Farewell to Summer

The kids wanted to take another trip down a river. That sounded good to me. I gave them a few options and we decided to float the South Fork of the Snake River in a raft. That would allow Wyatt to come along and we wouldn’t have to leave anyone behind to babysit. So we borrowed one of the Council’s rafts, paddles, and PFD’s and drove to Swan Valley. We dropped a car at the takeout and put in the river just below the Palisades Reservoir, near Little Lemhi Scout Camp.

It was a beautiful day—perfect for floating the river. Wyatt did NOT like wearing a life jacket but he loves water so much we were afraid he might just jump overboard. He was pretty fussy because he didn’t like being so restrained. (At least that’s what I think—he really didn’t say.)

Derek and I fished off opposite sides of the raft while the others paddled. Periodically I had to interrupt my fishing to steer—a minor inconvenience.
The best part of the float was shortly after we launched when we reached the haystacks—a series of waves that gave us a good rollercoaster ride for about one-hundred feet. The rest of the float was pretty calm. We passed Falls Creek Falls which is always very scenic. Just past the falls the river gave us a full 360-degree spin before we knew what hit us. That was fun too.




Someone once said, a little boating can greatly enhance a fishing trip, but too much boating can ruin a good fishing trip. That was the case for Derek and me. We passed lots of drift boaters fishing and they would all stop to fish in the good holes. We didn’t really have any way of stopping—short of jumping out of the raft—and our crew wasn’t too interested in our attempts at fishing. Every few casts the only person in the raft who thought she could boss me around would ask, “are you going to fish or steer?” Just because we were drifting towards a rock or a tree wasn’t a very good reason to disturb a good cast or drift. I’m sure that’s why I didn’t catch anything. It couldn’t be my lack of skill.

We decided to make it a short trip and took out just above the Swan Valley Bridge. That’s about a ten-mile float. Derek and I fished from shore while the girls drove back up the river road to get the other vehicle. It was a beautiful day, a nice float, a grumpy baby, and great company. The fish can wait for another day.