By Matthew B.
On a bright and breezy morning, 13 Scouts from Troop 380, 12 mothers and Assistant Scoutmaster Mike Kuykendall, who was the lifeguard for the trip, met at River Rats in Fair Oaks, where we rented three ten-person rafts for some quality mother-son time on the water. A few of us came equipped with water cannons, which we used on more than one occasion while floating and paddling down the river. After carrying the rafts down to the river at Sunrise, donning our life jackets and reviewing safety precautions, we launched the rafts around 10 a.m.
We ran a few rapids during the trip, with San Juan being the most exciting one on this stretch of the lower American River. It was so much fun that some of us carried one of the rafts upstream along the bank to run it again. At Rossmoor, we stopped for lunch, which included sandwiches, chips, drinks and candy. This was catered for us by Scoutmaster Dave Ishikawa and Assistant Scoutmaster Eric Carlson. Two of the rafts, busy in water battle, overshot the eddy at Rossmoor and enjoyed the added adventure of getting the rafts back upstream against a strong current by rafting together, hanging on to willow branches and being pushed by Jon Traum, Robert Koeller, and the trip leader, Sherri Brown.
Near the end, we declared a ceasefire due to chilly weather. As we neared our final stop, a few people jumped in the water and finished the trip swimming or walking. We ended the raft trip around 2 p.m. at the Harrington river access in Carmichael.
