Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Summer is over!

We needed to get back on the river. The summer is getting real short for us and we still wanted to do a couple adventures. About two weeks ago we went to dinner at Terri and Bill Burch’s house and since we had just come off the Lower Salmon, talk turned to rivers. Sherma and Ben Higgs wanted to either do a river trip or go camping over the next weekend, and we said that if they wanted company to give us a call. On Monday the call came in and on Friday we were launching the boats at Hammer Creek.

It was our first trip with these two river rats and actually our first extended time together. Things could not have worked out better. Ben and Sherma seemed to know everyone we knew and it was strange that we had never connected before this for a trip together. Everything went super smooth and we had a lot of fun.

I am not going to bore you with all the specifics like I did last time; you can see by the photos we had great weather and a good time. I do however want to let you know that we had one tragedy. My favorite umbrella, the yellow and red “Good Humor” one, jumped out of the boat in the rapid located just below the Slide in the Black Canyon. It floated stem up through most of the whitewater as we tried to rescue it. As we drew close enough to pull it in, it caught a wave, turned over and dipped below the surface. Its final effort to return to the boat came when the pole struck a rock and launched it out of the water. The “Good Humor” umbrella stood up, collapsed and dolphined back into the water, never to be seen again. We all grew quiet as we searched to depths hopelessly trying to spot our friend. We had a moment of silence on the beach that night. We are moving on and I am in search of another umbrella, I don’t think I will find another one that drew so many cheers from beaches as we passed.

Everything about the rest of the trip went very smooth. We had a couple night where it rained just enough to send us scurrying to put up some shelter. Both instances only lasted a couple minutes so they were not uncomfortable what so ever.

We arrived at the take out at about 9 am and were home and unpacked by 1:30 pm. How can you beat that! We want to thank Sherma and Ben for such a neat opportunity to get to know them. They are wonderful to boat with and we really enjoyed their company.

Camp 1 with Ben and Sherma, just above Killer Goat Beach.

Not until I have my coffee!

Scouting Snow Hole Nice run!

There is no way your feet are darker then mine!Chaco lines.Ok, you win, but I still have my tea.Down river vistas.Happy camper.The beach at the mine. Old engine for the water pump at the mine.

Up river view of the last beach on the Lower Salmon.

Up river at the confluence of the Salmon and Snake.

Linda and Sherma in Cherry Creek.

Ta Da!

Just fising!

No comments: