Page 212 - WDT Magazine Egypt

played cards or other games before we dined on a
delicious chicken dinner prepared by the guides.
We were awakened the next morning by the smell
of coffee brewing over the campfire. Breakfast was
pancakes with blueberries and huckleberries, bacon
and yoghurt. By 10 a.m. or so, we were back on the
river and it wasn’t long before we were slaloming
though the S-shaped Pistol Creek rapid. For lunch,
we ate gourmet deli sandwiches made even tastier
by our hunger and being outdoors in a stunningly
beautiful setting. We also stopped at Sunflower Hot
Springs the second day and soaked in thermal pools
on a rocky bench above the river, before returning to
the rapids.
The next three days flowed one into another, of-
fering more exciting rapids with monikers such as
Haystack and Tappan Falls - though I never got to
rescue anyone. There were also pleasant hikes to
bluffs high above the river and campfire camaraderie
with delicious meals that included mouth-watering
salmon, lasagna and prime rib. One evening, the
guides even produced a chocolate birthday cake
- baked in a cast-iron Dutch oven - for a mother
traveling with her husband and three teens.
We also learned about the Shoshone band known
as the Sheepeaters who lived in the canyon for
hundreds of years and left pictographs - rock paint-
ings - at numerous sites. And at nearly every flat
spot where a creek entered the Middle Fork, we saw
remnants of pioneer cabins that dated to the 1800s.
The river canyon opened up on the third and
fourth days of journey and we saw hillsides of trees
burned in fires that in recent years had scorched
parts of central Idaho. But new saplings were ap-
pearing, promising to reforest the slopes. And there
were more hot springs, too. One I liked best was
beside Loon Creek, which took a well-worth-it hike
of about a mile to reach.
After 78 miles on the river, we came to Big Creek,

A campsite on the Middle Fork of the
Salmon River ROW Adventure trip.
Right: ROW Adventures guide Brian
Kohl prepares a dish using a Dutch
oven.
Opposite page: A delicious dinner of
fresh salmon.

212 WDT MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018