Killin' It in Idaho

It was finally time to get on the river.  This experience was one of the best ones I've had on a trip in my life.  We for sure felt the missing pieces of Jill and Kenneth, though.  If I thought this was a fun trip, they would made it a billion times better.  We will go again with them for sure.

This is one of my favorite pictures

It was pretty chilly the first day.  We were loaded down in our dry gear along with our dry day bags. 

We arrived at our lunch spot and these guides had their stuff down to an art.  They set up and got going.  We had a delicious first day lunch of potato salad, sandwiches, and cookies.  They thought of everything.

Our first day we did 20 miles.  Each set of guides draws camping spots for the week and ours happened to be the furthest away.  One of our guides went ahead in the "sweep boat" and had the entire camp, tents, and kitchen set up before we arrived each day.  Amazing.

We had a fun appetizer and drinks ready for us each day when we got off the river.

Dinner the first night!

Jacques passing out the dessert.  They made fresh whipped cream at the campsite!

The Earnests, Couvs, Roland (our new friend), Neil, and Dee (our new friend)

paddle boat time!

You must wear a helmet and life jacket if you are on the paddle boat or duckie (kayak) 

Like Jill says "Idaho is the USA's best kept secret."  The scenery is just majestic.

The IRJ crew can't be beat!

Veil Falls was our lunch stop one day

Jacques and Leigh Ann

We hiked up this mountain and as always, the views didn't disappoint.  I don't love heights, but I had to do this!

Date boat!

As a special surprise: we snuck these funny bathing suits on the trip for the guys!  Since Kenneth wasn't with us-we gave his pair to Skip (the outfitter and guide extraordinaire!)

you can see Skip, Justin, The Couvs and the McGuires as tiny specks behind us climbing that giant mountain with NO trail.  They climbed up to the little cave.  We sat on the river bank and watched the spectacle with our safety and our Trulys.  I was so nervous for them!  They made it!  

you can't imagine the camps each night.  

Our crew with THE CREW!

The ladies boat.  We were in charge of "rescuing" anyone who went down on a duckie.  At one point, Jacques flipped and we freaked out and couldn't even remember to paddle.  Pam (a lady on the trip) screamed "get it together ladies!"  And we got on it and rescued Jacques out of the rapid to safety!

I got to make dessert one night. It was a pear ginger crumble.  I'm not sure they will let me back in the camp kitchen, but I had fun.

One of our favorite things to do after a long day of rafting was to get in dry clothes and take our chairs down to the river bank.  Dreamy.

The waterfalls everywhere were so majestic.  

Just Missing the Favrots.

I loved this camp the most!  The river was sort of a "lazy river" and we were able to jump in and float down to the end of the camp.  One of my favorite memories.

Our tent was placed in sort of a "honeymoon" location.  I went to get changed and heard voices outside my tent.  Leigh Ann popped by to get pic and out popped me!

Neil challenged the guides to a tent building competition. He came in 3rd at just over 2 minutes.  I think he was the winner because he has never put one of those up and the guides put up 20 a day!  Skip won, Montana Dave got 2nd!

Dreamy

We called this the "cheese grater wall."

If you asked a guide to take  pic-you always found something like this on your phone.

And this.  This is Matt (amazing guy and so smart!)  and Montana Dave

The last night was steak night.  Jacques makes a mean steak so we asked if he could make them!  He even made a Bearnaise sauce!

"Tappen Island"smoked trout tray.  Tappen Island was one of the campsites we were on and the only island on the middle fork

We had a rock throwing competition on night.  

Salmon, yes please!

Neil was like a river rafting king!  He never flipped once.  I did muster up the courage to do the duckie and it was so cool.  I made sure I did a non-scary 10 mile stretch and was super proud of myself.

Mom boat!

Another of my favorite memories was when I was on the groover (the camp toilet) looking out at the river.  The groover usually has the best view of the whole campsite.  Well, Jacques and Leigh Ann got a great view: me!  They were the last boat in and I had no idea until I saw them float right by me!

Goodness this trip was spectacular!  IRJ is the place to be!  We met so many fun people that we keep in touch with.  It was truly an amazing experience.  One thing we brought to the trip was our musical abilities...we had a song for everything.  Here's our Middle Fork Playlist:

• They see me Rollin: We sung this to Roland from day 1!
• Eagles: Hotel Middle Fork and we saw so many bald eagles
• Ole' Ole': for a kid named Cole.  We'd sing "Cole', Cole'" to him
• Hey Mickey!: Hey Maddie you're so fine!  A girl on the trip who was a boss in the duckie
• Rollin' on the River: duh!
• Rolly Rolly: another for Roland
• Groovin': for the groover!  The groover was the toilet and it was named that because it used to leave grooves on your legs.  It's a real toilet seat now.
• Teach me how to Dougie: We would sing it "Teach me how to Duckie"
• Olympic Theme Song: for our camp site games. 
• Louisiana Saturday Night: We sang this as we floated down the river on the last night
• Pussy Control: We would sing it as "Pussy Patrol" to the guys in their sweet cat suits
• Brand New Man: this was the theme after we showered after getting off the river!  A hot shower was like the best thing ever!