So the other day the office girls of Los Rios River Runners all went for a river trip. We talked our Boss, Cisco, into giving us a girl bonding day on the river and letting the river guides run the office. As girls often do, it took us until the day before to decide where we wanted to go. You see, the office girls not only answer phones, take the reservations, and do the scheduling, we also study the water levels and see what the trends are and how we think the water for the next few days is going to look without actually knowing how it is going to look. So we waited until we saw what the water was doing the day before and then we decided on the Taos Box.
That morning we all showed up to go boating, though some of us helped get the office started while some of us helped pack the trip. We loaded the bus and off we went.
Kyle, from Raft Photos, met us at the put-in and took all the beach group pictures and then it was time to load into our boats.
So, since we are the office staff, we got to pick our guide and we picked John Harvey, one of our Senior Guides with over 20 years of experience on the Rio Grande. Kyle ran to the John Dunn Bridge and grabbed some photos of us as we went by.
We couldn't figure out what our river guide was doing in this next photo- maybe abandoning ship?- but he was just standing up to tap the bottom of the bridge with his paddle.
And the river adventure began! The Taos Box is a 16 mile stretch of river that ranges from mellow water to class 4, edge-of-your-seat whitewater. The morning is the slightly more mellow section of the river, and by that I mean class 3, followed by a brief pause for our standard Los Rios deli buffet lunch (I made a delicious sandwich with avo, tomato, onion, lettuce, peppers, pickles, turkey, and cheese). We started the afternoon off with Dead Car Rapid, a class 4, and then they just kept coming. Powerline was next, a class 4 with an 11' drop. As we came around the corner, the 2 office managers (we are in the back near John) took a big deep breath and looked at each other... but we got this. After Powerline came the Rock Graden, an intense section of class 3 and 4 whitewater. Then we were getting to the end, as we were running through Screaming right, another class 4 rapid. As we came in, we caught a rock on the front right of our boat, starting a cascade effect where the right side started to go under water. Marilee, the front right paddler in our boat, couldn't get the footing to stay in, so she went for a swim. The rest of the right side stayed in due to everyone grabbing each other to make sure that no one else swam. Another boat pulled Marilee in and we were all back together a few minutes. And then we were off again. The last rapid is Sunset rapid, where we meet our photographer from Southern Exposure again (raftphotos.com). This rapid signals the end of our amazing day of office girl bonding and adventure.
We hit the take-out and unload from our boat. What a great day! On the bus ride home, a few of us fall asleep and some of us are chatting in the back. We get to the boatyard and the girls divide, some of us come into the office and pick up the pieces of a busy day for the boys, some of us help unload the trip. Once 6 o'clock hits, we all sit down, enjoy a cocktail, and talk about our day. Just wait until next time, the office girls are going to go boating again!
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