The Adventure Continues: Lower Salmon River

Lower Salmon River Trip

Last week, after months of planning, several of my siblings and spouses, or even without spouses, took a trip down the Lower Salmon River together.

Beloved pink potty

The object of the activity was to get as many of us siblings/spouses together as possible without our kids so we could enjoy reconnecting with each other. It was a great success.

There were some tender blessings upon us during the trip. One of the wives has been quite restricted in physical mobility. We were afraid she couldn’t make the trip, but she was up for the attempt, so she came along. We had two passenger rafts with a set of oars at the stern, and a guide to man those oars, and one very large gear boat, manned by another of the staff of the company we floated with.

We also had two inflatable kayaks that were a ball to ride through the rapids. Day one Linda was not so sure she wanted to ride hers through the rapids. Day two, Linda had to be pried out of the kayak she was having so much fun.

Coleton and the gear boat. This side was not burned.

Anyway, Chris was on one of the smaller boats and not having a great trip, so we decided to try to get her onto the bigger boat. That is when Linda discovered a 2x10 plank that was just the right length to provide a gangplank for Chris to walk up onto the gear boat.

Christine Walking the Plank

What a blessing!

The temperatures in the area of White Bird Idaho, right on the Salmon River, have been really warm this year (or maybe every year). When things get above 100F, that is hot in my book. It was 108F when we arrived at White Bird. Along the way, however, we had a few hours of soft drizzle that kept the temps much more in the comfort zone. There were tents for everybody so we all tolerated the rain very well. Those were not just coincidence in my way of seeing things.

Cliff jumping

There have been some raging fires in the area over the past few days. The sky was hazy brown and the smoke was irritating to our eyes. The rain cleared the gunk out of the air, though, and we had fair skies for the final two days. The water stayed quite clear in the river, though. I suspect it is all chocolate brown now because of the runoff of rain on the burned areas. In fact, we floated along one huge tract of burned territory where the fire went from the riverbank clear up the sides and over the top of the mountains.

Burned landscape, clear up over the mountain tops in the distance.

There will be some erosion problems over the coming months. We even saw a few cabins and out buildings that were consumed by the flames.

So what did I learn? I honestly believe that we were heaven-blessed with the plank, the rain, and everything else about the trip. I hope we can do something like this again before some of us start to check out. We have reunions that involve the kids and the extended families, and they are great. But this effort to connect with the siblings and spouses needed to be made. We know, and like, each other now better than we did before.