Three pictures below feature whitewater rafting down the New River in Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia, on November 12, 1995. It is the stretch of the river known as the New River Gorge. The water level at the Fayette Station gauge is approximately 5.7 feet (Thurmond gauge reading is 7.8 feet). The temperature of the air is a few degrees below the freezing point. Our boat is a Russian style (knee-sitting canoe-type paddling) inflatable cataraft with the total volume of around 950 liters (250 gallons). The two paddlers are Alex Kokorin, a friend of mine and an expert rafter from Moscow (on the right of the boat), and myself (on the left of the boat). For the class of boats shown and for the water level that we had on November 12, 1995, we estimate the level of difficulty of the New River Gorge as a solid Class IV.