blisspassport.com

Sleeping under the stars at night, floating down the river during the day – not a bad way to spend a week.

From the Northeast to the Northwest, a few whitewater-rafting companies have added yoga to the mix.

Yoga teacher Laura DeFreitas went on her first such trip last year and is leading another one this year again with Oregon-based Winding Waters Rafting.

The idea sprouted from of her wanting to take yoga out of the studio and she began leading yoga hikes. Time on the river makes visitors forget their watch and their schedule, she said. Even more so when she adds chanting and yoga nidra, a form of deep relaxation.

Morning and afternoon yoga sessions, as well as the new addition of a massage therapist, help those arms and back after a day on the river.

“It can bring a lot of balance and reprieve to areas being used in a new way or strenuous way,” she said.

But it’s not exactly taxing.

“It’s like a floating lounge chair on water,” DeFreitas said. Guides do the paddling and dinners are local foods cooked in a Dutch oven.

Her trip on the Salmon River in Idaho starts Saturday but other such yoga and whitewater rafting trips are going on through the fall.

New this year, Northern Outdoors in western Maine is offering three-day yoga retreats. The sessions in September and October offer participants twice daily yoga classes as well as a hike or float trip.

But some places have been at this awhile.

Peter Grubb, founder of Idaho-based ROW Adventures, said he has been offering the River Soul Journeys program for 10 or 12 years.

Three to four times a year the specialized trip incorporates meditation, journaling and yoga with whitewater rafting.

The difference starts with who signs up for the trip, Grubb said.

“They’re beyond splash and giggles of a river trip,” he said. “They’re interested in a life-centering experience.”

That common goal brings a calmness to the group. The potential for personal transformation is stronger sleeping under the stars than in some pampered resort, Grubb said, and the mix of activities also deepens the connection with nature.

“It brings a different vibrancy. Maybe a stronger sense of wonder and a deeper appreciation of the river and the entire river environment that people are in,” he said.