Date: 2013-07-20
From: Shenandoah River 

To: Shenandoah River 
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Saturday, July 20thShenadoah RiverAquablaze Day Five8 River MilesIn order to get into a better position, we picked up our camp with the intention of rafting directly to the Betty so we didn't have to do a rendezvous. Cannibal decided to park the Betty at mile post 16 in order to get the dogs out of the raft before the largest rapids of the trip near mile post 18. Yes, the dogs. So we can all go in the rafts at once, we are now carrying Ryo and Three, Cannibal and Sunshine's part Coyote, part Shepard dogs.The puppies ride the river well. They were very well behaved on the raft. They seem to enjoy the ride, but occasionally got hot. It's probably difficult to sit still that long for a hound, but they haven't complained much. We went to WalMart to stock up on food and supplies. I bought us some new styrofoam coolers, but paid extra for the heavy duty type so they would last a bit longer.   We also had to pick up camp and work on the Betty for a minute. By the time we were ready to launch it was already 3:30 in the afternoon. We should still have time to go 8 miles if we could do about two miles per hour. The river was becoming lower and clearer, more normal after all the rain we'd had before we started. I can't believe how lucky we have been to have good weather, relative to the rainy weather we experienced just the day before we started rafting, though we were hit with an afternoon shower on the river. We hit some of the larger rapids of the trip, but they were still in the class I range. We weren't expected to hit the class II rapids until after mile post 16.This was supposed to be the prettiest and most visited part of the river. The river was pretty, and the wildlife plentiful, but it seemed about the same as the river behind us. We hit mile post 9 after what seemed like a long time. There were plenty of small rapids and even more slow areas. Later in the afternoon we started hearing the faint rumble of distant thunder. This was typical of the last few afternoons, but not yet as harrowing as our lunch stop the day before yesterday.Today we were spared a fight with Mother Nature who threatened, but never struck too hard. It was getting late. The river was turning glass-like.   Pillars of steam rising from the surface of the river. The light was dimming. As our ability to see the sides of the river waned, we were carried into the abyss.   Mother has turned dark on us once again. Recall last time this happened we were lucky that Thistle happened to spot the Betty in the parking lot we had left her. Could we be so lucky again? I was in no hurry to test it, but we had to find mile post 16. The near full moon gazed down upon our back shoulder.   The light was adequate for seeing up and down the river, and even spotting an occasional rock or log. But the sides were black, shadows within darker shadows blending to black.   We stayed close to the right side of the river so as not to miss our landing. We were lucky once again to find the Betty and not pass her. I don't want to keep doing this because our luck will surely run out.   As for now, safe and sound once again.