The Ramblings Of A Rapids Rider

Part One: The Drive To Riggins, Idaho

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Salutations Steemlings!

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How I have missed you all! Did you perhaps think that gravity quit working on this Kat? Heh. That would be something! The reason for my absence is far more interesting, well, I think it's pretty fantastic. You see, over the last couple of days my family has been down on the Salmon River in Riggins, Idaho.

Measuring in at 425 miles long, the Salmon River is pretty amazing! It's also known for its white water rafting, and that is exactly what we all did. A few months ago a dear friend of ours asked if we wanted to go with his group of Scouts on an all day rafting trip. Everyone in my family loves the water, but had never been white water rafting. Well, I might have done something of that sort in Alaska on the Thorne River in an inner tube a time or two, but I had never been official white water rafting in an actual raft, so of course I wanted to go!

And the rest is rapids history. We had an experience like none other, one that we are still all elated about. Today's post, however, encompasses some pictures I snapped of our beautiful state. Idaho is such a diverse place when it comes to geographical features. Riggins, where we stayed and rafted, is a little over four hours south from my house. During that drive we saw patchwork farmland, vast canyons, stately forests, and a couple of quirky college towns.

Our drive started in the North Idaho panhandle near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We zipped down US Highway 95 and after a couple of hours we ended up in Moscow. Although a trip to the namesake of that town in Russia would be most interesting, we found ourselves eating Root beer floats with our friends at A&W in Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho. I love Moscow! Surrounded by nothing but fields of crops, the place exudes a farm vibe that is coupled with some serious college town quirkiness.

After our lunch we still had a couple of hours to go, and it was new territory for our family. Even though I have lived in Idaho for quite a while, I had never ventured farther south that Moscow, so when we dropped into Lewiston a bit later, I was impressed by the elevation drop into that town. Lewiston sits in quite a bowl! And that bowl is hot!!! It was 105 degrees when drove through the place on Friday afternoon. Let's just say I did not want to get out of the car at that point:)

After the bowl of steaming soup that was Lewiston, we started to climb in altitude again and got to take in the beauty that is the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. Both my daughter and I squealed in delight as we passed an appaloosa farm and my husband had his attention diverted by the White Bird Battlefield site. Okay, I was in awe too, for you drop out of the mountains and see this massive 1900 acre canyon that was the opening battle of the Nez Perce War. The place is quite literally in the middle of nowhere and pretty awe-inspiring in its natural beauty.

Finally we drove into the town of Riggins. Perched atop the banks of the Salmon Riber, Riggins is the epitome of a tourist trade town, and by that I mean an old fashioned manifestation of it. There are no big chain restaurants or signs of corporate America anywhere. Instead the place is populated by Ma and Pa style small family run businesses. In fact, I think Riggins has more rafting companies and restaurants that they do a permanent population! It was awesome!

We turned onto a Forest Service road, a paved one lane trail that ran up the side of the river and cruised for ten miles up to Spring Bar campground. With only a handful of spots, the US Forest Service campground was a hoot! We all set up our tents and bolted for the sandy beach that lay on the banks of the Salmon. As it was only slightly cooler at about 103, we all piled into the 70 degree river for a bit of a cool off.

Later, after our crew had roasted hot dogs over an open fire, we found ourselves tucked on top of our sleeping bags for the night, staring at the stars that peered down upon us from the top of the gorge walls. It's hard to describe just how grand the gorge is that the Salmon River flows through. So, I'll just throw a few pictures out to peruse!

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And that's all for this post my friends. Tomorrow I will do my best to regale you with the adventures of some first time rafters. The journey was a little atypical and a LOT of fun! Lets just say this Kat conquered a set of class four rapids in a bit of a non-typical way for a first timer!

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And as not always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's travel initiated and probably smells like hot dogs Canon Rebel digital camera.

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