Kyle and Bre in Japan: Rafting on the Lower Salmon

This post isn't from our adventures in Japan-- instead it's from Idaho. Perhaps it is cheating to write about post not about Japan, but I figure that y'all will still find it interesting.

Kyle and I just came back from our trip to the U.S. I was there 2 weeks and Kyle 1 month. While there, we went on a 4 day white-water rafting trip on the Lower Salmon River.

We took 2 boats for 8 people. Kyle rowed one boat and his brother, Jared, rowed the other. We started out at Pine Bar. It was very quiet at this put in place and we could take our time inflating and packing the rafts. In the picture above, we've finished inflating the boats, but nothing has been loaded.

Here's a picture of the boats partway packed. No personal gear yet though.

It was really hot the day we put in: ~100ºF, ~38ºC. We repeatedly jumped in the river to stay cool.

We camped on sandbars along the river. The first night was a lovely spot, but there were a large number of ticks. I think we managed to avoid most of them. The spot was unnamed, I think because it was relatively small, so we named it "Tick Beach".

Jared and Callie made dinner for us the first night... very tasty and photogenic macaroni and cheese.

And excellent salmon.

Kyle picked out the following pictures as ones he particularly liked of the trip.

Dave swimming with the raft.

Kyle swimming with the raft.

Karen rowing the raft.

This is one I took from the back of the boat as we were finishing running a small rapid. Kyle's rowing (in the straw hat) and Dave and Nathan are sitting in the bow.

Here is a movie I took of one of the last rapids on the Lower Salmon River before it joins the Snake River. I think it is Sluicebox Rapid. It was a rapid with a lot of small waves, but no dangerous obstacles. Kyle likes this movie because Dave and Nathan get really wet near the end.

Here is the exact point where the Lower Salmon joins the Snake. The Lower Salmon (left) has about 1/4th the water that the Snake does. Once we were on the Snake, the rapids became mostly big waves, without any rocks to avoid.

Kyle's favorite waterfall on the trip.

The group picture.

From upper left to right: Deb, Nathan, Dave, Jared, and Callie.

Lower left to right: Karen, me, Kyle.

On the last full day on the river, we had a number of thunderstorms come through. One particularly wet one arrived just after dinner. Kyle and Dave were washing dishes, and I hid under the table to chat with them instead of sitting in my tent.

Callie and I model our rain gear. Mine is from the 100 yen store and worked quite well... although I don't know how long it would have lasted if I had to wear it many more times.

A group panorama... notice the two Nathans... my camera is not that talented at putting panoramas together. Now that I look at the photo more closely, we all look silly, except maybe Callie.

In this photo we're playing cards, like we did every night. Most nights we played a game that Kyle's family calls "Forehead" but that my family calls "Oh Hell". It was a relatively easy game to play without a table, so it worked well.