The River of No Return

I had the awesome opportunity to spend a week floating down the Salmon River through the wilderness area. We took our scouts for their High Adventure Trip. It is called the River of No Return because once you spend time down in there, you don't want to return. I think that is why it's named that, I might be wrong though. It may have something to do with all of the death defying rapids that you have to navigate. Either way, it is a super rad trip. Our bishop and the other teachers quorum advisor both work for Tour West which guide raft trips on the Salmon River and through the Grand Canyon and Cataract Canyon. We were lucky enough to be able to get Tour West to let us use their rafts and gear to spend a week floating the river.

The trip basically goes like this. Wake up stinking early on Monday to drive 3 1/2 hours to Corn Creek which is the end of the road by Salmon. Get on a raft and float 10 to 25 miles per day. Eat, play, and sleep on beautiful sandy beaches. Spend time with excellent people, and get to throw scouts off the rafts and squirt them with water. Enjoy the scenery through 80 miles of the canyon and just relax. Get into a van at Carey Creek on the Riggins side and drive for 8 1/2 hours from Riggins to Boise and then from Boise to Rexburg. That is about how the trip goes.

It was so awesome. As I've thought about it, the only thing that could have possibly made the trip better would have been to have Erica come along. We had such a good time floating and talking and just relaxing. Brett let me row the raft on the third day which was a lot of fun. It takes a special talent and a lot of practice to do it well. I was starting to get the hang of it in general. I also rode an inflateable kayak through a few rapids which was a blast. I don't know what else to say about it. I guess the only thing left would be to post some pictures. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words....

Salmon Falls

Camp at Swimming Hole

Camp at Swimming Hole

One of many creeks

Just floating

I don't remember the name of this rapid

Me after floating through Ludwig Rapid