Page 208 - WDT Magazine Egypt

Rafters hang out in camp on a Middle Fork
of the Salmon River trip.
Center: Raft guide John Hernandez with a
birthday cake for a guest.

New rivers and got hooked on whitewater. is about three hours from Boise. After a night in
“People there kept telling me that Idaho was the a comfortable Stanley motel, we met our guides,
place to go,” he recalled in a recent interview. “I picked out waterproof bags and were briefed on
didn’t know much about the state, but I’d heard that what we’d be doing for the next six days. Then we
you could do long and exciting whitewater trips in hopped in a converted school bus and headed
the wilderness, giving people a chance to relax and north 40 miles to the somewhat-crowded Bound-
know each other. So I lucked out and ended up ary Creek campground at the base of Dagger Falls,
getting hired by a company called ARTA and rafted where other outfitters were waiting to put in the
the river six times in a row that first summer.” river.
Grubb calls the Middle Fork a “long, and often Following a safety talk on how to survive being
challenging whitewater river that has it all, with fun tossed out of the raft in a rapid - float downstream
rapids, great hiking trails, Native American rock art, feet first and never try to stand up to avoid being
pioneer history, fabulous trout fishing, wonderfully entrapped in rocks - we slid the rafts down a long
clear water, hot springs and spectacular scenery. wooden slide into the cold, clean river, pushed off
Not many rivers in the world have all those ele- and were soon alone on the stream.
ments that you can experience in one trip.” Because the ROW guides didn’t know me or my
My ROW adventure started in Stanley, which kayaking skills, I agreed to ride in a raft part of that

208 WDT MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018