The Provo River

Today I floated the Provo river with some friends of mine. I was a little stressed at first about having everyone show up because the company that runs the show making you pay for people who dont show up in your reservation....YIKES! We had a lot of fun. Once you arrive at the location where the float ends, they pile you up in a bus and drive you to the Dam up Provo Canyon and drop you off; you get in the water, and off you go.....the water was about 50 degress F, oh man it was kinda cold, but after a few minutes you're so numb that you really cant feel the water let alone your lower extremities. The scenery was amazing! If I had been smart I wouldnt taken a water proof camera and taken some photos. I capsized a couple times from hitting hidden rocks in the water and other rapids that tossed me out of the tube. Likewise, Estee got carried away by the current while trying to get out of the river, and Dave and I had to chase after her. Jared, what a funny kid, decided to float down the river on an inflated plastic aligator named "Alex"..ha ha ha. So funny. There is a part in the float that you encounter a bridge that you refer to as "The Bridge of Death" mainly because there is a high possibility of smashing into the pillars below the bridge and puncturing the tube or worse smashing yourself into the bridge, which apparently has happened a number of times. They "recommended" that each tuber exit the river before the bridge and walk around it. However Jared encouraged me to float with him through the bridge. The current was suprisingly fast considering the river as a whole runs fairly slow. I had to lay on my stomach and paddle fast toward the right side of the river as we approached the bridge in order to float through the farthest right pile-on, I barely missed smashing into the wall of the side of the bridge as the river turned and continued down stream, but inevitable made it to the shore and rejoined the group. There were a lot of pines, scrub oak, a variety of wildlife, and of course on lookers out with their hoses trying to further drench passing tubers down the river. It was at such a passing that I slammed into a passing branch and fell out of my tube. (It is often difficult to avoid these, as the current is too fast to try and get out of the way) All in all the trip down the river took about 2 hours, not too bad and fairly relaxing. We were all drenched from head to toe, and thoroughly happy. We ended our outing at Bajios and called it a day.