After a couple months in Canada, Jen and I crossed the border, met up with Jeanie, Jon, Kai, and a bunch of other friends in Spokane, loaded the rafting gear, and drove to the Lower Salmon. What followed was a five-day family-and-friends trip on a nice, mellow river that turned out to be exactly the break our bodies needed at this point in the summer.
Last time I came down here I rowed the entire thing, but with my elbow injury I got to kick it client style and just hang out on the bow, drink beer, watch the river, the sheep, and the Murphy dog while doing my best not to get too sunburned.
By the end of day four, we had some serious beach game competitions, along with a torrential downpour and a small mid-trip raft repair. Everything was pretty uneventful and just plain fun.
On the last day, all of that changed. We started with a broken shear pin on the outboard, followed by a super stuck raft and all-hands rescue. Then came a mad dash for the takeout where we experienced the most intense rain I’ve experienced in a long time while we loaded up boats in thunder and lighting and a literal river of shit from the flooded outhouse at the top of the boat ramp. We dropped a raft off the trailer, almost got killed by lightning (for real, get the hell out of the water when there is lightning), got a flat on the way home, and finished off the day by almost injuring a bunch of people when a pin failed on the trailer and dropped it onto the tongue with five people on top of a two-boat stack.
Jon got five stitches in the ankle from the river rescue, but other than that there were no injuries. I still can’t believe it.
