My name is Cole Lenfest and I’m a senior at Woodberry Forest, and Rapidan has to be one of the best things about Woodberry. This year of Rapidan has already proven to be great so far with two trips that I’d like to highlight, the first trip we took was to the New River in West Virginia. This was a blast, because one of the best things about Rapidan is you get to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. Before Rapidan I had never rolled a kayak, or conquered my fear of heights and was reluctant to try new things, now I’m open to trying new and exciting things. That is what made the New River trip so much fun, I got to try something new, and that something was going down the river in an inflatable kayak, and a double one at that too! It was so exciting learning how to manage a kayak with another person paddling, admittedly we did go in circles for the first 10 minutes but we got over our discomfort and adapted learning work together. The other issue was that the kayak was open topped too, the ones we learned to use at WFS are closed with skirts, that way we can roll if we get flipped over. These new ones didn’t offer that luxury. Luckily the two person kayaks had good balance and so we never flipped over but there were only two of those kinds everyone else had single person open topped kayaks. Their trip involved a lot more swimming than mine. For the most part the trip was pretty easy going, the rapids were exciting but not too challenging since the double could power through most of them with ease.
That all changed when we hit the last rapid called surprise, which is aptly named. The rapid starts out nice and calm as you go around a bend gradually getting more violent, when all of a sudden giant holes appear and massive waves begin to pound your kayak. It was all we could do to keep our kayak from flipping. Right before the last hole we came over the crest of a large wave to see two of our peers trapped in it, spinning like clothes in a washing machine. My partner and I couldn’t steer out of the way and avoid the hole, so we paddled with all our might through it knocking both our stricken friends out of the hole. We all howled with joy that we made it out together. We’d beaten surprise! After surprise the river eased and we grouped back up and paddled to our exit, emerging like champions proud of our victory over the river.
Besides the New River trip the other highlight of the fall thus far has to be the hike up to Bear Church Rock in Shenandoah National Park. Though I enjoy kayaking my absolute favorite part of Rapidan has to the hiking. The group normally splits into two when we hike, a fast group and a slower one. I’m always in the first one, usually trading off the leading position with the team’s other senior. But on this trip the other senior elected to go in the second group along with all the normal first groupers. This left me with two new sophomore team members. They hadn’t been in the first group before and I wasn’t particularly close to either of them but this is what Rapidan is also great for, bringing people together. As we distanced ourselves from the second group the two sophomores became more talkative and open. We exchanged ideas about class, dorm life, and our favorite teachers realizing we had more in common than we thought. Soon the topic of conversation changed topic to movies and we all found we had a common interest in The Lord of the Rings. We spent the entire way to Bear Church Rock quoting Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas. When we neared our destination at the top of the hiking trail I asked the slower of the two sophomores to catch up as they was lagging behind, he replied, "I'm wasted on cross-country! We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances!" I almost died laughing after quoted Gimli. We soon reached the top and noticed we were a long ways away from the main group and headed back down the trail to link up with the main group. We found at the base of the rise and made the trek back up to Bear Church Rock as a team. I didn’t really appreciate the view before when I made it up the first time but on the second, it took my breath away as the clouds parted to reveal the Shenandoah valley stretching out before us. The view of the clouded sky with shafts of light piercing the cloud cover is a beauty I struggle to describe. That view and the new friends I made were what made this hike a highlight of my last fall at Woodberry.
I look forward to sharing more adventures with my brothers here at the forest before I depart, but the New River trip and the Bear Church Rock hike will always hold a special place in my heart.
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