Today begins the highlight of our trip…a 3 day whitewater rafting trip. The Arkansas River gives beautiful views of the Colligate Mountain Range including (Princeton, Harvard and Yale), Browns Canyon a wildlife preserve and the Royal Gorge which parallels some of the finest scenery in the US. Both Isaiah and I have done whitewater rafting before on the black river north of Watertown. My wife and Ethan have never been and I think my wife was a little more nervous than my son. The day started out a little bit rough in that I was uneasy about the quality of the trip. The Arkansas River looked small. It was no wider than most steams or creeks in NY. I asked the general manager about it and he stated in all the 20 years he had been associated with the Arkansas, he could not remember a dissatisfied customer. I was still apprehensive and finally left the decision up to my family. Thumbs up! OK we are going. We met our guide. His name is Shahir, from Jordan…he grew up in Islam. His English was better than mine and he had been guiding the Arkansas for 8 years. I requested a family orientated trip with little interaction with partiers. I know how these trips can be. Shahir seemed friendly and had no visible tattoos and carried himself professionally. We proceeded to the equipment area where we met Sanet, she was born in South Africa and lived in Boston for a while before wanting to be a guide. She helped us get wet suits, helmets, splash jackets and waterproof sacks for our gear.
Sanet would accompany us for the entire trip along with Emily as Shahirs support team. So we had three Echo Canyon guides for the four of us. Fantastic. We gave Sanet all of our gear and entered the van for the long drive to our drop point. While driving for an hour, we began to get to know Shahir. I started a conversation about Christ and we had a pleasant conversation about access to heaven. He definitely wants to go there and I challenged his thinking about how to get there. We entered the Arkansas just below the “Numbers” a series of mostly class 4 with a few class 3 rapids…too much for Ethan. During high water, this part of the Arkansas coming directly from the mountains is as high as you can go and as rough as any rapids in the US. It is high adventure. We entered right below this where there were a couple of class 4 rapids but mainly 3’s, 2’s and 1’s. 
Mostly the Arkansas was at medium levels making for what Shahir called a very family orientated trip. The Arkansas River originates in the Rockies and dumps into the Mississippi river. It is 1500 miles long and is considered to be low volume highly technical. In case you are wondering, the black and Moose Rivers are high volume rivers. High volume means 25,000 to 30,000 CSF’s. The Arkansas was never more than 1700 for our ride and at 3000 CSF will flip the most experienced guide. 
Once in the water, Shahir began to show us why he is one of the best guides on the Arkansas. We floated for a while with Shahir calling out commands to see how we’d respond. He told my kids (and us) that we are the engine and he is the steering wheel. So the 2 pistons on the right were Isaiah and Therese and on the left were Paul and Ethan.
Mostly the Arkansas was at medium levels making for what Shahir called a very family orientated trip. The Arkansas River originates in the Rockies and dumps into the Mississippi river. It is 1500 miles long and is considered to be low volume highly technical. In case you are wondering, the black and Moose Rivers are high volume rivers. High volume means 25,000 to 30,000 CSF’s. The Arkansas was never more than 1700 for our ride and at 3000 CSF will flip the most experienced guide. Once in the water, Shahir began to show us why he is one of the best guides on the Arkansas. We floated for a while with Shahir calling out commands to see how we’d respond. He told my kids (and us) that we are the engine and he is the steering wheel. So the 2 pistons on the right were Isaiah and Therese and on the left were Paul and Ethan.
All we needed to do was follow his commands in sync and he’d do the rest. Well we rode some class 3’s and 2’s to get warmed up. The water was about 55 degrees; remember melting ice from the Rockies is very cold. We then came to Silver Bullet rapids which has a big drop. In my opinion and hind sight probably the biggest we did in 3 days. We paddle checked then went for it. Like a master, Shahir ran it with out incident and we had a huge crash as the front of the raft dipped into the hydraulic. Whosh! We all got soaked with 55 degree water and it was very exhilarating.Everyone forgot how small the river looked and began to have the utmost respect for the Arkansas. No pictures but it is committed to memory. We looked back on the drop and it was staggering. Remember we are in a 11.5 foot raft. The ones we use on the Black are 18 feet. It’s like driving a Porsche versus a Cadillac. For the rest of the day Shahir told us stories about the Arkansas and we befriended him as part of the Bailey family. Many of the rocks are named by the guides based on how they look. There is sleeping lion, Indian Joe, Pink Panther, full moon, howling coyote; there was even a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. He fit in nicely and never once did he make us feel uncomfortable. We hit many more rapids which he executed perfectly. He kicked a field goal where he maneuvered the raft between two rocks missing them by inches. I faked a hit by jerking my body challenging his perfect run. He’d turn me and Ethan into the surf getting us soaked then my wife and Isaiah getting them soaked. We swam at several points as well. The boys began to witness to Shair once a gain during the low points. I am amazed how much the boys know and how they commanded the attention of Shahir. My wife also shared with Shahir demonstrating a calm commanding knowledge of the Word. My whole family witnessed to Shahir while I listened. I know he will never forget this and knows our family has a single focus on Christ.
The one thing that kept my boys aggressive was Shahirs desire NOT to get wet. At every turn the boys were trying to get him wet to his protesting. This became their goal. We ate lunch late at around 2:30pm where some of the guides set up camp for the summer. Basically the guides have really inexpensive travel trailers or tents for the entire summer. The really rough it for the months they are guiding. Echo rents the land for the summer and sets up a permanent eating area. We used this for lunch. Basically Shahir had brought 4 types of cheese, ham, salami, turkey, pickles, Pringles, etc. There was more than enough for everyone and then some.
We eventually reached our camping spot called Hippo campsite around 5 to 5:30pm, much later than we anticipated. As we pulled into the beach, we found that we were the only raft camping there. Sanet and Emily had rafted ahead of us and had set up a kitchen for cooking, a dining room for eating and our two tents up on a remote campsite overlooking the Arkansas and with a great view of the Colligate mountain range. 
I had requested NY strip steaks, Shahir added mashed red potatoes with bacon and chive, Bush’s baked beans. He first prepared pigs in the blankets in a Dutch oven! I’m impressed. Basically biscuits wrapped around a Hillshire mini cheese sausage. They were awesome. Course number 1.
We then had our steaks cooked over charcoal. Sanet mashed the potatoes. Course number 2! Awesome!
I then went to snap pictures of the sunset while Shahir made a fruit medley of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries for a topping over angel food cake with whipped cream and mashed Milano cookies. Course number 3…Yum Yum! We then enjoyed the rest of the evening with my kids telling Shahir more than he wanted to know about the Disney movies they watched. They also began telling jokes and riddles to the three unsuspecting guides. Everyone laughed. What a fun time. It was getting late and the kids were going on and on with Shahir. At one point he tried to go to sleep only to find my son Ethan bending his ear as he shrunk down into his bag. It was a full moon and the stars were awesome. The guides slept under the stars while we retired to our tents. Isaiah and I vowed to sleep under the stars tomorrow night. It was a cool evening, perfect for sleeping. The sky was lit up and the full moon provided enough light that no flashlights were needed. I must say that I could not imagine it getting any better than this. All of us enjoyed the day immensely.
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