About Me
- Name: Patrick
- Location: Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
I'm an Engineer working in Tyne and Wear, having moved from Belfast 3 years ago. Before the move I had never lived away from home and have had to work alot of things out for myself. I'm a big fan of Ice Hockey, in particular my team the Belfast Giants who I travel to see all over the UK. I also have a beautiful fiancee Victoria with whom I live in Gateshead. I also publish a weekly Ice Hockey Podcast with my friend Aaron, available on iTunes called A View From The Bridge
Links
Archives
Between July 9th and August 20th 2004, Patrick Smyth and Claire McAllister will travel between Vancouver and Toronto on a whistle-stop tour of the Worlds 2nd biggest country.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Kicking Horse River
No time for breakfast as we all slept in for the bus to the rafting. Mary was still a little drunk from the night before having stayed out a bit later than the rest of us. So she started to sober up as we made the 1hr 30min trip to the Kicking Horse River for one of the activities Claire and I had really been looking forward to.
For $115 each (about 46 pounds) we were given a steak bbq lunch, 2 and a half hours of white water rafting plus transport, equipment, guiding and a snack for the way home.
So we wolfed down our steaks (some to rid themselves of hangovers) and had our safety briefing. We were fitted out with our equipment and checked before making our way in the brilliant sunshine to the rafts.
I know a lot of you are gonna be sick of our stories, but this probably more than most.
Rafting though canyons in the Rockie Mountains, though Class 2,3 and 4 rapids, on a river made up of water that less than a day previous was ice in a glacier. are ya sickened yet?
I wouldnt admit it, but i was a little nervous about the whole thing, and i think Claire was too, but in the end it was the greatest fun i've ever had. Fear, adreniline and hypothermic water all rolled into one.
Our guide and instructor was Steve, he was good craic and knew exactly how to entertain the tourists, was very knowlegable with the rock formations we passed in the canyons and made us all feel at ease in the more frightening waters (and I'm sure Claire would mention that she and all the girls were drooling over him... couldnt see it myself...).
One of the first things he got us to do was to get each of us to jump in the river... just for rescue practise incase we fell out... it was bloody cold.. but strangely made us feel alot more comfortable in our wetsuits and lifejackets. None of intended going in again.
The first hour was spent going through drills, techniques and calls from the guide, so we knew how to deal with a situation such as a 5 metre high wave hitting us from the side. I thought this was an exageration.... i was wrong.
A few of the class 1 and 2 rapids gave us an initial shock... we aint seen nothing.. we hit the class 3 and 4 with avengance, some waves crashing into Dan and I at the front of the raft forcing us right into the boat off our sitting positions and nearly dragging us in. It was amazing.
Hitting huge waves nose first, forcing the raft to fly through the air and crash into another wave. The rapids were quite scary but really gave us a kick when we got through them. Everytime i looked round at claire she had a big smile on her face.
Toward the end we hit a rapid called the Bridge Wave, and Steve asked if anyone would like to swim through it, i thought he was joking, he wasn't. There were laughs and "No ways" shouted. But Dan and I said yes and jumped out of the boat into the river to drift through this rapid feet first. And what a rush! I went flying through them at great speed (or so it felt to me), swalowing half the river on my way. got through it, turned and swam back to the raft. It gave us both such a buzz, i had a grin on my face for hours.
It all seemed to end too quick, but was an amazing experience. Both Claire and I were so glad we did it and it was worth every penny
We got back to the hostel in Banff and after cleaning ourselves up, Claire, Mary, Dan, Debs and I went for food in the local Irish bar before hitting a shop or two. We hadn't actually bought anything of note yet in our trip so a visit to Roots Athletic clothes shop led to us both getting something for our journey.
Its back to the hostel now though to back our bags and get an early night, cos after today we're both wrecked!!
On to Revelstoke tomorrow. But Banff has been great.
Patrick + Claire
PS. The photos (however none of the rafting cos you werent allowed to bring cameras) have been passed on to our very kind host (thanks marty) and hopefully will be updated v soon. Theres over 100 of them, and as soon as they are, i'll link a number of them to the relevent blog entries.
For $115 each (about 46 pounds) we were given a steak bbq lunch, 2 and a half hours of white water rafting plus transport, equipment, guiding and a snack for the way home.
So we wolfed down our steaks (some to rid themselves of hangovers) and had our safety briefing. We were fitted out with our equipment and checked before making our way in the brilliant sunshine to the rafts.
I know a lot of you are gonna be sick of our stories, but this probably more than most.
Rafting though canyons in the Rockie Mountains, though Class 2,3 and 4 rapids, on a river made up of water that less than a day previous was ice in a glacier. are ya sickened yet?
I wouldnt admit it, but i was a little nervous about the whole thing, and i think Claire was too, but in the end it was the greatest fun i've ever had. Fear, adreniline and hypothermic water all rolled into one.
Our guide and instructor was Steve, he was good craic and knew exactly how to entertain the tourists, was very knowlegable with the rock formations we passed in the canyons and made us all feel at ease in the more frightening waters (and I'm sure Claire would mention that she and all the girls were drooling over him... couldnt see it myself...).
One of the first things he got us to do was to get each of us to jump in the river... just for rescue practise incase we fell out... it was bloody cold.. but strangely made us feel alot more comfortable in our wetsuits and lifejackets. None of intended going in again.
The first hour was spent going through drills, techniques and calls from the guide, so we knew how to deal with a situation such as a 5 metre high wave hitting us from the side. I thought this was an exageration.... i was wrong.
A few of the class 1 and 2 rapids gave us an initial shock... we aint seen nothing.. we hit the class 3 and 4 with avengance, some waves crashing into Dan and I at the front of the raft forcing us right into the boat off our sitting positions and nearly dragging us in. It was amazing.
Hitting huge waves nose first, forcing the raft to fly through the air and crash into another wave. The rapids were quite scary but really gave us a kick when we got through them. Everytime i looked round at claire she had a big smile on her face.
Toward the end we hit a rapid called the Bridge Wave, and Steve asked if anyone would like to swim through it, i thought he was joking, he wasn't. There were laughs and "No ways" shouted. But Dan and I said yes and jumped out of the boat into the river to drift through this rapid feet first. And what a rush! I went flying through them at great speed (or so it felt to me), swalowing half the river on my way. got through it, turned and swam back to the raft. It gave us both such a buzz, i had a grin on my face for hours.
It all seemed to end too quick, but was an amazing experience. Both Claire and I were so glad we did it and it was worth every penny
We got back to the hostel in Banff and after cleaning ourselves up, Claire, Mary, Dan, Debs and I went for food in the local Irish bar before hitting a shop or two. We hadn't actually bought anything of note yet in our trip so a visit to Roots Athletic clothes shop led to us both getting something for our journey.
Its back to the hostel now though to back our bags and get an early night, cos after today we're both wrecked!!
On to Revelstoke tomorrow. But Banff has been great.
Patrick + Claire
PS. The photos (however none of the rafting cos you werent allowed to bring cameras) have been passed on to our very kind host (thanks marty) and hopefully will be updated v soon. Theres over 100 of them, and as soon as they are, i'll link a number of them to the relevent blog entries.
