Selway Day 1: Downstream

When we got up in the morning, we began the arduous task of inflating and rigging all the rafts. Besides Sparky and me, CB, Shebe, The Dicer, MTM, and Bunyan were on hand to make the work a "work party."




Since we had a launch site right by our campsite, we just did everything there. When we got a raft rigged and loaded, one of us would float it down the White Cap to the confluence with the Selway, secure the boat, and then walk back up to the campground to help rig another boat. In this fashion, we got all the boats loaded and ready to go in a very reasonable amount of time.

There really wasn't an eddy at the "official" Selway launch ramp, so at least at the beginning, we secured all the boats in the large eddy under the bridge over the White Cap (Selway in the background):
When they arrived, our parking the boats under the bridge kind of freaked out CB's father who had arranged our shuttle for us: we had moved one raft to the actual ramp (just downstream), and since that was the only boat he saw, he thought at first we were going to try to fit everyone on the one raft. I kept telling him there were other rafts under the bridge, but I think he didn't believe me.

Here is the bottom of the official Selway launch ramp with The Dicer and MTM holding the boats against the current:
CBsr and the shuttle crew showed up within 15 minutes of the agreed time to meet: pretty impressive for a seven hour commute. With them came Lex, Lois, Backstroke and A-frame. Logistically, it just worked out better for them to ride with the shuttle people, though they got out of rigging any boats that way. On the other hand, it was purely a coincidence that the poop bucket got stowed on Backstroke's raft: even if he would have been there to rig, it just worked out that he had the perfect spot on his boat. Really.

Eventually, we got all the beer stowed, and worked out who was going to ride where. I was somewhat insulted that no one wanted to ride with me, but I suppose there is only so much "pithy" one person can stand.

And then we were off:
The first day on a new river is always a somewhat anxious time, and this was no exception. Both guides we had of the Selway were pretty bad: poor or no descriptions, lots of rapids that weren't even listed, inconsistent ratings between the two guides on the rapids. Lots of that kind of stuff.

Add to this that for both guides, the listed class II rapids on that first day without exception would have been classified as class III on any other river, and I have to admit, I was getting a little "puckerish" as the day wore on. We had no major mishaps, but seeing as I was the "probe" boat (I tell myself that's why no one wanted to ride with me), I was feeling the pressure to not screw up. And find a camp-spot (preferably before I got downstream of it).

We had planned on doing a fairly short float on that first day: only about 10 or 11 miles since we were getting a relatively late start, but the first place we wanted to camp called Archer Camp kind of sucked. Though it did have a nice eddy, it was full of cheat grass, and even worse, this thing was parked pretty much in the middle of camp:
It may be hard to see (unless you bigificate by clicking), but that there is a classic Western Diamondback rattlesnake. Now I'm no herpetologist, but in my limited experience, rattlesnakes get really cranky when they're molting (I think they get kind of itchy). Every rattlesnake I saw on this trip must have been molting, because without exception, they were all cranky. So we got out of there.

Our next choice was a place called Goat Creek camp. And though it looked really cool, and I would like to camp there sometime, it was unfortunately too small a camp for our group. It also had a really poor (read "non-existent") landing area, as evidenced by MTM not even being able to stop his raft. Either way, we were moving on.

Interestingly enough (to me), the place we ended up camping was called "Little Goat Creek Camp". But the camp was much bigger than Goat Creek Camp. So was there a smaller goat there? A smaller creek? I saw neither. It was however a good camp: plenty of spots for tents, a very secluded spot for the pooper, and a nice big communal area for the kitchen. The only thing I didn't like was the landing area: no real eddy, boats pulled up on rocks etc. etc.

Here we have A-frame, Lois, and Shebe building skewers for our first supper on the river:
Later, after the guys had found the liquid courage to help (watch):
The broccoli with sweet chili-sauce side dish: yummy (served over rice)
The Kabobs. In hindsight, I wouldn't do kabobs again. They seemed so simple in the planning, but they were a very labor intensive food, both in the building, and also in the tending when on the grill. Though they were well received, I felt bad for CB and Shebe who did the lion's share of the cooking of this meal because it was so much more work than the other dinners. However, the brownies and ice-cream for dessert was both easy (other than keeping the ice-cream frozen), and really good. That is definitely a keeper.

Perhaps the most difficult way to do the dishes: but no one made fun of Backstroke and Lex for doing it that way (to their faces): reminds me of the old SNL skit about "squatters:"
The secluded "pooper with a view:"
Next:
Our first real class IV rapid of the trip.