Snake River Raft Tour

We left for the river at 7 am on Saturday June 2. The trip included a flight in a twin prop plane that flew over to Halfway, OR. We flew fairly low to the ground which enable us great views of the mountains and rivers down below. The landing was very unique.We landed on a empty field they called an air strip. They said they moved the cows off the strip earlier so we wouldn't have any problems. I flew with Janell, Kirk and Karen Jones, Brian, Casey, Jordan, and Michelle. Before we landed one of the props was shut off. Just as it stopped Casey woke up from his sleep and started to yell something about how the engine had stopped! He was really worried for a second before he noticed we were landing and no one else was concerned. The flight was followed by an hour drive to the Hell's Canyon Dam.

Once we got there we were lectured about saftey and life jackets. Then Kirk and I got into the two-man kayak to take on some monster rapids. Okay, so they weren't that monster but they were fun. Duayne got into the single man kayak and within minutes he was promoted to "Captain"... of the swim team. Before we even got to the rapids he was figuring out how to get into the kayak in the water. After a few falls in the rapids he figured out how to tame that beast and successfully maneuvered several difficult rapids.

Meanwhile Kirk and I had a few glances with capsizing, however we prevailed without ever getting dumped. After about 2 hours of river time we pulled off to set up camp and enjoy some lunch. We camped prematurely to allow time for John and Sarah to arrive. Their flight from Atlanta was held up and so they missed their flight to Lewiston.