Rivermen

The New River Gorge is located in Fayetteville, West Virginia and I am use to hearing it referred to as the "new" by all my climbing friends. Apparently this is one of the best locations for climbing near Maryland. I am not a climber but got the chance to visit the gorge with about 35 other people when I agreed to accompany Missy and Jason on a white water rafting excursion last weekend.

After a 5 hour car ride and some horrible food from Arby's we arrived at our camping ground.

Rivermen(www.rivermen.com) was the outfit we chose and after our experience I wouldn't chose anyone else. Not only were they incredibly knowledgeable of the river, geology and history of the area but they can also throw down. You see Friday night when we got there and Saturday night after we ate dinner we (the residents of our 5 campsites) partied like no other. We had all the other campers from neighboring campsites stopping by for dancing, beer pong (which I am championing of) and more late night grilling. Jason's friend Rick brought his DJ equipment and we had a block party in the woods.

A small piece about the guide who ran our boat. Her name is Ella, she is a senior guide, incredibly gifted, good at shouting orders and easy on the eyes. (Pictured below w/TS) She also has a daughter who is 21 and a son who is 18. She works the river on the weekends and resides with her husband in Dayton, OH. We learned all of this while she took us on several class 4-5 rapids (I think). Her dream was to run the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon which despite a long waiting list she will realize next year. She was also a former Florida cheerleader. (I am not a stalker, I just do my research). Ella and the rest of Rivermen's guides and staff were all amazing and I cannot wait to put together a trip next year.

Synopsis of Events: Friday: We arrived after a 5 hour car ride and set up camp. Then we went and bought beer and food and started grilling. Then Party #1. Then I went to bed sometime around 3:00am. I slept in a tent on some very unforgiving ground and got about 2 hours of actual sleep. I woke up at 6:00am on Saturday and changed for the day of river adventure. At around 7:30am (or so) we all piled into some schoolbuses after signing a waiver stating upon dying we had not right to sue. Very confident. Then when we got the the very crowded river's edge we split into groups (8 to a raft) and got int he water. After some quick instruction from the lovely Ella we were ready for our first rapid.........scene missing.

We ended the day and got back to camp, showered and got dinner at the main lodge area. Then after a quick rest (I basically lied on the hard-ass ground and tried with no luck to sleep for 26 minutes) we stared up the music and the grill and partied until the cops told us to kill the music. During that time I ruled the beer-pong table and danced next to the fire while campers and staff came to our camp site to see what the "cool kids" were up to.....
Sunday morning we woke up, took down the tents, packed the trailer and after some crucial

Burger King we hit the road. The end.

Note:
On the second night when our guides and the rivermen owner came by and partied with us. I think he told Jason that he's never seen a group like ours or a party like we threw in the backwoods of West Virgina and he appreciated having us there.

All I can say is this was one of the most fun experiences I've had in a while.

Here are some pictures and I look forward to going again next year.

Thanks Missy and Jason and all my new friends who didn't mind that I didn't shower for 72 hours.......stank.
Shout out to Missy, Jason, Jay, Rick, Jason's Dad, Monica and Craig, Cormick and Kevin, Rich, Julie, Cherokee, Ted, the rest of our 40 person party, The firefighters from Ohio who can't play beer-pong to save their lives, and everyone at rivermen outfitters.
-TS