Idaho’s Main Salmon is a permitted stretch of river administered by the US Forest Service. It winds through 90 miles of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Plenty of Class III-IV whitewater, beautiful sandy beaches, a Grade-A hot spring, and pioneer historical sites make it a classic river trip.

We had a dozen people in four rafts and an inflatable kayak. There were some long-time boating companions and some new faces. It’s good to have new people along on a trip, it lets you retell the old war stories your regular boating buddies have heard a dozen times!

Dave and Liz are dear friends who have shared trips for years. Dave has many things about him that make him a boon boating companion: he’s an EMT, a skilled boatman, and he’s as full of it as a Christmas turkey. And he alone has something no one else has – The Hat! When he found it by the side of the road years ago it was already a sweat-stained, battered felt vision. I tell you, any red-blooded male would give pert near anything to own a hat like this. I believe The Hat was responsible for Dave and Liz getting married. When they were still dating, the raft flipped and Liz snatched The Hat right out of the hands of the River Gods as it was going down for the third time. I think right then, Dave said, “She’s the One”.

A special joy for me was having Genetha Merrell in my boat. At 86 years young, she’s an inspiration, living life to the fullest and going for the gusto! She’d been on other trips with us but this was the longest and she had a great time.

We had our share of thrills, spills, and laughter. After almost 30 years of rafting, layover days have gotten to be about my favorite part of a trip. On this one we were out for eight days and two of them were layovers! Those days when we didn’t move camp gave the high-energy types time to hike, swim, and cliff dive. The laid-back types (like me) got to be lazy, read, and work on perfecting our dutch-oven cookery.

Two items on the trip that worked great were our NRS River Wing and the NRS MaverIK inflatable kayak. The Wing got pulled out the first night at the Corn Creek put-in and set up in the dark, just ahead of a driving rain. It went up at just about every campsite, protecting us from rain and sun – a perfect outdoor living room/kitchen combo!

The MaverIK was on the water the entire trip, with the young folks competing for turns in the boat. Robert, who no kidding has interviewed for Fear Factor and is on a waiting list, loved the thrill of the IK and (probably) driving his mother, Liz, nuts with his daring!

Great folks, great memories, great trip!

Clyde Nicely
Customer Service