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You might think that low-water rafting is less exciting than high water, but let me tell you, that’s not the case. It’s different, for sure, and you don’t get nearly as wet - that is, unless you fall in the river. The challenge is, not to. When you’re maneuvering a boat through tiny gaps, and you’re bouncing off rocks left and right, it’s real easy to get thrown into the drink. If you let your attention drop for one second in a rapid, you’ll find yourself impaled on a rock like a butterfly on a pin, or upside down and going for an unplanned swim. You’ve got to concentrate, paddle hard and fast, and be ready to make quick, technical moves. Instead of riding the high-water rollercoaster and letting the river do all the work, in low water you’re threading your way through an obstacle course, and it’s totally up to you whether the boat makes it through or not. I was hoping to go down the Taos Box, the legendary whitewater run on the Rio Grande to which I got addicted last summer, so I called Los Rios River Runners, whose guides will run the Box at lower levels than pretty much anybody else. Even so, on the day I chose the water level was just under the cut-off point. The alternative was the Lower Gorge, which I’d never rafted before. I decided to go anyway, feeling a bit peeved at my bad luck. Or so I thought. My luck wasn’t bad at all. The day was magical. Orilla Verde, the first half of the Lower Gorge, is pretty gentle, although with the water so shallow there were gravel bars to maneuver around. We floated past lush meadows, with all kinds of birds darting over the water. We even saw two golden eagles. This was a new experience of the Rio Grande – not a thundering beast to be approached with caution, but a watery cradle rocking us into a serene escape from the everyday world. The whitewater was yet to come. Unlike the Box, where the rapids are spread throughout the run, the Lower Gorge saves all the excitement for last. The second half of it, the Racecourse, probably has nearly as many rapids as the Box, in half the distance. Wham, wham, wham, they come at you fast, huge rocks barring your way down the river, the current pulling you into inescapable traps, with often only one way through. We forced our way through tiny gaps that I couldn’t believe a raft could possibly fit through. Once we all had to pile onto one side of the boat, to squeeze between rocks towering high above our heads. The other fun thing about low water is, you get to surf. Twice our guide, Bruce, turned us around at the end of a rapid and shouted, "Forward!" We paddled hard, against the current, until we hit the place below a rock where the water curls back on itself, making an upstream wave that we balanced on while the river rushed past us, pouring into the front of the boat and splashing into our faces. The perfect way to cool down on a hot, sunny day. Reproduced from taoszone.com, an online magazine devoted to Taos. |