I am battered and bruised and a little bit burned today.

Tuesday I went whitewater rafting. For the first time I tried it on a Class IV river (before I stuck to Class III). It was *much* less crowded than any time I've rafted before. Our two rafts were the only ones we saw on the river all day long.

I think my favorite rapids were the first class IVs we came to called Tunnel Shoot. Some people even call this a class V rapid. Here's a picture (not my trip) - http://www.gikialumni.org/doc/portal/gallery/picture.jsp?view=imagedetail&picId=192. Yeah - that? We went down backwards for the most part. We got turned around at the beginning and there wasn't much we could do about it until the tunnel which is right after the rapids.

There was one rapid on the river that we weren't allowed to raft since it is a class VI. I can't say I'm upset about that having seen them from the river bank. Those looked scary! Our guides, however, ran them alone since we had to get the rafts down somehow.

The only thing that could have been better about the trip would be if I not fallen out of the raft. Twice. The second time onto some sort of rock that left me with a big bruise on my thigh. But it was fun and exciting nonetheless. I can highly, highly recommend rafting on the Middle Fork of the American River.

(Oh, the burned thing. Sunburn in a weird shape near my left ankle. Par for the course. I *thought* I covered every possible inch of skin. But maybe I missed it on the post-lunch re-application of sunscreen.)