Near rapids, near fun

There aren’t any palm trees. No sandy beaches. But he still believes Spokane is a paradise. Well, at least for white-water river rafters.

“My favorite is the Spokane River,” said Paul Delaney, president of the Northwest Whitewater Association. “I love that this river is right in my back yard.”

However, the Spokane River is not the only water source for boaters in the Inland Northwest; it’s just the launching point.

“If you drew a circle around Spokane with a 100-, 200-, 300-mile radius, you would just find hundreds of boatable streams and lots of creeks,” said Delaney, who has rafted for 25 years.

Spokane also has a special place in David Lawrence’s heart. Lawrence, who moved to Spokane from Winthrop, met and fell in love with his wife Brooke while working with her at Spokane Parks and Recreation. They both loved the river – so much that his wife came down the waterway on a raft instead of taking the traditional stroll down the aisle.

After moving to Missoula and purchasing Pangaea River Rafting in 2004, they made another vow: to return to the Inland Northwest. While the Clark Fork River in Missoula is their bread and butter, the couple has kept their promise and returned to Spokane to host tours on the river.

Although most of their tours are on the Clark Fork River, Lawrence said it’s impossible to choose one river over another.

“My favorite river is the one I’m on,” Lawrence said. “We went over I-90 and went down the St. Regis River, which is really just a creek, and some people would say, ‘Oh, it’s ugly,’ because it’s right under the overpass, but we just had a hoot.

“Every river is another opportunity.”

Lawrence said he would be content in any body of water, really.

“Put me in a mud puddle, and I’ll have a blast,” he said. “But I prefer the river.”

Not only do boaters have a number of creeks and rivers to choose from, they can also take their pick when it comes to different types of rafts. Delaney swaps out three rafts: the minivan, the sedan and the sports car.

His version of the minivan is a 16-foot raft that carries groups of boaters. The sedan is two feet smaller and is a cataraft that can fit up to four people, but two people comfortably once all the gear is loaded. But the sports car, a 10-foot cataraft, is Delaney’s favorite.

However, zipping around in his little sports car on the river isn’t always a breezy ride. There can be complications, and those don’t include a flat tire or bugs splattered on the windshield. In Delaney’s ride he’s faced with big rocks, strong currents and the chance of running into wildlife.

Delaney remembers when his raft clipped a rock heading into a rapid while he was rafting in Canada.

“I took a ride through a rapid and I was holding onto my boat – that’s what you should try to do,” he said. “I could see this rock coming up and there was nothing I could do and I ran right into it with my shin.”

Another defining moment Delaney had was rafting up in grizzly bear country. His friend had rafted and was forced to swim that same spot a few years earlier and happened to spot some of the furry beasts. Delaney was not hoping for a similar sighting.

After getting knocked off, “I lost handle on my boat and had to walk on shore to catch up to my boat, which was about a quarter of a mile down the creek,” Delaney said, “and I’m yelling to make sure if there are any bears down there on the creek, they know I’m there.”

Safety in numbers is a phrase that plays a main role in white-water rafting, and not just for the purpose of warding off hungry bears.

“To start off, one of the best things to do is get out there with people who know the water,” said John Flaherty, a member of the NWA who lives in Coeur d’Alene and has been rafting for 12 years. “The main factor is that they are people you trust and know.”

Not only should rafters travel in packs, they should check with friends to make sure their boats are ready for the water. Flaherty said rafters should be prepared in the following ways:

•Wear a helmet.

•Be equipped with a life vest.

•Don’t pack too much gear, such as excess food and beverages.

•Make sure the raft is properly rigged with flip lines, which help flip the boat right-side up.

•Have a throw bag on hand in case someone goes overboard.

•Also at least one boater in the group might want to have a static line available for more complicated rescue scenarios.

•Take a rafting class that teaches swift-water rescues.

“The Spokane River is a good example,” said Flaherty, who admits to being the most safety-conscious among his group of rafting friends. (He’s the one carrying the static line and the first to jump in and test out the throw bag.) “People think, ‘I can just get in and swim it,’ but they don’t realize it has a lot of force.”

When non-boaters think of rafting they think of scary stories, such as Delaney’s, which creates a stigma. While rafters swear it is a safe sport, guides are getting the hint and catering to the crowds that just want to have a care-free float down the river.

“We love the river, and the more we can share it, the better,” said Lawrence, whose company, Pangaea, offers white-water rafting and leads River Wine and Bird Watching Floats along with GPS Geocaching and team-building trips.

Guides are learning how to market to nature lovers, and the city of Spokane is getting smart, Lawrence said.

“What’s really exciting from the commercial end is the people marketing Spokane,” he said. “They got it with the new motto ‘near nature, near perfect.’ It’s the ultimate acknowledgement.”