Wet, and a little wild

Today was full of fun.  Before we left for the raft trip Matt, Chris, Abe and I walked down to drop off some recyclables, walked through the John Denver Memorial, picked up a few groceries then headed back to the condo.  Also along the way we bought a pound of dolmades from a Mediterranean deli.  I noticed at the grocery store that the salad bar had dolmades for less than half the price at the deli so I selected several and brought them home.  We had a blind taste test and now realize we don't have to spend so much for this treat in the future.  We had a light lunch, split  up and headed our for the afternoon.

Above is a pic of Abe and Aunt Christine spotting some trout in the creek by John Denver's Memorial.  Also along the way we walked past an elaborate skate boarding park.  Here is a view of that.



Maya, Prema and her folks attended a master class led by Mr. Robert McDuffie.  The report was that the event was awesome both re the student talent and the tutelage.


The Blazing Adventure experienced by the rest of us was a lot of fun.  We floated down the Roaring Fork River for over an hour, starting south of Basalt and getting out somewhere on the other side of the town of Basalt.  Along the way we saw a lot of basalt, the igneous rock.  The water was classified as Class II which was just perfect for us.  There were several spots along the float where we went over some big, thrilling drops.  The water level was low so we became hung up on some submerged rocks.  The impacts made it challenging to stay in the boat, but we all did.

Near the end of the float we went over a "waterfall" drop of several feet.  Surprisingly, there was someone there to take photographs.  He was kind enough to print the photos and offer to sell them to us at the take out location.  We rewarded his selfless generosity by purchasing one of the photos he had taken of our boat.  Here is a photo of the photo. It is blurry due to my photography technique; the original looks fine.

Our guide was Brie, a college student who attends the University of Connecticut, majoring in anthropology.