Six Memorable Days on the Middle Fork of the Salmon

Josh finally got to have a lifelong dream become a reality this past summer: rafting down the 100-mile stretch on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Frank Church Wilderness. It wasn't my dream, though; in fact, I never thought I would actually join Josh when he went--I didn't like the sound of not taking a shower for a week and camping in tents every single night didn't sound ideal--however, I changed my mind when I found out how many hot springs were along the Middle Fork, and when I made my goal last year to go to 100 hot springs in Idaho, I included the ones on the Middle Fork on my list! We were originally going to book a trip for next summer, but then a local guiding company advertised a locals special for this summer, and we took advantage of the offer. 

We booked our trip through Wilderness River Outfitters, and they were an incredible team to float with! Their guides were informative and fun, the surroundings were breathtaking, and the food was outstanding: every day they used driftwood that we'd pick up on the float to make a fire to cook dinner and breakfast with, which was so impressive to watch. We floated, kayaked, hiked, and soaked in hot springs. We saw pictographs, caves, and waterfalls. We camped, played games, laughed, and shared some intimate experiences together. The musician Sarah Burton joined our trip, and she sang and played her guitar every night by the campfire and she was frequently joined by her friend Jenn on the fiddle. They even serenaded me on the morning of my birthday when I was still laying in my sleeping bag inside my tent! My favorite was when she sang and played for us in a cool cave full of pictographs. The members of our party were from Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Texas, Tennessee, and Utah. There were some challenging moments for me, as I was still grieving the loss of my student as well as overcoming the stress of recently sending the twins on their missions, and I wasn't in the best shape physically. In addition, the river had a major blow-out the day before we began our trip, so the river water was brown the entire trip, which was a bummer. However, it was overall a very memorable experience, and I'm so grateful that I did something that challenged me. It was also a very unique opportunity to spend my birthday on this wild and scenic river. I'm glad that I got to experience it with Josh, although he told me that if/when he goes again, he won't be taking me (which I'm okay with, because, as it turns out, I like taking showers every day). 

August 12

Elk Bend

We flew into Indian Creek

A Shoshone woman told us native stories
of the Middle Fork before we began rafting

mano & metate

The first 2 days the water was very dark, and
we didn't soak in it because of the residue.

SUNFLOWER FLATS HOT SPRINGS

There were a bunch of wild sunflowers in the area behind the 
hot springs source on the hillside. You can only see a glimpse
of them on the right side of this photo. 

August 13

Helfrich, another guiding company, floated the same days as
our group, and they pranked us by getting our 3 duckies and
stringing them to a bridge downstream our first night.
We retrieved them on our second day.

It was such a strange sight to see the boats
dangling from a pack bridge!

HOOD RANCH SUNFLOWER HOT SPRINGS

Our guide Andrew looks very zen here.

LOWER LOON CREEK HOT SPRINGS

The guy in the shirt & hat was our trip leader Matthew. 

August 14

HOSPITAL BAR HOT SPRINGS

The only "shower" I got on the trip.

There are no roads in the wilderness, but there's packing
trails--and we got to see some horseback riders on this
trail as we floated, which was a fun sight!

We pranked Helfrich back by
putting 2 of our used Groovers
(toilet bases) on their boats
the second night. However, the
joke was back on us when they
put the Groovers on boulders
in the river that we had to 
figure out how to collect!

Such pretty and peaceful scenery!

There was a few private groups floating the same time as us too,
and one of them was a party group--these are two of their boats.
The blue raft had a blow-up doll laying upside down on the 
back end of it, which was a hilarious sight!

Salmon resident Jerilee and her daughter Tessa, one of the guides.

Soaking in Camas Creek

Camas Creek was the first clear water we'd seen in 3 days.
Our camp was right by it, and I happily soaked in the cool,
clear water for a couple hours after we arrived at camp.
(It doesn't look clear here, but that's just Josh's finger!)

Some of our guides cooking dinner. They
cooked EVERYTHING over fire!

They even made me pineapple-upside-down
birthday cake and sang to me! I loved it!

Big breath in to blow out so many candles!
I love Hudson's photo bomb here--he used
to be one of my music students when he was
in Kindergarten!!

Carly was one of our guides, and she's from Salmon,
too. This was their dress-up night. I loved her outfit!

We had a little party on the sweep boat, which
Hudson was manning for the week with his
older brother Bridger. 

Sara on the guitar and Jenn on the fiddle

I really enjoyed the nightly campfire serenades!

August 15

Josh took every advantage he could to read!

We stopped for lunch on the beach outside
of the Flying B Ranch. 

Erin & Bill Blackadar were guests on the trip--Bill grew
up in Salmon and used to guide and Erin is an incredible kayaker.

Check out the 2 parallel chemtrails in the sky!

They were parallel to the pack bridge, too!

Some rich-o flew in as we were eating lunch.

They didn't stay long--they left before we
re-launched on the river!

It was a hot day, so we all took advantage of the
shade while we could!

See that point of the mountain in the upper-left of the photo?
Josh went on a hike there with some members of our group.

I chose to stay at camp!

Josh took lots of great photos on the hike!

That's our camp seen from above.

Jenn, Josh, and Sara

Meanwhile, I took photos of what camp life was like...

August 16

We stopped to see some pictographs in a cave.

Andrew is a professor in Oregon, and he told us about the
pictographs and the Native Americans who created them. 

Bighorn Sheep--we also saw a black bear that day,
 but I didn't get my phone out of my dry case in
time to take a picture of it.

We filtered any clear creek water we gathered,
but I sure missed having ice cold water to drink!

Lunch Stop on this beautiful beach!

I Spy Josh reading...

Bighorn Sheep across the river from our lunch stop.

Another cool cave with pictographs.

Sara & Jenn sang & played for us in the cave.
It was such a cool experience!

We stopped again to hike to this 
waterfall on an overhanging rock
cliff, and stood below it. 

Carly sunbathing on a rock by the waterfall.

Playing games on our last night together!

August 17

Erin's uniquely-shaped kayak.

"Clam Shell Rock"

Approaching a very technical rapid on the last day...

The first road we'd seen in 6 days--on the right of the river.

The bus brought us back to Salmon--but we had to take
the back roads, since the river road was closed due to the 
nearby Moose Fire. The drive would've only taken just over 1.5 hours,
but since we went the long way, it took over 3 hours instead.

Our group of 20, consisting of both guests and guides