Riggins Ahoy! – Rest Day 1

Date: Sunday 15th August 

After nine days on the road and a good night chatting to the folk of Riggins, we had decided to take up an offer of a guided white water rafting trip today.  Having stayed overnight on a riverside beach, we woke to see the sun rising over the mountains surrounding the canyon.  The morning was cool, prompting agreement to set off on the bikes very early on Monday.

We raced around Riggins, sourcing food and rafting equipment.  I was assigned the task of sandwich making, which proved a mighty challenge in a pressure-cooker environment – who needs to worry about multiple-thousand feet climbs on the bikes when you have Jay telling the rafting group that you are a former runner-up in the sandwich-making world championships (it’s strange what becomes amusing when wider human interaction is limited for such long periods of time…).

The rafting team comprised the experienced Heather, Mary, Jocelyn and Ina, together with two people whose background in the adventure sport extended to having seen the man-made setup at the Tees barrage from afar.  We had a good safety briefing from Heather and some practice strokes, before launching into the first rapid, Timezone (so-called since it sits on the threshold between Pacific and Mountain time).  Jay and I were both looking forward to the run, if a little apprehensive about sustaining any injuries that might stop us cycling.

The day turned out to be a perfect break from the riding, finding the balance between a lot of fun and a good chance to relax by swimming in the cool waters of the Salmon River.  Our fellow rafters were great company and, importantly, led a smooth run through some interesting rapids.  Both Jay and I had a go at ‘running the bull’ on the front of the raft and carried out a useful reconnaissance mission for the first 15 miles of riding to follow tomorrow.

Once the rafting was over, we stopped at an amazing organic store on the way back to Riggins, for a fresh huckleberry milkshake (fruit grown onsite), had a look through the rafting photos for the day (someone takes them from the river bank, a little like for the rides at UK theme parks) and thanked our hosts for an excellent day off.  All that was left to do was eat, watch the Legend of Seeker on tv and sleep, ready for a hot and long day to follow.

We’ll probably not be rafting again on any rest days we may take, due to bike maintenance and other tasks, but today has left us in high spirits and feeling fresh, if a little behind on ‘blogging. 

Some bullet points for consistency:

–           A new name has been given to my holdall for money, cards, sentimental items and travel documents – the’ European hand sack’.  After over a week of mocking from Jay and the general public (including one girl asking another if it was their purse), I feel my dignity is restored.

–           You may have noticed the beard (in Jay’s case) and miss-tache and neckbeard in my case gradually developing, possibly with some interest or confusion.  We have agreed, in the same way as we did for JOGLE in 2007, to keep growing for a while.  I’ve suggested no shaving until we get over the 11,000+ foot Hoosier Pass and Jay seems to like the idea.  However, they do frustrate in the heat.

FP