Woody’s 50th Birthday

February 7th, 2008 |

Hey Everybody I totally forgot to post this in the spring and we are celebrating Thanksgiving so I figured I would throw this up. Woody hit the big 50 and certain special friend gave him an amazing gift of flying up the Green River Narrows in a helicopter and the best part was that he got to take some of his friends so a bunch of us got to go. It was awesome!

They picked us up at Green River Adventures and and dropped down over the rim of the gorge basically following straight down the fall line that is the 18 switch backs down the Green River take out road. Then it was a slow cruise up the gorge as we pointed out all the rapids and laughed at how different it was from above. It was really crazy how sharply the river changed directions. Which to me I don’t really notice so much while I am on the river. Once we got to Gorilla there was a brave crew who paddled in at 60% and put down a banner for Woody that said Happy Birthday. The pilot cruised up the rest of the canyon and when we hovered above Frankestein he asked us what we wanted to do on the way back down and Woody said, “Can we fly down Apocolypse Now style”,” you know fast”! So that is what happened. The pilot had us flying down the river and banking turns so sharp that it felt like we were nearly upside down. One turn in particular that I remember was turning the corner towards Sunshine. We banked so hard I could feel the Gs put me in my seat. It was awesome.

It finished with a quick flight up the gorge wall and then he set us down gently back at Green River Adventures. I had flown up several rivers on helicopters before but to fly up a run that you know so well really gave you a different perspective. We finished the night with a party at Woodys house down by the take out of the river. Nice one Woody and I hope my 50th is even partly as cool as yours.

Shane

Sarah from Green River Adventures and Woody getting ready.