River Rafting Middle Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho
Our Idaho River Rafting Trip & Rescue
Summer of 2011, we went on a fantastic Idaho River Rafting Trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River! We had 80 plus temps and slight rain the first night then dry and warm! Did I mention I love to go River Rafting…we just don’t do Class V.
Ray and I always have odd things happen when we are on trips and this River Rafting trip was no exception. The first day we launched and had rafted about 2 hours when we came upon an empty raft stuck amidst some rocks in the rapids…looking around we saw one man aimlessly struggling to walk in the rapids. He said he was OK, we could not stop our raft in the rapids, so we told him we would get his raft and for him to just get to the shore.
Then we saw a man facedown in the rapids, and I was beginning to think this River Rafting Trip wasn’t going to turn out well!
…We yelled at the 2nd man face down in the river and he finally lifted his head looking very pale and dazed. My husband said to him…walk or crawl to the shore…just get to the shore! We will get your raft. We were in rapids with nowhere to stop with this going on! We caught up with their raft and I pulled it with our raft when we got stuck amid some rocks…..Ray jumped out and secured the line and tied their raft to a tree on shore. Then we looked on the beach and saw that the 2nd man who had been face down had made it to shore and had collapsed. Ray went to him and was with him for about 30 minutes or more. Ray said he was hypothermic and needed to have dry clothes and heat ASAP!
Meanwhile the 1st man we had encountered had hiked downshore to where we were..he’d been calling out his friend’s name. This 1st man was bleeding and badly shaken and not thinking too well wanting to untie his raft that we had just secured to the water’s edge for him. We were lucky because another man from his group in another raft came walking around the corner. He had left his raft downriver and walked upriver when his party of 2 men didn’t show up. My husband felt he could leave the men now in the company of the 3rd man and explained what both men needed. The 3rd man kept saying … I just don’t know how this could happen, the water is only 3 ft deep here!
So we left the men and continued on River Rafting to our camp. At camp a wind like I have never seen came up…ONE huge gush down the hill! It blew over 2 trees!! It was very scary watching the trees fall and hear them snap and feel the ground thud. After that I was thinking what kind of start to a trip this has been!!!
But the rest of the River Rafting Trip was uneventful. We had lots of fun running rapids and seeing mountain sheep and such beautiful scenery!
Tell me about your River Rafting trip!
This sounds like a wonderful trip! It would be very thrilling to be sending time so close to nature.
Oh my goodness, what an adventure. I have never been rafting. It sounds very exciting!
That river can be pretty wild. We flipped and my mom was pretty shaken up and the river wasn’t even particularly bad that trip.
thats really crazy i wouldn’t of thought that man was alive. really great story
I always wanted to try river rafting, but never had a chance, I was too busy having kids I guess. Now I wouldn’t dare it (getting old) but we have some very nice and peaceful float trips here in the Missouri Ozarks.
I have never been rafting, it’s a bit scary for me.It sounds so exciting though, I may just put it on my bucket list 🙂
Wow – I am just flabbergasted at your rafting trip! I don’t know if it’s fate or coincidence, but wasn’t it something that you just happened along at the right time to help all those guys? Incredible!
Your adventure sounds typical on the Salmon River, but it is one of my favorite rafting sites here in Idaho. That area is well noted for some real gusty winds, but all of S. Idaho really has some bad winds. When I first moved here people would say to me ” just wait a few minutes,the weather will be changing” and sure enough it does. I have even seen it snow here in July. I am so happy that you had a great time, with no more than what occured. I’ve been dumped once and so thankful I am a good swimmer, and smart enough to keep my vest on.
Oh MY goodness!! I would have thought the man face down was NOT alive! If you hadn’t come through, it’s untelling how that story would have ended! Sounds like an adventure for sure. I’ve never been rafting. I can swim, but am still not comfortable in the ocean or rivers. I’m comfy right here in my 4 and a half feet deep swimming pool 🙂 It does sound like fun though.