Whitewater & Such

This is our little group just before we set out for a little whitewater adventure on the Salmon River. Dennis' friend Bill was our guide and has been navigating the river for many years. The girl next to me is his daughter Laura. Cooper is not in the picture because he didn't want to try it this year--even though we said he could. It was hot, hot, hot that day (102 in the shade). When the wind blew upriver it was not refreshing it was more like turning on a blow dryer. The best way to cool down is jump in when the water was mellow. I am not channeling Cap'n Jack in the photo but discovered that my wet shirt felt very refreshing on my head. Periodically I would wet it again and rewrap which really helped keep me cool. It was a very mellow trip down the river. Bill avoided most of the major rapids since he hadn't fully recovered from breaking his shoulder last year. In some of the major rapids we didn't even get splashed! That was the culminating adventure of our "outdoor" week. It started in Mackay where we visited my family, played some golf with my brother and then headed for Wildhorse which is more in the middle of nowhere than Mackay is. It is somewhere between Mackay and Sun Valley, down several dirt roads at the end of which is a campground. It is a lovely campground right by a creek. When the mosquitos are under control it's quite lovely. Luckily we got the best campsite with the fewest mosquitos! We all had good time hanging out with family, floating on the river and relaxing (see pix of Spencer & cousin Leah). There was a little beaver pond on the river that I jumped in three times. Keep in mind that is "pond" is filled with freshly melted snow (that's how far up in the mountains we were). The first time I jumped in I came up gasping for air and thrashed my way to the shore (I'm not much of a swimmer and when you trying to get your breath back it's even harder). After I caught my breath I guess I thought it was so enjoyable that I had to do it again. Tucker jumped in with me the 2nd and 3rd time--we were trying to get some action shots with the camera. Unfortunately we only ever caught the splash at the end. It was too cold and rainy the next day to try again. I heard after we left that my sister Karen also had an adventure in the "pool" however, hers was not as pleasant as mine. From Wildhorse we headed to Riggins where the raft picture was taken. When we weren't rafting we were hanging out in the pool trying to stay cool. It was a great vacation as always!