Boat U.S. - January 2009 - (Page 61)

release country — we gathered for lunch at Whitie Cox Camp. We were a party of 30, the total allowed under the Aggipah River Trips permit from the U.S. Forest Service, including eight licensed guides, Bernt, and his 26-year-old daughter Stephanie, a licensed river guide for nine years. The 22 passengers ranged in age from 7 to 72. Over the next two-and-a-half days I sampled the various ways Bernt has perfected to float this river — on the paddleboat, where I discovered how shockingly cold the river can be, and on the oar boats where I got to know some of the professional guides. One morning I rode ahead on the sweep boat, laden with all the camp gear, with Stephanie at the two long fore-and-aft steering oars. She worked the sweeps from a standing position to guide the raft along on the current, and told me she’d been on the river since age 4, and had been running boats herself since she was 15. That afternoon, our last on the river, Chuck and I worked to perfect our fastwater fly-fishing technique on the drift boat, making our way down to Cliffside Camp, at Mile 90 in Impassible Canyon. The ominous-sounding name comes from canyon walls so steep that there are no trails leading in or out. We passed through rapids with names like Devil’s Tooth, House of Rocks, and Jump Off, then joined the main Salmon, history’s real “River of No Return.” We shot through the last Class IV rapid, Cramer Creek, which the guidebook describes as a “Grand Canyon-sized rapid, significantly larger than anything on the Middle Fork.” Nonetheless, the boats shoot through, one after another, in textbook fashion, without mishap. The flotilla fetches up at Cache Bar Ryck Lydecker at the oars. Boat Ramp to meet the bus that will haul us back to Salmon, Idaho, two hours away. While we sorted our gear, Bernt’s crew deflated the rafts, loaded everything that made this expedition work so well on waiting trucks and trailers. They had just two days to get everything ready and back upriver to Boundary Creek to meet the next party — and then, they would do it all again. I would too, in a heartbeat. MORE INFORMATION Aggipah River Trips operates on the Main and Lower Salmon Rivers in addition to the Middle Fork, with day trips, overnights and multipleday floats, depending on season and water flow. Most trips use rafts but drift boat fishing is usually available as an option. For more information, visit: www.aggipah.com or call 877/708-6037. For info on the wilderness area: www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc. BoatU.S. Magazine January 2009 http://www.aggipah.com http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Boat U.S. - January 2009

BoatU.S. - January 2009 Contents At The Helm Reader Forum BoatU.S. Reports Brokerage Boats Invasion Of The Access Snatchers Don’t Move A Mussel Tech Connection BoatsGearWheels A Defect And Its Aftermath Obama Onboard? Fast-Water Fly-Fishing How I Got That Shot A Loop Through The Heartland Why Boats Sink At The Dock Install Your Own Trim Tabs BoatU.S. Exchange At Your Service/Mbr. Benefits

Boat U.S. - January 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.