Mark Chynoweth: How Rafting Became a Big Part of My Life

And, uh, one of the primary ways that I go out and experience wilderness. I wouldn’t say the stories necessarily an exciting one, but. I’ll tell you anyway. And I think it is surprising for me because if I look back, you know, 15 years ago, um, if you were to tell me that I was going to own a 16 foot whitewater raft boat and go down all these big Western rivers, um, on adventures, I, I don’t think I would have believed you, but that is the case that’s what’s happened.

And I really enjoy it. I’m really happy that, uh, sort of my, my life took that, that positive turn. And now rafting is a big part of my life. And this, the story is pretty simple and probably the same as a lot of other folks who get into this hobby. But, uh, my wife and I, we’ve always been interested in adventure, sports and getting out and exploring nature and exploring wilderness because that’s how, you know, we stay grounded.

That’s how we even, you know, reset ourselves after, you know, long stretches of work or, or other things, you know, we go outside and just, it’s refreshing to be out in the wilderness. Right. So we ski, we bike. You know, we do water sports, like scuba diving and, and boating. Um, uh, not, not rafting originally, but uh, other types of boating.

And so we’ve always got out and enjoy things, but then we ended up moving to north Eastern. And the town of Vernal and really beautiful place where we have two big rivers in our backyard that the green river and the Yampa river, um, two wonderful Western rivers, and we have dinosaur national monument in our backyard.

Um, and, and the green and the ample flows through that national monument. But anyways, the way I got into. To rafting. Uh, when we first moved to this area, we started exploring these, these great places, these rivers, and we wanted to get into rafting. It was something that we we’d had a desire, but of course we didn’t have the equipment or the knowledge to really get into this hobby.

Uh, but luckily we had some friends invite us on a five day. A rafting trip down the Yampa river and the Yampa river is incredible river. It’s one of the last wild rivers in the west that’s undammed. Um, so it’s natural flows and it can get big and they’ve got class four rapids. And so we didn’t know much about this, this sport or this recreation type.

And so we jumped on this trip the first day we started one of our friends who, who owned some boats said, Hey, mark, do you want to. Get on these, these oars and row, this boat for a little bit. And I put my hands on those or started heading down the Yampa and my life changed at that point, because I thought to myself, this is incredible.

What a phenomenal way to experience wilderness. Uh, with your friends in, in these wild and beautiful places. Um, and I got on those oars and started rowing down. Um, and I, I didn’t let go. I wrote the entire stretch of the Yampa all the way through famous class four rapids, like warm Springs. And I was just, uh, you know, unbelievably happy the entire time.

Um, getting a chance to experience this, this beautiful place. And to me, what being on a river is all about is you start off, especially on a multi-day trip. Um, this is what happened in the Yampa and you know, you get on a river, you got to go downstream. You can’t go upstream, right? So you start your trip and you can disconnect from the world and really invest all your focus on this river because you have to go down, you can’t go back up.

There’s really no turning back. And oftentimes, especially rivers like the Yampa and the green, you know, no cell service you’re in the middle of nowhere. You’re you’re with your, your close friends. Um, just getting reconnected with nature and kind of hitting a reset button. We finished up that five day trip on the Yampa.

And I immediately started shopping for boats and I’m not kidding. I immediately started shopping for boats and ended up purchasing a whitewater raft, my wife and I with another couple. And so, and I think that that means something because we share equipment and we it’s a chance for us to go spend time with friends out on the river, um, and, and really means a lot to be in nature.

With good people and having good times. So even though I’ve only been rafting for, uh, you know, seriously for the past four or five years, um, it’s really changed my life in a positive way. It allows me to explore wilderness in a unique way. It allows me to reconnect with nature, um, reconnect with friends, uh, reconnect with family.

I’ve had a chance to. Family out. And really this hobby has had a tremendously positive impact on my life. And so if you’re ever wondering, oh, is this something I should do? Just do it, but be aware that you might end up like me buying a boat and making it become a, a big part of your life. So get out there and explore those rivers.