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White Water Rafting, Klamath River: July 25 - 27

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The Klamath River is about 700 miles from Los Angeles and is pretty much an all day drive, the last portion through some road sickness inducing twisties. Kenny Phillips was the lead on this outing and a large number of the team headed up to the river for a different sort of camping and paddling for the weekend.

If memory serves me correctly, this trip was something that Little Kenny did as a boyscout and thought would be a fun outing for the team. I do remember that the drive was twice as long as we expected and Eddy and I took a little extra time getting up there, spending the night at a Kampgrounds of America somewhere in the middle of the drive.

We had three rafts on the water, and all of the guides were quite impressed with our ability to paddle in sync. We stopped at one point for a short hike inland to a waterfall. The hike there and back was fairly uneventful but the waterfall itself was quite impressive.

To get closer to the waterfall which was in its own sheltered circular alcove with a large rock in the center, we had to all cross the stream which was moving quite fast that close to the waterfall. Some of us larger ones waded out into the water and used our mass to stabilize ourselves and conga line the rest of the group across.

Huay made it a few feet across before being picked up by the current and thrown downstream. I grabbed her and pulled/pushed her to safety. She was a little shaken up but was okay. I hope I didn't hurt her as i might have grabbed her quite hard in my knee-jerk reaction to stop her from flying by.

I also remember the drive back was even more brutal as we left fairly late in the day and Leon was driving his group back and I was driving Eddy and a lot of gear. We made it safely down the hill and started heading south. I think we had insane aspirations of driving all the way back to Upland that night but that wasn't going to happen and we stopped at some greasy spoon somehwere along the way for some food and spent the night somewhere (I think).

Kenny Kim reminiscing 2010


Cliff jumping for the brave

I remember my face towelettes gave Wynne a rash.

And I remember that when you saved me from floating down the river - Kenny - you actually grabbed me by the neck. It was hilarious - afterwards... but I did remember Wileen scream when I floated off. [Oops]

Oh. I also saw a small snake in the river as we hiked back.

Ugh...

I also remember that as we were starting out on the river - while the guide warned us what to do if we fell out of the boat - legs first - direct yourself to the shore - etc... And then what do you know - Leon had already fallen out and is floating downriver...

Thank goodness for wetsuits - for those who had them...

Huay (email response to reminiscing)

Women

Huay Wee
Wileen Wong
Wynne Wong
??

Men

Greg Kromhout
Kenny Kim
Eddy Kim
Leon Cheng
Kenny Phillips
??
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