Riggins - White Bird [back]

At exactly 9:00am, I rode into the parking lot of Brundage Mountain Adventures and was the only one there. By 9:30, the guides and I were still waiting on the porch for the six guys that would make up the rest of our group. Ten minutes later a van pulled up, the doors opened and 6 large, middle-aged men, clad in sunglasses and baseball hats rolled out. Upon the opening of the doors, the stentch from last night's alcohol permeated the air and reached the porch before any of the men did. Their boisterous arrival was filled with accounts of last night's adventures and ribbings of the most hung over member. Gary was not ashamed of this fact, rather he wore his hangover like a badge of honor, a medal from a night of good times and little memory.

After getting fitted for wetsuits, signing release waivers, and just general milling around, we finally entered the water an hour later, 15 miles upstream. Our group consisted of one raft and two inflatable kayaks, which we all took turns riding in. There were rapids probably every quarter mile of our 25 mile trip and about 6 or 7 class 3 rapids. Nobody fell out of the raft, but we all went for a swim when we were in the kayaks.

Six hours later, we reached our pullout point and drove back to Riggins where we began. It was at this point that I realized that I was getting in pretty good shape. When we got back to the office, everyone prepared to go their separate ways, talking about who was going to nap where and for how long. Even the guides looked a little tired from a long day of rowing and sitting in the hot sun. Still having four hours of sun and fresh legs from not pedalling all day, I decided to hit the road and head towards White Bird, 27 miles away.

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