"Once again we started the day out in the boat house. This time the topic of discussion was eddies—how to recognize them, where to find them, and how to get in them. The expression of “hit them high and deep” was used often. After our discussion on eddies, several of the students gave their oral presentation, myself included. The presentations were on a variety of subjects ranging from willows to dragon flies to moose to John Coulter. From there, we had a talk about throw bags—when to throw them, how to throw them, and so on. Then we practiced a few throws in the parking lot. We also divided into teams to practice a few more new knots—the butterfly and the half-hitch. Before too long, it was time to load up and get on the river.
Today’s launch pad into the river was South Park Bridge. This time, I was with KC and each took turns practicing paddling guiding, turning, and catching eddies. After a stop at Astoria to get a bite to eat, we loaded up the boats and ourselves and headed down to West Table to re-launch. This was done to save some time. Here, we were put in new groups, and I had a new teacher, Ryan. Once again, we took turns guiding and really practiced getting into and out of eddies. We scouted the area where the ginormous landslide was encroaching on the river and impeding thru traffic on the highway.
We also talked about self-rescue and capsizing today before doing a flip drill where we purposely capsized the boat while floating downstream. Once we had people safely on the bottom of the boat, we rowed to the shore and flipped the boat right side up. The purpose for doing this was to prepare up for a possible flip in Lunchcounter rapid. This rapid came up pretty fast, and we all tied the boats up and scouted the rapid from shore. Then in we went, and each boat emerged with no swimmers. Whoop!
Our adventures on the Snake River came to an end at Sheep Gulch where we took out and loaded up the buses and made the long drove back to Jackson for a quick clean-up and debriefing." -Megan
Mad River is a river outfitter based in Jackson WY. Our experienced guides are trained and will keep you safe while showing you a great time during one of our many scenic floats or exhilarating white water rafting trip packages.
