But I Want to Quee the Bean: Flipped

We have been home from our 5 night six day Main Salmon river trip for over a week now. It was a wonderful, beautiful, smokey, fun, family filled adventure. Made even better because Jayne and Dave were able to join us from Arizona.

After spending the night in Salmon, Idaho we got to the river put in in time for the campsite lottery at 9:00. It was kind of nice because John and I, acting as his interpreter for the hearing impaired, had to sign up for our campsites while every thing was being unloaded. John had very carefully planned our campsites according to the daily mileage we needed for the 84 mile trip. There were 3 other groups launching when we did who were also vieing for campsites The rangers then assigned campsites according to need, group size, we had 20 in our group, and availability. If there was a conflict, it was decided by a coin toss. Surprisingly, we actually won the coin toss for one of our sites. There are also numerous non reservable campsites along the river that anyone can use.

We had 7 rafts to fill with our gear for our group.

Jayne, Dave John and I were on our boat;

Thomas, Monica, Kili and Annie on the second

Brett, Kerri, and Mckenna on the third;

Roark, Tice and Caleb on the fourth;

Roger and Rachel on the fifth.

Brad, Colleen and Lauren Nye on the sixth and Aaron Nye and his friend Cory on the seventh.

The first day was perfect, warm and sunny with fun rapids. We camped at Motor camp, named for the old motor rusting away in the middle of camp.

Then the smoke started pouring in from wild fires in the area. The canyon gets regular summer fires caused by lightening strikes. There are burned tress all along the river corridor.

At one point we could see flames in the rugged terrain. The Main Salmon used to be called the River of No Return because once you launched you were committed, the canyon was too steep and isolated to climb out. We did see a few fire fighters, but they were mainly there to protect property not contain the fire.

Our campsite was smoky with ash and charred pine needles raining upon us. I have to admit we were a little concerned the fire was getting too close. But we were told that anytime there is a fire the river corridor get filled with smoke, kind of like an inversion in the Salt Lake Valley.

The sunset was eerily beautiful that night. The smoke stayed with us for two more days making for hazy sureal conditions.

The landing for Hainey camp was almost half taken up by this huge yellow pine that recently fallen. That night our boat's crew made John's favorite, Dutch oven lasagna, times two. It was all eaten, Tice even scraped the foil clean. I eat better on the river than I do at home. 5 wonderful dinners and I only had to plan and cook one!

Thomas even made cinnamon rolls.

The river had fun rollor coaster rapids with only a few to worry about. Some of those we scouted.

Like Black canyon rapid.

Others were read and run. Jayne got dumped on a just such a rapid. She fell overboard and held onto the boat, but she was between it and a huge boulder in a recirculating wave. Dave pulled her in and John was able to get the boat out of the wave after we circled around a few times. It scared both of them just a bit.

But the biggie was Vinegar Rapid, the last rapid a few miles before takeout. They scouted it and figured the run they wanted to take. For some reason our boat got too far left and before we knew it we were in the hole and flipped! Just like that. Now I have to admit that flipping has always been one of my biggest fears on the river. Anxiety inducing fear. As we went in the hole, I heard John yell, "oh crap" and I was in the was in the middle of the rapid. I held on to the upside down raft and rode the rapid. The waves went over my head, but I knew I was ok. I wasn't scared. Just worried that everyone else was ok. Especially John. I knew he would be mad. The other rafts converged around us and I heard every checking to make sure we were all there. David emerged under the raft, but calmly made it out, Jayne and I were thrown out on opposite sides and John was hit in the head with an oar. He had a pretty good shiner, a couple of abrasions and a small cut on the side of his nose, but no stitches were needed even though Roark had restocked his medical kit for this trip.

Then the most awesome thing happened. Thomas, McKenna and Tice were on the over turned raft within minutes, got their flip lines tied to the boat, walked them back using their weight as leverage and flipped the raft back over. Slick as a whistle. Rachel said that as the three up came out of the water they had ecstatic grins on their faces. It worked! And we were ready to go. The only thing we lost were a river map and Jayne's prescription sunglasses.

As an end to a river trip, it wasn't stellar for John. He felt bad and was mad at himself. Thomas tried to tell him how well the group recovered. We were on our way within 15 minutes of flipping the raft, with minor injuries and loss. That, Thomas said, is the mark of a well planned and well trained trip. The saying goes "if you run rivers, it's not if you flip, but when."

One incident does not make a trip. I don't think my anxiety will go away because I flipped and survived. But it can't compare to the memories and images that remain.

Like this. Time spent with Jayne. Not all 58 year old women can say they have done this.