I first went white water rafting when I was around 17 years old.
I remember the first place we went was the Nanochuckie River in Tennessee.
This was a very memorable trip for me, especially being my first time going rafting.
I really didn't know what to expect at first when I signed up for the trip.
I just knew that I love being outdoors and I love an adrenaline rush, so it sounded fun.
We had to get there early in the morning.
We left at 9 am to get on the river.
If you have never been on a river that early in the morning, the point is that the water is very cold.
You have to be ready to fall out at any moment, and with the water being so cold that early in the morning, it gets your attention immediately.
Within a couple of hours, the sun had come out and it was a nice warm summer day that was upon us.
There was one point that we got to around 11 or 11:30 that I fell out of the boat.
Now when this happened I never thought that I would enjoy falling out so much, but I did.
It was such a rush being in the water that was that cold and running that fast downstream.
We were in class 4 rapids.
If you don't know, they rank the rapids in a class from 1-6.
1 is just running water really and 6 is the most extreme that you can get.
The 4 was just perfect for me, I tell you I loved it! I got back into the boat and we went downstream to pull off for lunch.
The guides packed sandwiches for us all.
They made peanut butter and hummus sandwiches.
I had never had hummus before, but once again to my surprise I really enjoyed the hummus.
The guides were a bit of health nuts and always ate healthy.
For a 17 year old, I can't really say that I was a healthy eater back then.
I really enjoyed the food though.
Back on the water we went and down the river again to this time class 4 and 5 rapids.
Once we got to the class 5 I started to really have fun.
It was even more of a rush than the class 4 rapids were.
I didn't fall out this time, although I did think about purposely doing it.
I decided that I would just swim down river later when we were done with the rapids.
Once we got through everything, that's exactly what I did.
The guide didn't mind a bit either.
We returned about 4 that afternoon after a long day on the river.
I have gone back almost every summer since that day.
I love to go and I highly recommend that you go if you get a chance.
It will give you such enjoyment in the outdoors on a nice day.
If you want to just go to class 2 and 3 rapids, you can do that too.
It's all up to you.
I just advise going on the river!