Raft your heart out

A year and a half into covering meth-fueled crime, political infighting and crumbling education, I was burnt out.
I asked my editor to let me take a break by delving into the Mt. Hood National Forest. He agreed, as long as I brought back an exciting story.
Naturally, I decided to tag along for a tour of the Clackamas River rapids.
I was terrified.
There was a release form to sign with some morbid things to initial.
But before I knew it, I was climbing in as the guide explained how to paddle and what to do if you fall out in the rapids.
Blue Sky Rafting guides are prepared for guests' trepidation and do away with it immediately by giving a taste of whitewater right away.
About a quarter of a mile into Blue Sky Rafting’s half-day trip on the Clackamas River, you hit the Hole in the Wall Rapids.
And it’s really, really fun.
As soon as we reached calm water, I couldn’t wait to find the waves again.
Beaming, with a face-full of water, my mind was yelling “Let’s do it again!”
That’s just what Blue Sky Rafting Guide Matthew Haenny was aiming for.
As the other rafters and I shook water from our hair and eyes, Haenny told us that his job description is basically to bring us back grinning with our hair wet. Job well done.
This probably wouldn’t surprise Blue Sky Rafting founder Pete Giordano.
Giordano said "grandparents to small children and everything in between," come to experience the Clackamas River through Blue Sky Rafting trips.
That’s not to say that the tour isn’t exciting.
Haenny gave our tour several opportunities to surf the raft on waves and showed us all how to do the “bull rider” at the front of the raft with your legs hanging over while holding onto a knotted cord.
The six-mile, half-day float of the Clackamas takes you through several rapids ranging from Class 2 to Class 4; the most exciting being the Toilet Bowl near the end of the trip.
Between rapids, there is plenty to look at: basalt cliffs, old growth forests, bright goldfinches, maybe even an osprey and, of course, the water.
“What everyone comments on most frequently is the water clarity. You can see all the way to the bottom at times,” Giordano said.
“The scenery is just knock your socks off beautiful,” he said and pointed out that the Clackamas is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River. “It’s unusual to find something of that quality so close to an urban setting.”
The editor wound up liking my story and ran it in three papers.