The Salmon River is in Idaho about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our house to the put in. We were scouting this for our future visitors and enjoying a weekend away from Walla Walla.
The Salmon River is a rare undammed river for most of it's beautiful river miles. Wild and Scenic they call this type of river. It is as all rivers should be.
We left Friday afternoon around 4:30, arriving at the put-in at 8:30 having had dinner on the road. It was dark but with headlamps we managed to unload and rig much of the boat. This included pumping up the raft, attaching the oar rig, as well as putting in the cooler, and dry boxes. Off to bed by 10:30. Up early, 6:30 AM, with a very excited family. Packed up our dry bags, finished loading and rigging the raft and off we went!
We had 2 days on the river to go a total of 10.9 miles which allowed us to stop at every beach or rock the boys were curious about. So here was a steep sandy hill which occupied their energy for most of 30 minutes...up...down...up...down...climb up...slide down on the belly...head first, feet first....fun fun fun!
Further downstream, we found a note on the river map that mentioned some petroglyphs on river right. We stopped and found them. Beautiful but not quite like the ones we have seen in the Southwest.
After that, I have to just giggle at myself (reflective giggle as hindsight is 20/20). Let me start by saying that gear boats are not kayaks. Gear boats are heavy and both move and respond slowly to given commands. So despite my best effort, the gear boat did not do what I told it to do. (Now I have done a bit of rowing in the past but not a lot, mostly kayaking.) So, I was taking this experience as a learning experience. Seize the day so to speak. Out into the swift current I rowed expecting the raft to behave like a big kayak. But no. Around we spun and headed right toward the rock wall I was trying to avoid but into which all the water flowed. The giggle part is that this was really a mellow class 2 rapid but my anxiety level for those few (very safe) moments was at class 6. Silliness and all was just fine in the end. We bumped into the rock wall, bounced back into the current and headed downstream. All was well.
After a few more rapids, lunch and lots of river fun, we arrived at camp. The camp was a sweet little spot with an awesome sand hill which Dakota and Wren must have gone up and down 100 times. Sand was ground into every part of their bodies. (2 days later I pulled sand out of Dakota's ears).
We love multi-day rafting trips for many reasons.
Time in the wilderness setting
River Travel
Birds
White Sand Beaches
Time without the distractions of life
Time with each other
Views
and last but not least
River Kitchens and Cooking
because you can take everything you want. We had the deluxe set up. Two burner coleman stove, table to avoid sand contamination, fresh salsa made on the river, plates, bowls, forks and spoons...DELUXE.
Stuart in the kitchen with a view.
Dakota eating burritos! Side note: the necklace is from a "gem" he picked out at the gem and mineral show.
And then the tent time! The boys are liking having their own tent. They were so cute, snuggled in to their beds reading and playing cards.
Camp in the morning.
We all slept well at night despite a few rain showers that woke us up briefly. The morning was relaxing and lovely. After a yummy breakfast of hash browns and eggs, we packed up camp, packed up the raft and headed down stream. We only had about 3 miles to the take-out where we had paid for shuttle service to bring our car. We loaded up the borrowed mini-van, ate some lunch, and headed for home. We got back in a land speed record of 3 1/2 hours (because of no stops or traffic not because of speeding).
Reflection: The pack/unpack for this trip took 10 hours all together. Plus 7 1/2 hours of driving. That makes for 17 1/2 hours of work for... hmmm....38 hours of pure pleasure... Definitely worth the work. And next time it would go quicker. But the other reflection is that for 2-3 hours more effort, we could easily have spent 7 days on the river. So next time we are planning for a long trip.
