Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

River Rafting in Colorado with Buffalo Joe’s on the Arkansas River

Yesterday, as the culminating event of our week in Colorado for Boy Scout camp, our troop went river rafting near Buena Vista, Colorado, with Buffalo Joe’s. My son, Alexander, is sitting to my left in the second row of our raft. It doesn’t look like we were enjoying this at all, does it?!

River Rafting in Colorado

What a fantastic afternoon of fun! I do not have a lot of experience white water rafting, and this was my son’s first time ever. It’s been at least ten years since I’ve been on a raft, on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. That was an evening dinner and wildlife watching raft trip, however, which was quite different than what we experienced yesterday on the Arkansas River. It’s amazing to realize this is the same Arkansas River (which has its headwaters about 60 miles from where we rafted, up closer to Leadville) which eventually meanders through Kansas and down through Tulsa town about two hours from where we live in Edmond, Oklahoma. It’s certainly a much more exciting river when it’s in Colorado! My only other rafting experiences have been on a river near Cody, Wyoming, but I don’t think it was quite as long or as exciting as our adventures yesterday on the Arkansas.

map of the Arkansas River from WikiPedia

Interestingly, in Kansas the Arkansas River is pronounced the “AR-KANSAS River.” In Colorado, as in Arkansas, they say “ar-kan-saw.” That’s the pronunciation the English Wiktionary recognizes as well.

If you’re contemplating a Scout, family or other group rafting trip to Colorado, I highly recommend Buffalo Joe’s! Our guide, Ben, was masterful. We were blessed with a hot day (temperatures around 90 degrees) and partly cloudy skies. The water temperature was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but that felt GREAT in the Colorado heat! Our starting point yesterday was in Buena Vista, Colorado.

Our troop rode home all night and morning from Colorado in a charter bus, arriving safely back in Edmond at 7 am today. Our temperatures today in central Oklahoma have exceeded 100 degrees! We’re missing Colorado already!

Many thanks to guest bloggers Miguel Guhlin, Beth Still, Dawn Danker, and Alice Barr who shared some great posts while Alexander and I were having fun at Camp Alexander, near Woodland Park, Colorado! It’s great to be reunited with our family, but I’m missing the mountains – and especially the wonderful summertime temperatures at 8000 feet above sea level!

I know I missed out on some super learning and networking experiences at BLC last week in Boston. Fortunately, as always volunteer “stringerBob Sprankle has already started his SUPERB series of BLC podcasts – and I’m going to get started listening to them this week!

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