Last time I was headed to the Snake River in 2014......
The trip was a success, but didn't go as well as I planned. The night before we took off a few people popped their sleeping pads on goat heads. My gear planning was spot on for self supporting. I'd gotten pretty darn good at packing the Stomper 80 (I've since sold her). Hell's Canyon is an intimidating place to put eyes on the first time. The mountains are grey and ominous. The dam is huge. The river is in a canyon and the water is so loud even though the first rapid is pretty far down stream and only class 2. Only class 2, I'm thinking, why the heck does it sound so loud from here?
Hell's Canyon provided warmer than I'm used to water and big fluffy rapids. There's also the challenge of motorized boats. Most motorized boats slowed down as they passed us, but a few did not, so you have to watch out for yourself out there! We saw a ranch crew taking horses upstream one day, that was a first!
Here's one of the campsites......everything as really dry, but still very beautiful. One challenge was finding water. Always fill up when you can! There are several streams that pour into the Snake that have cold water you can filter.
Still smiling after a couple swims and a portage. Next time I come back here, I'm going to run everything. I also learned that skirting big water rapids doesn't do much to make things easier, running the meat of the wave trains is definitely the way to go. Though they may look more intimidating the lines are so much cleaner than dealing with the boils and uncertain eddy lines of the Snake's fluffy rapids.
The crew, putting on for our final day.
Here's a link to some Hell's Canyon action! Enjoy!!
https://vimeo.com/111948760
https://vimeo.com/111956918
