Hold your breath, we're going under! (But it will be good for you!)

This will be long. But grab a snack, kick back in your chair, and prepare to be jealous that you missed out on the best raft trip ever! (Now I promise to keep my hyperbole and exclamation points to a minimum.)

(We had 6 boats: 2 catarafts, 3 large oar boats, and a tiny 9.5' paddle boat for fun--plus 2 kayaks)

I've been trying to figure out how to get thru the details of the Middle Fork trip without being too wordy or boring or long-winded. I found a short article that sums it up pretty well, so if you want some context for what you are about to read, please go here.

Now for the good stuff! We were so excited to go on this raft trip. Austin warned me that the water would be big, fast, and cold--especially cold--and that the weather wouldn't necessarily be any better. He said I should be prepared for weather that could range from 50 deg and raining to 80 deg and sunny, with near freezing temperatures at nite. Sounds like fun, right?

We invited all the people we could think of who might want to go and who might be available, and ended up with a crew of 15 people--friends from Colorado, a coworker from Idaho, some old rafting buddies from Utah and some of their friends, and two of our brothers. It turned out to be a great combination of people. The Utah crew took charge of food and cooking and did a wonderful job. Remember how I raved about the food on the professional trips I took with Austin? This was even better! Indian curry, calzones, spaghetti, dutch oven cakes and cobblers, pancakes...what else? So much good stuff!

(pictured above: Camine, Holly, Hass, Callie, Sarah,
Matt W, Eric, Cory, Austin, Matt C,
Jeff, Erynn, Wes, Tyler, and Fash)

Make no mistake, rafting is a lot of work. Getting everything organized and up to the Put-in is a pretty big ordeal. And even when you get there, you have to rig all the boats and pack up all the gear. But the set up for putting boats into the river on the Middle Fork is pretty spectacular. They've built a huge ramp that you set your boat on and slide it down into the river with ropes and pulleys.
(see below)



The trip started out with a bang. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the very first rapid did a number on our little paddle boat, giving Jeff, Wes, and Camine a rodeo ride. Jeff was bounced out and then back in, but Wes was flung clean into the cold, cold river. Fortunately, Tyler was nearby and rescued him from the shore where he had swum for safety.

Slightly shaken (but not stirred) from our first rapid adventure, we spent a good deal of time scouting the next big one: Velvet Falls. The very name strikes fear in the hearts of rafters everywhere. (Well, maybe just in the hearts of inexperienced rafters on the Middle Fork...) The next two pictures show Tyler on his cataraft and me, Cory and Austin on his oar boat going successfully thru Velvet Falls. Tyler's knack for clinging to an unwieldy raft is evidenced in these pictures, and it served him well as he was one of only two people who were never flipped or flung off a raft during the entire trip.


The camping on a raft trip is nearly as fun as the rafting. We had some beautiful campsites. This is a shot of the mist on our first morning.

The Middle Fork is well known for its abundance of hot springs. The weather was not nearly as cold as Austin prepared us all for, but the naturally hot, free-flowing spring water was still a welcome treat. I've personally never been a big fan of hot springs--too many slimy and smelly bits floating around. But when the time is right, and here it was definitely right, I'm a believer.




It's really something to think about how removed you are from civilization while out here. There are a few ranches and airplane landing strips. But other than that, it's just you, the river, and your crew. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that, despite the seclusion, thousands of people raft this river each summer. Yet somehow, you're lucky to run into a mere handful of them over the course of a trip. Seamus was, as always, a good companion to have along. He kept everyone entertained (I won't say annoyed, tho that may also have been the case by the last couple of days) with his constant antics and need for playing fetch. One of his favorite games, actually, is to do back flips for objects you throw just over his head. He also likes to think he's Austin's lap dog--or maybe it's the other way around. The last two days, we entered Impassable Canyon. At this point, the river gets narrower, the walls get steeper, and everything gets more intense. Even the little rapids are more intense. Somewhere between the waterfall pictured above and the one you will see below, the raft I was on managed to flip in one of these "little" rapids. Yeah, it wasn't one of the big ones that had us all worried or that we got out and scouted. It was just a funky little wave train that caught us off guard.

To be honest, I didn't even see it coming. Matt C, who was rowing, had us turned backwards so he could row harder, and I was in the process of pulling my hood up over my head when he shouted, "HOLD ON!" and the raft went sideways out from underneath me. WOW! There's nothing like being dumped into an icy river! And the first thought was, "Okay, I'm okay. Now what did they tell me to do? Should I stick with the boat or swim to shore?" Then it was "Holy cow, are there still more rapids? Get me out of here!" And then "And where is everyone else!?" Fortunately, Matt had fallen off on the down-river side of the boat with me. That was lucky, because I can't even pull myself up onto a raft when it's right side up and I'm not in a panic. But upside down and chilled to the bone? Not a chance. Matt easily scrambled up onto the raft and then pulled me up. Once we were on, Matt was helped Jeff and Wes who had fallen off (and under!) the front end of the boat. And finally, the other boats that were nearby towed us to the shore where we were able to change out of most of our soaked clothes, flip the raft back over, and put our heads back on straight. Yeah, that was awesome.

We stopped and spent a good long time here at Veil Falls. Seamus, especially, was a big fan.

This was our last morning in camp. It was sad to have the end upon us, but the last day didn't let us off the adventure hook. Sarah flipped her boat in Rubber Rapid, the entire paddle boat crew was dump-trucked into the river (my brother Cory included--who tends to be ready to express a negative opinion, but when asked how he was feeling thereafter gave the most heartily positive response of the whole trip!), and I was dumped once again--this time with Seamus--into the churning water. (Tyler was rowing my boat, and as I mentioned earlier, has an uncanny knack for staying in the raft. This time, the boat had apparently tipped to one side, dumped me and Seamus, and then tipped all the way up on its other side with Tyler scrambling back and forth trying to hold on and keep it from flipping. Boy was I glad to see the boat right-side-up with Tyler standing to toss me the throw rope when I finally got my bearings in the water!) Once I knew I was safe, I saw that Seamus was swimming for shore. He caught up with us a few hundred yards down where we were finally able to pull over. Poor puppy. But he was a champ. (It wore him out so much that he was actually completely wasted for several days after we got home from this trip!)

Below is a series of pictures showing the process of up-righting Sarah's capsized raft.

Here's the intrepid paddle boat crew, Cory, Austin, and Matt W:

By this last rapid, Cramer Creek, I was pretty done with being splashed and in the water, so I was very glad that it didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it looked.

Eric, apparently, didn't think it looked bad at all, because he chose to "surf" the rapid as Camine rowed the boat thru.

And this last picture is of the Take-out ramp. In some ways, it was a sight for sore eyes. Yet there was still the sadness of leaving the wildness of the river and the seclusion of the canyon behind. I'll leave out the mundane details of the de-rig and drive home. (Loooong, late, and tired.) But what a great trip! Thanks, Austin, for getting the permit. And thanks to everyone who came and who helped plan and make this an awesome adventure!

The End.