One of the best (my personal favorite) employee perks at the agency I work for is an optional annual river trip with Orange Torpedo Trips. As soon as I heard about this I said, “Sign me up!”
Since I started with the agency in July, the bulk of river season was almost over. Luckily, I was able to hop on a trip last minute with several other Revelers which was a wonderful opportunity to meet my director and other coworkers who live in different states. Basically my 5th week of work was a week on the river. Doesn’t get much better than that : )
Orange Torpedo Trips, unlike most white water outfitters, send people down the river in individual inflatable kayaks. There is always a large gear boat or two that holds all the camp and food necessities so guests don’t have to worry about anything falling out of their boat.
The river trips I’m used to consist of Lucas guiding and our friends (whoever else is in the boat) paddling when needed. I prefer to hang out in the back of the boat with Lucas and no paddle. This time around, I had to man my own boat for four days and brave class II to IV rapids all alone. I’ve never been so aware of my lack of upper body strength as I was while paddling down this river. Luckily the water is warm so falling out isn’t bad. I only fell out once (couldn’t paddle hard enough!) but there were several other close calls : )
Unfortunately the summer was filled with wild fires and one was right next to Hammer Creek where we put on the water. The first couple days were pretty smokey but the third day there was a big rain storm and it cleared the air so we had some time with blue skies.
View from the top. Camp is the sandy beach across the river.
Lucas wanted to go on a little hike so we paddled across the river from camp and climbed up to one of the first peaks. Half way up the hike (more like climb at times) rain started to fall. And then thunder started to roll. We enjoyed the view long enough to get a photo then climbed back down to the kayak. The rain slowed long enough for us to get across the river back to camp before the lighting came. Summer rain storms are the best kind of rain storm. The only bummer of the rain was that we had to sleep in our tent. Until this night we had been sleeping in our inflatable kayaks so we could see the stars. Overall it was neat to be outside (under a tent) to experience the warm, summer rain.
Until this trip, I thought all rivers were cold. We grew up near the American River which is ALWAYS super cold so I generally associate rivers with icy cold snow melt. The lower Salmon River, at least in August, is warm. The water feels like a bathtub. The warm water made falling out of the boat enjoyable. Going into this trip I assumed I wouldn’t voluntarily swim in the river but I ended up swimming a lot!
Lucas fell asleep reading in the shade of his boat. It looks like he is posing but he actually had no idea I took this photo. I call it “Lucas in his element.”
Day four we paddled all morning then met a jet boat where the Snake River meets the Salmon River. The jet boat stopped a few places to show everyone petroglyphs on rocks lining the river. The four day river trip was incredible and the jet boat ride out was like a cherry on top. It was fun to see young adults (including us), middle aged folks, and kids all thoroughly enjoy the experience. Some of our favorite people to chat with were more than twice our age. I can’t say enough good about this wonderful trip!
