Onwards to Alaska: Whitewater Rafting at Denali

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Whitewater Rafting at Denali

August 2, 2013
O’dark thirty wakeup calls two days in a row.

We decided if we were going to do it, let’s do the adventurous version that includes class 2, 3 , & 4 whitewater. The first task was to don dry suits over our clothes. They use dry suits because of water temperatures and hypothermia protection. One funny sight was us on the bus looking like a bunch of Michelin men. These suits are water and air tight so we had to burp them. We put into the Nenana River just north of the Park entrance. Water temp was around 36 and the water is milky gray with glacial silt. Donna and I sat in the front 2 positions, one of us on each side. Katherine got the corner position in the back. We did not paddle; we had a guide who steered the boat with oars. The first rapid told us immediately what the rest of the 2 hours would be like as the wave broke over the port front over my shoulder. I had the “hot seat” although everyone got doused multiple times. Frankly we all had a blast. There were enough calm areas to let go of the safety line and relax a bit. Again, I think the pictures will tell the story better. By the way, dry suits are absolute necessity! We would have been miserable without them and with just rain suits or rubber slickers.