{"id":17023,"date":"2018-07-22T07:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=17023"},"modified":"2018-07-22T09:13:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-22T16:13:52","slug":"too-old-to-raft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2018\/07\/22\/too-old-to-raft\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Old To Raft"},"content":{"rendered":"

I gave my heart to the mountains the minute I stood beside this river with its spray in my face and watched it thunder into foam, smooth to green glass over sunken rocks, shatter to foam again…By such a river it is impossible to believe that one will ever be tired or old. \u2013 Wallace Stegner<\/em><\/p>\n

And yet, rivers or no, we will<\/em> become tired and we will<\/em> grow old. So, at some point, we will need to ask, \u201cWhen are we too<\/em> old?\u201d Does there come an age when the risk of running rapids is far greater than the reward? And should anybody\u2014children, loved ones, friends\u2014be able to tell someone else to stop, to hand over the paddles or the oars, so to speak?<\/p>\n

Many of us have thought about these questions, at least abstractly. Either we, ourselves, are older, or we\u2019ve rafted or kayaked with older people. Most of us have probably realized there are no easy answers. Too many variables apply.<\/p>\n

So each river trip becomes a partial answer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This May, I picked up a cancellation permit for the Green River through the Gates of Lodore. And because short-notice favors the retired, semi-retired, or at least securely employed, I ended up with an older group of boaters, including my own dad, who, at 69, wasn\u2019t the oldest person in the group.<\/p>\n

Eleven of us launched on a lucky 7000 cfs flush from the Flaming Gorge Dam. My only experience on Lodore had been the previous August with flows at 1800 cfs, so I was excited to see the river at a higher level. My excitement tempered, however, by the fact that my dad was going to pilot his own 12-foot cataraft through whitewater for the first time. In my memory, Lodore at 1800 would be a good flow for a first whitewater experience, but higher flows created some questions.<\/p>\n

Several of the other boaters had multiple Lodore trips under their oars, on flows ranging from 1200 to 10,000, needless to say, opinions varied on what 7000 would be like. This rapid bigger, that one smaller, but in truth, no one really knew.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After launching from the ramp you don\u2019t get a long time to ponder these questions. The first major rapids come early.<\/p>\n

We rowed into a fast eddy above Upper Disaster to scout. My dad struggled to hit the eddy. His ferry angle was wrong. He hit the eddy too low. He didn\u2019t pull hard enough on the oars. When he finally rowed up beside the rest of us, he didn\u2019t seem concerned that he just about blew the eddy. The list goes on. Or, maybe I just wanted to find a reason\u2014or twelve\u2014that he shouldn\u2019t row the rapid. My dad wasn\u2019t just an older boater, he was a newbie older boater\u2014a dangerous combination.<\/p>\n

Most of the older people I boat with have river resumes pre-dating me. These people were guides on major rivers, recreational rafters from way back, or spent their youth kayaking and only switched to rafting after an injury. The assumption has always been that they can take care of themselves. Because he was a rookie, I couldn\u2019t assume that about my dad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Part of the equation of when we are too old<\/em> has to do with experience. Being older might mean having a harder time getting out of trouble, but being older often means you don\u2019t get into trouble in the first place. \u201cIt\u2019s never too early,\u201d was the first piece of rafting advice I was given\u2014not coincidentally by an older rafter. This advice has always served me well, and it\u2019s something older boaters frequently employ. If there\u2019s a move that needs to be made, they do it early. Except, or course, when they don\u2019t or can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

On my first Lodore trip, the trip leader missed the scout and we ran Upper and Lower Disaster Falls blind.\u00a0Gary, a 75-year-old bucket boater, took the bony run down Disaster Falls and ended up with five holes in the bottom of his raft.\u00a0\u201cThis is nothing,\u201d he said as he patched the holes in camp. \u201cDid I tell you about the time I hit the ledge hole in Lava?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Gary, however, my dad was not a rafter from way back, and I didn\u2019t really want him to have a ledge-hole experience. Back home, when my sister had questioned the wisdom of this new hobby, I had shrugged. But watching the water pile up and surge at Upper Disaster, I couldn\u2019t be quite so cavalier. He was my dad and his safety mattered to me. Then there was the safety of the group. A rescue or an injury early on in the trip could put others at risk or, at the very least, be a real bummer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From the scout, Upper Disaster Falls looked tricky, big water and a couple of big holes. But the real problem, at least in letting my dad run the rapid, was Lower Disaster Falls. A quarter mile and an ankle-busting scout away, the river runs up against an undercut cliff. At lower water levels I didn\u2019t remember it being any problem. But even from Upper Disaster I could see new features were in play at a higher level. Water broke against the cliff and waves splashed over a large rock in the middle of the river. Moves in fast, broken water, would need to be made.<\/p>\n

Then and there I decided not to let my dad run the rapid. It\u2019s not easy to tell your dad no. Despite all the times he told you \u201cno\u201d growing up, but I did. His face said he wasn\u2019t happy about it, but he didn\u2019t protest.<\/p>\n

Earlier during the drive to the launch, he had confided that he would abide by my decision about running the bigger rapids. For this I was thankful because you can\u2019t really tell grown adults they can\u2019t run their own boat. Just like you can\u2019t really tell them they can\u2019t drive their car. I appreciated that he knew his own limitations or at least listened to the advice of someone who knew his limitations, which as a river-running accessory might be as important as a PFD.<\/p>\n

A friend rowed my dad\u2019s cat and the run went fine. Not everybody hit their lines perfectly, but all rafts and kayaks were right side up at the bottom and nobody was injured. I felt good about my decision because those of us who love rivers know that it could\u2019ve been otherwise.<\/p>\n