After a two hour drive, we arrived at the Vermillion River Rafting Outfitters. From the gravel parking lot we could see that the best of the best in homegrown rafting talent had arrived to challenge the raging rapids of the Vermillion, and they came prepared--outfitted with copious amounts of Busch Light and jean shorts, as well as perfectly groomed(see ungroomed) mullets. I could see that I was over matched. My lack of jorts, and the prominence of my teeth cast me into a world of desolation, I was not invited to take part in any of their hillbilly games, which included a game called "hey, let's harass this wild snake."
The only hope for me was to prove that I was not a greenhorn on the rapids. Once on the "class II" rapids, I could tell that immediately that I had been lied to. These rapids were only slightly wavier than bathwater, it was obvious that this was going to be a long day. Throughout the anticlimactic four and a half hour journey, we came across only two or three real drops, one of which was called wildcat rapids, in which I was almost decapitated by I leaping Asian Carp.
The scenery on the river was peaceful, but the abundance of trash, rusted out cars and tires on the river bank prompted my nephew to ask if we could come back again so that next time we could pickup everyone elses trash and beer cans. Although it was sunny and very hot, we were hesitant to submerge ourselves in the filthy brown-water rapids.
Will I raft again? Yes
Will I raft here again? No. The Vermillion river is probably more suited as a booze cruise rather than a real rafting experience. Although, I can think of better Booze cruise locations as well.
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