Somewhere on I-80, almost to the Hwy 93 junction, deep in the Nevada desert, my check-engine light goes on but Wheels and I decide it's Idaho or bust. We make it to Twin Falls, ID, by midnight. We get beer at the gas station. Bobby called. The next morning Dave at the Automotive Clinic tells me it's my throttle position sensor and he fixed it. So we're back on the road north through Ketchum, over the Sawtooth Mountains and into Montana. Montana is all green, green snow-capped mountains and rushing streams. We camp at Paradise Flat put-in and by noon the next day we're all floating through the pristine rapids of the Selway river. Days pass. The Selway river loves me. The Nez Perce Wilderness is wild. Everyone knows Terence still hasn't used the shitter and he has earned the nickname Stuffy. Wheels surfs some holes on a paco pad and I drink bloody marys on the bank of the river. Class 4 day. Double Drop, Ladle, Little Niagara. We suddenly realize one of T's friends is a dildo-head chauvenist who can't stand the fact that some women guides are better than he is. We make fun of him behind his back for the rest of the trip. A lot. More days pass. Wolf Creek rapid is a doozy and we get a little rain as we float up to take-out. We've reached the end of the river but not the end of a beautiful drive back through Idaho. We saw a moose right there on the side of the road. Mooses are cool. But Bootie Boy picks a shitty route through Boise and gets us lost, the pigfucker. Wheels and I figure it out on our own and we speed like the wind through the desert. A thunderstorm rolls in and the desert drinks it in with an audible slurp and an explosion of color; pinks and greens and gold and blue. I'm going back there soon For Reals.
Word.
*UPDATE*
You can view more pics here, if you wish.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=yz8ay7f.66wxkfx3&Uy=l01wph&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=383628312673_358370587303
2 comments:
Oh to be young and carefree, floating lazily down summer rivers of beauty and taking those road trips that most will never take. But as one of my great professors in college once told me, "Its never too late to have a happy childhood." Good photos by the way, great post.
Great post Ish. The beauty and abudance of the mountains and valleys and rivers free the spirit, but the pyrotechnics of the desert feed the soul in a startlingly profound and intense way. That trip in particular makes for a great combination of both.
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