Good Outdoor Fun

A few of our friends invited us to go camping and white water rafting in western Massachusetts last weekend. So after Bobbi's funeral, we packed up the car and headed up to Peppermint Park Campground for a little R&R and some time out-of doors. When we arrived, we set up our tent and waited for the others to arrive back from their zip-line adventure.

Their tents...and ours.

After everyone arrived back at camp, we started up the campfire and made dinner. Usually when James and I camp we're in the backcountry and dinner consists of Ramen noodles and packets of hot chocolate. That was not the experience we were treated to on this night. Our friend Chris cooked us a gourmet dinner of roasted veggies, potatoes and corn on the cob along with some kind of pork roast for the meat eaters and veggie burgers for the vegetarians (thankfully I was not the only one!). For dessert, of course, we had smores.

On Sunday we woke up, packed up the tents and headed to the Moxie Outdoor Adventures headquarters in Charlemont, MA to get ready for a day of white water rafting on the Deerfield River. Neither James or I had ever been rafting before so we were super psyched.

The section of the Deerfield River that we rafted is known as the Fife Brook. The major Class III feature along this stretch of the Deerfield is called the Zoar Gap which was by far the most fun part of the ride down. Because we were part of a small group, our guides actually let us do it twice. James and I got to sit in the front of the raft, which are the most exciting seats on the boat, but also two of the most important because you have to work together and paddle in sync. They are also the only two seats on the raft where there is nothing to wedge your feet into and not much to hold on to. Still, beside one casualty out of the boat (James) and one fat lip (Cary), we did alright.

Rafting the Zoar Gap, Photos by Moxie Outdoor Adventure

It was so much fun we really want to go again and try our hand at some Class IV and V rapids. There are a few advanced trips we could do in western MA and even more in Maine. Maybe we'll have to put that on the list for next summer.