DAY SIX of my Salmon River rafting trip

Day Six Rafting the Salmon River

For not having a “reserved” camp spot, we did a pretty good job of finding a neat area to spend the night.  The spot we found was a bit of an alcove with a nice flat spot on about a 10′ incline.  The perched area set us back from the river a bit and made for a very serene setting…which was fitting for our last evening on the river.  Because we had made up so many extra miles the day prior, we had a leisurely day ahead.

After breakfast and getting our camp packed up we hit the river for one last hurrah. We spent a couple hours rafting and kayaking until we reach a massive sandy beach where we decided to pull ashore and set up the volleyball net for one last competitive game.  It’s really impressive how the guides have a system for everything, and utilize all the gear they bring with them in a multitude of ways.  The raft oars are used as stanchion to hook the net on.  Then, they dig some holes, find some rocks, tie ropes around the rock and then to the oar—then they fill the holes in with sand, thus making a sturdy volleyball system.  After marking out the dimensions for the court lines, they then take buckets of water to highlight the lines (packing down the sand), which keeps them in place for a fair amount of play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7E06E5HlOI

While some of us played volleyball, others took one last opportunity to hone-in their kayaking skills by doing rolls and surfing in a nearby rapid.  We then enjoyed our last lunch and lounged around on the wonderfully expansive beach (as seen in the video).

After we got things packed up, we hit the river for another hour or so while enjoying our last two exciting rapids.   We made our way to shore where a team of folks from O.A.R.S. greeted us with transportation trucks and vans.  After helping load some of the gear, we boarded a couple vans that shuttled us back to the McCall airport where it all began just a short week prior.

After 92 river miles and an hour and a half ride back to McCall, this was the end—we said goodbye to new friends and went on our way.   What an amazing adventure it was rafting down the Salmon River!  I had only been on one other guided rafting trip before, and it was only a single day excursion.  Rafting for nearly a week where everything was taken care of for you, was quite a treat.

I want to give a special shout-out to everyone at O.A.R.S., their team is quite remarkable!  Everyone from the folks handling the scheduling, to the guides, to the transportation drivers…they’re all first class.  I’d also like to thank everyone at TripFilms.com and its community for voting for me and naming me the contributor-of-the-month for April, 2011.  Thank you all so very much!

If you missed anything of the Salmon River segments and want to start from the beginning, click here. Until next time…we’ll see ya on the road…