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Inspired by Les Bechdel's HCC program and the fact that he had two
cancellations on his July 5th trip Carolyn and I decided to go to
Idaho and take a one week wilderness paddle on the Middle Fork of the Salmon.
The trip is 100 miles, which you cover in 5 1/2 days. The drop is 28 feet per mile and
there is lots of whitewater. The trip starts up in a mountain forest and the
river is cold, fast and fairly continuous for the first five miles. As it nears
its confluence with the Main Salmon the flow is greater, the rapids bigger
and the weather warmer. I mostly paddled a kayak but also tried out an
inflatable duckie and Carolyn spent each day in the paddle raft.
The kayak allowed me to play the rapids but the duckies were a real hoot, easy to paddle and stable. We
saw several black bears a few deer and lots and lots of bighorn sheep. One
morning they were right in camp. We also saw osprey, eagles and grouse.
A typical day started with breakfast at 7 am and getting on the water close to 9. We
would have a late morning break, lunch, more paddling, another break and into
camp by 5. We did side hikes to hot springs, waterfalls and indian pictographs.
The paddling was challenging but not real hard, we had a tandem canoe that
never flipped and I only flipped once in 100 miles and that was doing enders
in a hole. We had beautiful clear weather and daylight 'til 10. Les and the guides
at Canyons have been doing this trip for twenty years and everything was
super organized. The food was great. We met wonderful people from all over
and getting to know them was one of the best parts of the trip. We drank a week's
worth of beer and wine in three days and had to be re-supplied. One of the
interesting parts ot the trip was that several participants posted their photos and
videos to internet photo sites so we could check them out.
I strongly
recommend week long wilderness trips whether you go commercial or do it yourself on
the Pecos or Rio Grande. They are really special and memorable.
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