About a month ago, Dan and Neum Schmickrath (dan's brother-in-law from sis Sariah and kids: Julienne, Reese, and Audrey) got the wild idea to go whitewater rafting. Even though we had no raft or life jackets or camp site and the Galloway's (dan's sis suzanne, husband Tom and kids: Samantha, Seth, and Trey) had no camping gear, we decided to go anyway. So, we packed everything we owned into the truck and embarked on what should have been a three hour trip to Jackson Hole. We took an hour hiatus in Bear Lake so that dan could have an important business call. Ashton and I spent the time eating an extra large raspberry shake and looking at wood carvings of life size bears. Our favorite one was the baby bear that got his body stuck in a tree stump and all you could see was his bum sticking out. Hilarious. We got on our way then accidently went the scenic route through Idaho which took an extra 45 minutes. Five hours after leaving Logan we met up with Tom and Suz in Alpine, Wy. who left Salt Lake an hour after we did and still made it there before us. We all went to scope out campgrounds that I was trying to remember from a childhood of summer vacations in Jackson. Thanks Dad.:) We found one that had a space open, right at sundown. With both truck's headlights on we set up our four man tent and a eight man tent the Galloways had borrowed from the schmickraths. Our air mattress filled up the whole tent and all four of us slept on it the whole night. The Galloways put two pack and plays, two sleeping bags, one carseat, and every blanket they own in theirs. Both tents were quite the sight. The next morning we met Sariah, Neum, and thier kids at Denny's for breakfast. After overtaking Denny's and McDonalds, we conversed about whether we were going rafting with a guide or by ourselves. The men were fully convinced they could rent a raft and navigate the river without a guide even though none of them had been on the Snake River before and we only had four adults on the boat versus 5 that I recommended. Although, I had been down the river numerous times in my life and felt pretty safe, I did not want to be responsible for some one drowning or running into a cliff so I was totally against it. With some info from some toked out employees at a rental place, the men decided that we could navigate the river ourselves and take the kids with us.
We drove down to Elbow boat ramp where dan, tom, neum, and suzanne took julienne, reese, samantha, seth, and ashton on the river to the next boat ramp a few miles down. The kids loved it the parents stressed. The next leg was a two and a half hour trip, dan, tom, neum, and I went while sariah and suz watched the kids. Thank you ladies. We had a fun time rafting and the guys highlighted the trip with some cliff jumping. The cliff was about 30 feet up and then one guy would throw a rope to the guy who just jumped. The river was really strong in that area and it almost took two people to pull in one. If you noticed I say "guys" because there is no way I would have jumped from that cliff and especially not in that swift river. I almost peed my pants just watching them. All in all we hit some big rapids, got some sun, a good work out, and a great time. I love rafting just as much as I did as a kid. Everything turned out okay even though we were all novice river guides. Dan said he has a lot of confidence in Tom's ability to read a river. Go guys. Thanks for an adventurous time.
Side note: To any one who goes river rafting, I recommend a self draining boat, they are so much easier to maneuver than the ones I grew up with.
No comments:
Post a Comment