DAY TWO of my Salmon River rafting trip

DAY TWO RAFTING THE SALMON RIVER

Morning was greeted with coffee, tea and hot chocolate…breakfast consisted of blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup and this outstanding melon called: “Santa Claus Melon,” which I’d never heard of before. After breakfast and the packing up of camp, we hit the river. The skies had cleared up and it was a beautiful morning.

After a few hours on the river we pulled over for a hike…while a couple of the guides led the hike, the others prepared lunch, which was ready upon our arrival. After a hearty lunch we hit the river once again. Soon thereafter we noticed the skies begin to cloud up…then the rain started. The light rain then turned into a torrential downpour, it didn’t take long until we were sufficiently soaked. The weather turned progressively worse as the rain turned into hail—small stuff at first…then it turned into pea size hail, which really hurt when it hit strategic spots on the body, e.g. the tops of ears. The hail continued to increase in size and ultimately reach the size of a garbanzo bean…let me tell you, at this size it pretty much hurt wherever it hit your body.

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

Just as misery had fully set-in, the guides pulled off to an embankment where they led us up a short hill. As we made our assent, I began to notice steam, which got me extremely excited…“hot spring” I thought. Sure enough, there was a man-made tub that held about 20 people at a time. The warmth of the hot spring was so inviting, and so incredibly timely. Just as we sufficiently began to warm up, the skies cleared for what would be a very enjoyable afternoon.

After a couple more hours of rafting we arrived at our camp destination. Our camp spot was equally as good as the night before. Once our tents were set up we enjoyed appetizers and then an outstanding dinner, which included chicken fajitas, black bean & mandarin orange salsa, chips, dirty rice and ice cold beer. For dessert we enjoyed smores over the camp fire. Evening activities included a competitive game of horseshoes.