Courtney wrote:

I call rafts and catarafts floating strainers.

Courtney

Well, as one of those Rubber Pushers, I would define the strainer as the person
at the oars who is trying to move 16 to 18 feet of craft and many hundreds of
pounds of gear through the water.

The art is in prediction and planning rather than reaction. No quick dip of a
blade here or a brace there. If you end up in the wrong place, there is little
to do but hope and hang on. Lose your momentum and you are at the mercy of the
river gods. Rafts move like barges, or as the earlier poster described,
"steamrollers". They have incredible floatation which compensates for a
myriad of mistakes. Most of the videos show rafts going through big water
with the oars in disarray. Unoccupied craft fare as good or better than those
with a person at the oars. Makes you wonder why we do it. But there is a joy
in the attempted mastery of any skill. There are few things that feel as good
as the push and tug of a river on a set of oars.

And raft life is good. A raft lets you travel the river in comfort. I have
done 12 day single craft trips in the desert in July and still had ice at the
end of the trip. A raft lets you eat well, sleep in comfort, and carry
everything you could possibly need and a bit more. This type of travel should
not be confused with the weekend paddle raft kamikazis and order shouting guides
featured by commercial consessionaires. Some day, I would like to graudate to
what I consider the ultimate river craft: The Dory.

Blakely

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Blakely LaCroix
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

r.b.p Clique member #86.

The best adventure is yet to come.