Our Family: MF Salmon

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I went on vacation for a couple of weeks and then just relaxed last Sunday. Summers, as fun as they are, exhaust me. Ok, Brad exhausts me. Brad's philosophy is to work hard, play harder, and work hard again. Sleep when your dead he says. He averages two river trips a week, one to two lake trips, a mountian bike ride and a saturday moto whenever it rains in the desert which was often this summer. All this in addition to our regular work schedule which is a little heavy in the summer months.

This year Brad got another trip to the Middle Fork with his friends from Idaho. Last time he brought Jordan and McKenzie. This year Ben and Riley were up for a turn and Jordan was offered a seat only if he ROWED HIS OWN BOAT! To row over 100 miles through wilderness whitewater by yourself is something few adults can claim let alone a barely turned 15 year old Jordan! Brad made him complete 50+ miles on multiple trips down the Animas before he put in on the Middle Fork and even then Brad says he slept little the night before as he imagined the worst kind of carnage on the first big rapid, Velvet Falls.

It didn't help that is snowed that night just above the Boundry Creek put in and they shivered all together in the back of Brads motorcycle trailer. Here they are at the first camp with Big John and Little Shelby.

Boats lined up at the put in, Ben and Riley can't wait to get their lines in the water.

Jordan thinks to himself, "Hey, this isn't so bad" ha ha ha, little does he know.

Riles full of smiles and dad smiling together.

Brad enjoyed making the permit holder worry for days on end by running much of the river without his life jacket. But, as John pointed out early in the trip, "SUNS OUT, GUNS OUT!!"

The boys, or SLAVES as Brad calls them were in charge of setting up camp each night. Although, this was mostly because Brad hurt himself early in the trip by attempting multiple times to body surf a class III wave for the amusement of Ben and Riley.

This little hot pot must have been over 120 degrees. Brad said he could hardly stand ankle deep in it. So if there are no grandchildren in our future we will know why.

Huckleberries, a lunch time snack.

After hours of flogging the water Riley finally lands his first fish on a dry fly!!!

Ben would turn his chair backwards and snap pictures of Jordan coming through Rapids. Hard to do when you are bouncing 3-6 feet up and down sitting on a chair with your feet over nothing but swirling whitewater. This is a nameless little rapid just above Pistol. Great pictures Ben.

Imagine coming up to a water line on the horizon. That is all you can see is a horizontal line of smooth silky water that dissapears into what sounds like the roar of a jet engine on the other side. This drop in particular is squeezed between water too shallow to navigate on the left side and a "shark tooth" rock just to the right that would be the end of your rubber raft, and all this plunging 6 feet straight down into a massive recirculating wave that might flip you and drown you. But then Jordan just skates through with ease cuz . . . he is a PRO!!

Snorkling for trout, has to be cold enough to hurt if you want to see fish. Out of the frame Jordan the genius is casting a dry fly over our backs. He was super Jealous of not being able to fish after watching the little boys pull in fish after fish while he labored at the oars. He even managed to catch one of our little pet fish with us in the water before dad yelled at him to quit fishing over them.

Ben running "Cowboy Style". He acts real tuff in this little riffle but screams like a girl when he actuallu fell in a real rapid doing the same thing. Yes, dad makes them put their jackets on when any significant water is coming up. Both Riley and Ben got bucked into serious water at least once during the trip. Thanks to Jordan for all the practice earlier in the year when he would catapult them out of his boat at Smelter rapid.

Trees like this can be seen all down the river, sometimes misplaced 20ft above the current water level.

Cliff jumping came easy to all the boys. Dad had to sit this one out because he was still nursing his wounds from his little surfing episode in Marble rapid.

Riley pretending to cook, ya right. All he does is eat and make messes.

Hashbrowns, sausage and eggs, every morning for the whole trip. We've got a long way to row.

Ben not as keen as Riles on how to hold the fish so it looks bigger in the picture. Thanks for all the photo training Jason.

Tappan Falls. This one even makes dad nervous. You can barely see Jordan as he gets ready to drop in above the rapid. It is a series of falls with a nasty keeper hole to the right. Jordan only barely survived, bouncing like a little pin ball down the rocks and coming out spining backwards. But once again, he survived.

Cove Creek rapid after that, he runs this one perfect. Like a PROOOOOOOO!!!!

Sunset from camp after 30+ miles and a handful of really tough rapids.

One of few action shots with both the boatmen in the picture. Ok, not that much action but look at those tight shorts!!

Dad discovers that his sleeping pad floats. Riley swims along and gets swatted every time he tries to board without permission.

The many miles and days on the river starting to show on their stunned faces. Eat, sleep, raft, eat sleep raft, and raft some more.

Riley really got upset at this point. Dad pretended to take a nap (while managing to snap a picture) as Ben does his best to ram every boat within reach and head into Haystack rapid. The closer we go to the rapid the more hysterical were Riley's pleas to dad, "WAKE UP AND ROW BEFORE BEN KILLS US!!"

Some wild sheep on the river bank.

Ben steals dads sleeping mat during a lunch break and tries it out for himself.

Cold creek. Maybe 40 degree water? It is so cold it hurts and by this time the ambient temperatures are around 100 and the river is comfortably cool. Where Ben is standing there is a little cave and to crawl into it feels like balancing a 50 pound weight on your head while you walk blind on mossy boulders. This point is several little water falls up so a slip could be a long way down.

More wear and tear as the mileage starts to show even in Ben's hair. This camp was thick with yellow jackets. No one in our little group got stung but several others did. Dad doesn't plug hornet holes with sticks anymore since no one else appreciates his efforts.

Last photo before leaving the canyon and joining the Main. Only Cramer wave left and Jordan is terrified because we were all telling him he would definately flip on this one. Dad was starting to get a little jealous because he flipped on his first Middle Fork trip and so far Jordan has rowed better than some of the adults in the group. Hopefully Cramer will teach him some humility? According to Brad, it did just that for at least a few seconds as he stalled out to take in the scenery on the main wave but then pulled through the last big rapid upright.

While the 3 boys were on the Salmon, Jake, McKenzie and I went to Seattle to visit my family. The first day we were there we went to go see Wicked, the musical. It was AWESOME! We both loved it. I wish I would have gotten a picture...but you know me, not much of a picture taker. In fact, you can see from the number I took vs. the number of pictures Brad took on his trip I'm not much of a picture taker at all.

Although I grew up in Seattle, I've never been to the top of the space needle, so on another day we went downtown to Seattle and visited the space needle, Experience Music Project, the aquariam, Chihuly's glass garden and went on a ferry ride there.