On the water again!

Sparky and I finally got out on a river this Spring. As seems to often be the case in the last few years, our first foray onto the water occurred on the Moyie River in north Idaho. To make a long story short, we had to go to Sandpoint this last weekend on an unrelated matter, but coincidentally hooked up with some friends on Saturday who wanted to see if the Moyie had changed at all over the winter. They were going to kayak it on Sunday, and were interested to know if there was any new wood in the water. So we broke out our two 10.5' rafts and did a quick afternoon reconnoiter. Without further ado, here are some pictures:

The put in I normally use has been destroyed (by bridge reconstruction), so we went to this place a little further downstream. Note the big pile of snow behind the raft on the left: this is going to be a good water year for those of us who like the whitewater. And no, we weren't trying to maintain our anonymity: there was just a lot of light behind us. That's Sparky on the left, Backstroke in the middle, and me on the right. A-frame took the picture.

Sparky and A-frame having a good time:
Backstroke and I were patient, but they just wouldn't flip the boat over for us:
This was the closest they came to flipping (not surprisingly) in Hole-in-the-Wall: they did hit the right wall, lost an oar and finished the rapid backwards, but really weren't in any real danger of flipping. Kind of disappointing for us with the camera.
Sparky chauffeuring me to the takeout:
Moyie river, 5/3/08, 1150cfs.