August 3, 2024
Guys! I went tubing!
I’ve always wanted to go rafting, tubing, kayaking, something on a (SMALL) body of water. I finally had that chance on August 3, 2024.
In doing the research into what there is to do around Stockbridge, Vermont, one of the few things I saw was a tubing the nearby White River.
Vermont River Tubing offers a fun and inexpensive experience that I am 150% on board with doing over and over again.
I’d made our reservations earlier in the week with the understanding that weather and river conditions may cause the cancelation of our trip. In the days leading up to our reserved spot, Saturday at noon, all-day rain was forecasted. Day by day, the chances of the rain diminished and were pushed later and later in the day. By Saturday morning, the forecast said there was a minimal chance of rain and that it would be late in the afternoon, early evening. I checked the Vermont River Tubing Facebook page for any updates and when I didn’t see any, we dressed for the occasion, shorts, tanktops and water shoes, and we headed out at about 11:45.
The meetup location was minutes from the AirBnB where we were staying and we got there with no incident. We pulled in and were greeted by a kid that gave us a waiver to sign and who took our money, $20 per tube, cash only. We absolutely could have taken a third tube if we decided to take a lunch or something with us but as it was, we only had our waters and our phones in dry pouches. We didn’t need a third tube.
We parked, got out and applied sunscreen in spite of the overcast day we had. Soon after, the large passenger van driven by (presumably) the company’s owner pulled in and Brandy and I, along with 6 others, piled in.
We were driven a couple of miles up the road and given instructions on where to find the exit from the river, then we were set on our way.
We took a short path down to the water where a pile of reddish-pink tubes waited for us. I made sure to pick one that had a short length of rope tied to one of the handles so we could lash our tubes together. We got to the water that I feared would be ice cold but it was indeed very tolerable. We tied our tubes together plopped into them and headed down the river.
Four of the six that shared the van with us were younger kids that were, by my observations at least, mentally altered in one way or another (drunk or high). They were very conversational and so we tried to wait until they were in the water and on their way before we got in, but they lingered on the shore for way too long so we got in and they got in right behind us.
The other two from the van were younger girls, like maybe 14 or 15. They didn’t want anything to do with us older folk so they were off like bullets.
It was an adequately warm day, not too hot. There wasn’t much of a breeze when we were in the parking lot but there was a bit of wind on the water. We cruised down with no issues until we hit a shallow part of the river that necessitated us getting out of our tubes and dragging them into deeper waters to continue our float.
The river runs through a shallow valley with tall trees all around and the green mountains of Vermont off in the distance, up and down the river. I could only imagine what this experience would be like in the fall with the signature New England fall colors.
We were beached a few more times, finding ourselves stuck on the gravelly bottom of the river and wading our way to floatable depths.
There was one point where the current of the river started pushing us toward the shore on one side, which normally wouldn’t have been an issue but in this case, there was a small tree kind of in the way. There was a narrow gap between it and the shore that we could have slipped through, but it didn’t look like we were going to make it. We were headed straight for the tree.
At this point, I would like to point out that at no place up until here were we ever in water that was any deeper than my thighs so when I decided to hop out of my tube to walk us around the tree, I was surprised, to say the least that I plummeted into water that was at least 7 feet deep. I was completely under the water.
I did quickly hit the bottom and pushed back up to the surface to find Brandy laughing hysterically at me. Truly, it was a humorous experience. I grabbed on to my tube and, with Brandy in tow, started swimming us toward the other shore where I could SEE shallower water. Finally, I reached a spot where I could stand in the water, collected myself and hopped back into my tube and we were back on our way.
We passed several large groups that had stopped on the shores to party- drinking, playing music, having fun. We did not plan on any stops on our journey, though doing so would have been nice.
As we passed those groups, we encountered fewer and fewer people. We eventually got to a point where we could see no other people on the river with us. Everyone was around bends in the river, either ahead of or behind us. It was very peaceful and relaxing.
Then, about two thirds of the way down our journey, the rain that had previously been forecast and had since passed us by decided to make a guest appearance. We floated on down the river, in total peace, with a brief spot of rain sprinkling down on us. It was at this moment that I was hit with another one of my signature bouts of gratitude for the life we are able to live.
Finally, at about 2:30, we got to the exit point on the right-hand shore of the river. A sign announce our exit then we saw the yellow balls and blue noodles that we were instructed to look out for. We got out of the river, walked up a short path, dropped our tubes near the parking lot and before you knew it, we were back on our way to our AirBnB for some drinks.
Conclusion
This was, without a doubt, the most fun thing we did in Vermont. We’ve taken some great hikes and seen some gorgeous waterfalls, but tubing on the river was an absolute BLAST and I’m super disappointed we only got to do it once.
Ah well, lesson learned. Find the fun things to do early so we can do them again if we like it.
Pictures from this fantastic adventure are over on my Photo Diary. This just about wraps up our time in Vermont. After this adventure, we had one more week during which we basically just packed up, cleaned and got ready to head out. I’m thinking of doing another post with kind of a wrap up of Vermont. I’ll start writing it and, if I think it’s post-worthy, I’ll put it up, otherwise, the next thing you’ll see from me will be about our time in Maine!
Until then,
-Phil