the boundaries. As the first rapid came near I could see myself having goosebumps and there it was FIRST RAPID and I toppled over from my raft into the Water. Water had claimed its first vitim haha.

The water wasn't as cold as I had imagined because of the nice day we had chosen but I think because I had fallen backwards I was there "fully" inside the water for almost 5 seconds. I wasn't scared, you don't have time to be one. In spite of my trainer telling me not to fight it out in the water and let PFD do its job my first instinct was trying to fight. I saw my leg getting entangled in a rock and immediately I let myself free and PFD took care of the rest. One of the rescuers was there within some time as soon as traffic cleared to put me on another team's raft.

As soon as I gained my senses back in th new raft I started wondering what was it that made me fall. It wasn't the goosebumps as I realized later on . It was just that I gave up I suppose . My hydrophobia got the better of me. I had a good laugh at myself. The good part here was it kinda got the fear out of me. I got united with my team within next 15 mins when we were back on still water. At the end of it all I came to know that atleast 20 more people feel in at different points of the whole trip. Anyhow After the next 3-4 hrs were the ride of my life. I didn't fell once in the water but again the yearn was there now. The rest of the trip was a huge fun ride with superb scenery and eclectic kinds of Rocks and Rapids all along. I later found each and every rapid had a name of its own. Some were remarkable.-"Bastard Rapid"...ahan....."Cucumber","A bottle of wine"..I like this one, "Camel and Walrus", "Killer Falls"..Yeah Right !!!,"Lost and Found", "School house" and ours truly "Dimple Rock".

Rafting is thrilling, exciting, wet, wild and unbelievably fun. However, as with all adventure sports, there is inherent risk involved. That risk contributes to the excitement, and is one of the reasons people enjoy rafting so much. My advice to people is to enjoy rafting without feeling scared and yeah to tell you the truth the most amazing part was falling down. So if you don't fall down once you haven't enjoyed it really !!

Mother nature played its part to entirety. It made us get caught in rocks and toppled down our rafts. Huge rocks unnoticed earlier reached out as if to grab you in to the swirling water and lot of times these rocks which seems like a menace to us turned out be the island of safety as well for some. Guess that's the way Mother Nature plays.

I had this amazing sense of escape as if away from civilization absorbing amazing scenery as I floated through each rapid amidst gushing whitewater learning new paddle commands in a without worries environment and discovering how to paddle together as a team forming new bonds and completely relax to the soft sounds of the river lapping at the side of your raft. Truly Amazing !!!!. A must for everyone.