For the past few weeks, it has been getting warmer here. Mostly the weather has been pretty nice, with the high temperatures only getting up to about 80 degrees, but even that feels pretty hot. What with the warm and sunny weather lately, a river float was proposed for this weekend. I wasn't entirely sure I would go at first, since I thought I'd have to take a train in my swimsuit while dragging all my gear, but it turned out that I could get a ride from Nelson, so it was all quite convenient. The car was a little crowded; it was meant to seat four people and there were five of us. But it's not a very long drive, and we didn't get pulled over, so it worked out just fine.
This afternoon, about 15 ALTs met up in Ino to float the Niyodo River. It's a very flat, slow river most of the time, and the water was especially low today. We left most of our stuff at the take-out point and piled into a few cars to drive up to where we would start. Of course, since we inflated our tubes before driving up to the start point, some of us had an interesting time fitting into the cars. I rode up in Lindsay's car with Laura, Lindsay and Julie, and only two of the tubes would fit into the car with us. As such, Julie and I were responsible for holding onto the other two tubes, which we hung out the windows. Not an elegant solution, but effective.
It was only a short drive upstream until we reached the starting point. A few final rafts and tubes were inflated, and we made for the water. Since today wasn't blazing hot, the water wasn't so much refreshing as chilly, but it was still a heck of a lot warmer than the Boise River. Although the water was a little cold, it didn't sting your skin or make your limbs go numb. It took everyone a while to steel up their nerves and work their way out of the shallows, but eventually we were headed downstream.
The Niyodo River seemed fairly slow the last time I floated it, but today most of the time it felt like we were barely moving. Although the scenery was beautiful, I have to admit that I got a little bored now and then. It was also a bit cold when the breeze picked up and the sky got cloudy. But it was nice to chat with various people, and I enjoyed watching the guys capsizing each others' floaties. Jamie was especially a target since he was in a mini-raft. And John didn't even need help getting knocked into the water, since he was trying to ride an inflatable lobster. They're quite unstable.
I'm not sure how long we were on the river, but it took quite a while to get back to our base camp under the bridge. Guy got too cold and got out of the water partway through, walking along the shore the rest of the way down. And he beat us back by a pretty good margin. So apparently the river was carrying us slower than walking pace.
After we all reached the end, we sat around eating snacks and drying off for a while before calling it a day and splitting up. Although it was not a super exciting river float, it was nice to spend the afternoon doing something with other people. Thanks to my sunscreen I believe I've avoided getting a sunburn, though I have a few slightly pink patches. And it was cheap entertainment given that I already had an inner tube from last year. So went the first river float of the summer.
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