River Rafting

For Christmas last year, we gave Josh's mom a gift certificate for a river rafting trip down the Salmon River with the Rawhide Outfitters. She has always wanted to go on a professional river float, and never has, so we figured that would be a great gift. Before Christmas, we consulted with all of Josh's siblings to find the best possible weekend for everyone to join us this summer, and we scheduled it for the first weekend in August. We were very excited and looked forward to it all spring and summer! We originally booked it for 15-18 people, which would've filled 2 rafts, but as the date grew closer, our number decreased: Gideon & Alyssa couldn't join us, and Jessalyn moved to Hawaii to attend BYU-I and couldn't come either. We weren't sure if Josh's dad would float because he's deathly afraid of water, but we figured he'd drive along the road and watch as much as possible. When the day arrived, we were very surprised to find out that Edward was joining us on the river! We ended up with a group of 13: Kathy, Edward, Tiffany, Coral, Josh & I, Malachi, and the kids Ammon, Jonah, Micah, Kanyon, Isaac, and Joel. Because our original number was larger, the outfitting company changed a few reservations to add others to our group the day of our float. We had two gentleman from New Orleans, a woman from California, a couple from Idaho Falls, and a couple from Salmon. We got on the bus that morning and drove down past North Fork to Spring Creek, the getting in spot. 

Kanyon & Ammon wore their new matching shirts
that they got at Silverwood this summer. Kanyon doesn't like
tank tops, but he wanted to get a twinner shirt with Ammon!

Wearing our life jackets and ready to float!

It was an absolutely beautiful day for a float!! We had three boats and two kayaks in our group, and our guides were Steve, Luke, and Justin. On the first calm stretch, Jonah and Joel rode in the inflatable kayaks (aka the "duckies").

At the beginning, Josh & I, and Ammon & Kanyon rode in Luke's boat with the couple from Salmon, and Micah was in Steve's boat with the rest of the extended family.

I find it funny that Micah's the only one looking at the
camera. I don't think he was quite as enchanted with
Steve's stories as the rest of the boat was!

We had a little stop at the Hulihan place right before Pine Creek and were treated with yummy snacks by our outfitting company. Then our guides gave us a little history about gold mining in the area, showed us how to pan gold, and we walked inside an old mine.

When we got back to the boats, we changed the seating arrangement because the big rapids were coming up and I didn't want the boys in the kayaks for that stretch. All 4 of our boys rode with us in Luke's boat, and I'm so glad! Mr. Hulihan got some great pictures of us going over the biggest rapids, which was definitely exciting! And surprisingly, Ammon bravely "rode the bull" at the front of the boat for that section!

After the large rapids, Edward tried riding the bull too!

And then Kanyon had to as well! During that time, the driver was swinging the boat around to give him more of a ride, and Jonah fell off the boat and into the water. So Micah, Ammon, and I jumped in for fun, too!

Edward decided to up the ante and rode the bull standing up. It completely surprised me! I would never have thought he would float the river, let alone be so daring! It was so fun to see!

Kanyon thought he wanted to take a dip in the water too (later I learned it's because he had to go pee!!), but he didn't like it, and wanted back in soon after he jumped in.

And Ammon thought he could get back in the boat just be lifting his feet up and over the edge, but he found out he had to be lifted in by someone in the boat, just like everyone else!

After the boys saw Grandpa standing on the edge of the boat, they wanted to try the standing-up bull-riding in front, too!

After being on the river for a couple of hours, we stopped at Panther Creek to get out and have lunch. It was super delicious! Rawhide has excellent food and it was an enjoyable stop for all of us (despite the abundant wasps who apparently smelled the yummy food and wanted to eat it as much as we did!).

Right after we got back in to finish the last stretch of the river for our float, our guide Luke decided to do a "burn-out". I had no idea what that was, but he spun the boat so quick in one direction that it threw both Josh and Ammon out of the boat. They both went under the boat, which made me panic because of Josh's throat, and I started screaming. Luke didn't seem too bothered, though, and thankfully, they floated up the other side of the boat after being under it. Unfortunately, they both lost their sunglasses in the fall. Josh's was a cheap pair, but Ammon's were the Nike $300 prescription pair that we bought a couple of years ago that he used for sports goggles in the winter and outdoor sunglasses in the spring and summer. That was a real bummer.

For that last stretch of the river, Micah and Isaac rode in the kayaks, and then Ammon switched Micah and rode in it at the very end (much to Micah's dismay).

This was Kanyon's face at the very end. It was a calm
stretch and he was disappointed there weren't more rapids
then! He liked it when it was exciting with white water!

We got out at Cove Creek, and Kanyon and Joel found this soft crawfish in the water at the loading dock. I'd never seen one before, and thought that was so cool! They found another hard-shelled crawfish right after that near the same spot, too.

On the way back to town, we stopped at Hulihan's again to purchase and pick up the pictures he took of us on the Pine Creek Rapids and the boys played in the gold panning station as we were doing that.

It was a truly enjoyable day! We had SO much fun, and I'm so glad we got to experience this as a whole family! I just went for my very first time a few years ago, and never thought it would be possible to afford doing it as a family, so I'm very grateful we could have this experience with our children! And Josh's mom and dad loved it so much, they want us to all go again next year!!!