The River of No Return

Jason is not a camper, something that was made clear to me early on in our relationship. Considering the world from which I came, I'm not really an outdoorsman either, but last summer's reintroduction to camping and fishing left me with a desire to go fishing or hiking or (gasp!) camping in a tent that hasn't gone away.

Getting ready to fly in to Indian Creek on the smokejumpers' plane!

Forest Service boat in the whitewater

Jason fly fishing off the raft

So I was quick to get excited about the opportunity to do a five-day rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River with my boss this summer. It took Jason, who got to come with me this year, a little longer to warm up to the idea--the thought of spending five days in the wilderness on the "River of No Return" left him a bit trepidatious.

Heading into the canyon

Through the rapids

Native American pictographs on the cliffs

Happily, we both thought it was amazing. We spent a week with the Forest Service learning about the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness area, forest fires, invasive species, and, efforts to recover salmon. Perhaps your first question, like Jason's is "What is wilderness?" Here's the short version--it is an area that Congress determines should be left "untrammeled by man," which means there are no roads, no cell reception, and no motors, mechanized equipment, or chainsaws. This is "leave no trace" camping at its finest...complete with carrying your toilet (affectionately known as "the groover") out with you!

In the Impassible Canyon

Actually, this was camping at its finest, period. The Forest Service partnered with Adventure Guides outfitters, who definitely know what they are doing when it comes to a multi-day raft trip. They set up our tents for us (immediately eliminating one of the things Jason dislikes about camping), hauled our stuff for us, and cooked us amazing breakfasts and dinners every night.

Our amazing guides/cooks/tent builders

Camping on the beach at Otter Bar

They also did a bang-up job navigating the river. Each day the rapids got better and better until, on the last day, we hit rapids that rank 4 on the scale of 1-6 (6 being unnavigable). While I spent most of my time on the boat working with the agency and outfitters, Jason, who turned 31 with a fly rod in hand, became a pretty darn good fly fisherman, improving his cast immensely and catching a number of trout, even in the muddy water. Even I caught a couple of fish with the new rod Casey made me--dispelling once and for all my (very un-Johnson-like) belief that you can't actually catch fish with a fly rod!

Actually catching a fish on a fly rod!

Classic Idaho Picture (slightly better than the groover...)

We also got to do a little hiking--my favorite hike was a scary boulder scramble up to some great Native American pictographs and a waterfall. Most of the trip was cool and rainy (we had some wild thunder-and-lightening shows from underneath the dome of our tent each night!), but on the hiking day the sun came out and warmed us up, so standing underneath the waterfall as the wind blew the water back and forth was pretty awesome. Plus, Jason had his first dip into a natural hot springs.

Cooling down in the waterfall

Fisherman and the Waterfall

I wish that our pictures could do justice to the beauty of the Middle Fork--especially the Impassable Canyon, which made up our last two days. Jason and I were looking at the pictures on the way home, and he said, "It just doesn't capture the grandeur of the place." So true. It was almost enough to make us think about going and buying a cheap tent, learning to cook in a dutch oven, and spending a night or two at the campground in suburban Fairfax County. Almost.