Nancy Dagle’s first Stanislaus River trip in 1972

I drove across country from my home in Massachusetts to San Francisco in 1972.  I did like school sports, but did not do much in the way of outdoor sports. So I joined the local Sierra Club hiking group, and one day the leader told the group the he had bought small rafts and instead of hiking we were going on a river trip.  This concerned me as I am afraid of water over my head and don’t swim worth a darn.  Fortunately, he also provided life jackets.

The put in was at Camp 9 on the Stanislaus River.  Three people were in each raft.  Each rapid provided a feeling that I was about to die and exhilaration.  Fear and joy combined to make an interesting experience.  At one point the raft I was in flipped.  As I was dressed in cotton, I was cold and sure that I wasn’t going to get back in the raft again.  Needless to say, I did.  At one point, we stopped for lunch which included several bottles of wine.  Tim Ames is pictured taking a nap with his bottle of wine in one of our overturned rafts (which made a great bed).  The scenery view is looking downstream from our river left lunch spot (the site used by etc, Duncan Caldwell and Vic McLean – just above Chinese Camp).  Note: Nancy went on to be an avid river runner and kayaker over many, many years.