Running Middle Fork

Aly..I have fallen off the blogging wagon but I am back on. So I will work on recapping the goings on in July and August. First.. the river trip. After 3 years we finally got a permit to run the Middle Fork of the Salmon River up in Idaho. We all applied for the lottery and lucky Brett got a permit for July 1st.

There were 20 of us total and we all gathered at Brad and Libs before taking off. Brad did so much work to get ready for this trip. It is so nice to be able to take private trips and not pay a commercial outfit to take us down the river. Thanks to Brad..this wouldn't be possible without him every year.

It started to lightly rain as we made our way up to Stanley, Idaho. We think this Acura was going too fast and slipped on the soft dirt road as it turned a corner on the way to the put it. Of course we all had to stop and check it out and we think it probably happened not too far before we got there, the lights were still on but no one was in the car.

We also got a flat once we made it to the put- in that became a group effort to fix.

Look at this put-in for the river..it was a bit nerve racking getting the boats down this ramp. We had 9 kayaks, 3 oar rigs and 1 paddle boat. It didn't help that it had rained off and on all night and was pouring as we tried to launch. All of us were cold and the idea of getting in the raft into the cold water was not exciting to me. We lowered all of our oar rigs and gear along with the paddle boat by a rope to the river.

Our fearless leader, Sadie. This is how she rode most of the rapids. Everyone loved having her around.

It was still cold once we got on the river, we were still in our long pants and jackets. Chad was our steller captain, no Mark on the paddle boat this year, he was banished to one of the oar rigs with Sadie. he he.

As you can see below, the sun came out and life got better and warmer. We had a fun paddle raft crew, Kaje and Sally (friends of Brets from Junction), Lib, me, Chad, Shaun and Stacie from Island View. We hit some big rapids and only got dumped a couple of times. Like I said, Chad did a good job guiding the paddle raft.

One of the biggest rapids that we ran..

Our first night into camp it rained a bit more but for the most part we were able to dry out and look forward to a sunny week on the river. During the night Lib heard a funny sound and Brad knew we had a bear in our camp even though we were careful and locked our food away and put the garbage high in the air out of reach.

The next morning we awake to Brett yelling that we have a bear in our camp and of course Brad joined him in chasing the bear out of our camp for the next couple of hours. It wasn't until later that we realized the reason this bear wouldn't leave our camp was because two of her little cubs were way up in a tree next to our camp. So as we ate breakfast and just watched her and the cubs as she kind of hung around moving from tree to tree until we packed up our boats and got closer to shore. As we were leaving she came down from one tree and her cubs from another and they were reunited! Then, better than something straight out of National Geographic she sat down and nursed her babes right in front of us. It was amazing.

Here is most of the group on the 4th night of camping..It made for a great 4th of July!

This was a group of us who hiked to a bridge by this pretty waterfall on Sunday, while a group of the boys kayaked a side creek.

Here is Boo-Radley skirting up to get into his kayak. This trip was possible because of his hard work and dedication to having fun! (And it helped that Brett won the lottery and got a permit). Aly you will be back with us next summer, whether we do Gates or somehow get another permit for the Middle Fork. I can't wait.