First timers

July 24 was the launch date for the Main Salmon River, but I had to cancel to save the ability to apply for future trips.  All was not lost though, over the weekend of July23-25, Todd and I took Henry for a three day float down the Grand Ronde River from Minam to the Bridge above Troy.  This was an exciting trip as we have not done a multi-day in my raft before.  I have been on multi-day trips before but that was a long time ago and someone else did most the packing and planning.  We did well packing for this one, but I forgot to bring a book or something for the non-rafting moments.
Here is a breakdown of the trip.

Day 1, put-in at Minam on the Wallowa River.  Packed and near ready to go, Todd could not find his life Jacket! oops, it did not make it into the truck.  So he rented a sexy one from the local rental shop. (Note: Minam Store does shuttles and you can rent all the gear you need for a decent price). 

The first few miles on the Wallowa R is where the "big" rapids are.  Glad we floated at 2900 cfs as higher flows would make bigger waves and lower flows would expose more rocks.  Minam Roller snuck up on us, no problem for me.  Red Rock, or House Boulder, was a fun wave train on the left and a thrill for me to maneuver.

Blind Falls was probably the trickiest but Todd oared it well.  Martins Misery and the other named boulder-garden style rapid were no problem as we barely noticed which they were.  Henry did not care for the rapids as he would get splashed and jerked.  He spent most of the time in the center of the raft.  Only pulled forward before a rapid that required maneuvering.

Our first camp was at "Arm Pit", named for its tucked away, small location and the filthy beach located on the Grand Ronde a few miles down from the confluence.  Whom ever has camped there before did not read the regulations for Leave no Trace in the river corridor.  We dismantled the two fire rings (illegal, one must use a fire pan) and picked up the beer cans in the bushes.  What we did not pick up was the toilet paper, all located where the Groover (river toilet) should have been. 

Todd cooked up Hash Browns for breakfast. Yummy yum. While, Henry would fetch in the sand and water.  The sun did not hit camp until we left.  My clothes were still damp from the day before.

 A golden eagle also blessed us.  He flew across the sky moments after we saw a bald eagle.  The golden was significantly larger than the bald.  Impressive.

Day two, we floated a little bit and worried about getting to far down the river putting us to close to the take-out.  So by lunch, we selected a wonderful camp and chilled the entire afternoon.  Swimming, PBR drinking, and getting a wonderful nap.

Henry was exhausted from swimming, fetching, and just being on the river.  He was happy to just be chilling on the river.  While at camp, I discovered, my legs were sunburnt.  I was covered most the trip and must have burnt while napping during one of Todd's beach walks. OOps.

The next day we did not hurry out of camp.  The floating had some fun unnammed rapids and lots of scenery.  However, we underestimated how far day two float time was.  We had lots of distance to cover, the weather was starting to change, and occasionally the wind would be upstream, side stream, and rarely downstream.  We got off the river at 5pm.  Exhausted, we drove home. Stopped off at Boggins Oasis for ice-cream and saw that the river dropped to 2100 cfs.  Glad we finally got this trip in.