A Smokey Salmon River Raft Trip

Our 10 day trip started out smokey. We knew ahead of time that we were headed for forest fires on the Salmon River, but because it is a trip requiring permits, we had to go on the dates we'd requested in January.

 

On our way into our launch site, we passed a large fire fighter camp, with tents galore.

 

As we began our trip, the sun shone through the smoke filled sky as a red to orange orb. It felt as though we were on a foreign planet.

 

Early in the trip, I tried to capture the atmosphere in a small sketch.

 

The air was so full of smoke, we wore damp handkerchiefs to filter out some of the smoke going into our lungs. Here is my bandit oarsman . . .

 

and his masked passengers--me with our granddaughter, Angelica.

 

We floated through the active fire. Here are 2 of our 5 raft, one kayak, 16 people party passing by burning trees.

 

The smoke created beautiful colors in the water,

 

and mystical landscapes reminding me of Chinese paintings.

 

We saw many eagles on this trip, both bald and goldens. The smoke seemed to confuse some animals as we saw bats flying during the daytime and insects were more predominant than other trips. A small black deer fly was extremely aggravating on the first half of the trip. They were in abundance, and bit non-stop on the lower legs and feet whenever a person stopped moving. They also were unwelcome passengers on our rafts. 

 

All along the wild and scenic section of the Salmon, we saw evidence of mountain sheep (pellets), with occasional sightings.

 

Eventually, we moved past the fire and a storm front blew the smoke out of the canyon.

 

We were able to focus on the amazing Salmon River rock formations . . .

 

and exciting white water rapids.

 

Can you spot the kayak in there? Look for a blue front tip and a red helmet.

 

I found time to do another sketch of a creek running into the Salmon. This time the colors were bold, not subdued by smoke.

 

Our granddaughter learned to maneuver a raft, starting on the small raft our great-niece, Emily, and friend, Liesl, rowed down the river.

 

Angelica also liked raft hopping--here she is on the Big Boy raft with our great-nephew, Daniel, and friend, Kevin.

The "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" raft.

 

All good things must come to an end, and here we are approaching take-out. It was a fine trip--all rafts and the kayak came through the rapids "messy-side" up (upright). Stay tuned for the upcoming Rogue River post.