Sitting and Thinking

I have had a lot of time to sit and think lately. It seems like when you have time to think you return to places that make you happy or where you are most comfortable. While in one of my semi-drug enhanced thinking sessions I kept floating back to our two trips down the Lower Salmon River this summer. I though about the camp sites, the weather, the critters and insects, our friends and the over all feeling that a trip like this leave me.

When we talk about river trips of the summer, many folks smile and say "Oh, you did the Lower, that's nice.", but in their eyes they are making a comparison to trips down the Middle Fork or the Main and it shows that they feel we settle for our trip down the Lower. I want everyone to know that we don't settle for that stretch, that it is our river of choice and we chose this stretch for many reasons. Yes, we would run the Main or the Middle if we had the opportunity. My ability to not draw a permit is legendary. Comparing everything involved in these trips and then also looking at the river its self, I have come to the conclusion that this is the best, most relaxing and enjoyable stretch for Linda and I to float. We have run enough rivers and have experienced the beauty and excitement they provide. We now float for the float, we no longer float for the thrill as much as we used to. Not to say we don't like the thrill, but we have progressed beyond that intrinsic reward, to a more all inclusive inner feeling.

I don't know exactly where all this was leading. I was thinking, looked at some pictures, made a panoramic photo out of three pictures I took and that all led me to this post. Take a look at this photo of our camp above Billy Creek. It is a beautiful spot and was a wonderful trip camp.

Tomorrow, A Couple New Things.

Tomorrow I will be entering the world of modern medical miracles. Because of this I will not be posting for at least three weeks. If you want to read about my adventure, visit The "B's" Knees my blog for documenting this transformation.

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.