For the next eight days, I will be on a three-person raft floating down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in central Idaho with 12 Idahoans. This flows north from Stanley, ID through the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the second largest wilderness area in the lower 48s, to the main branch of the Salmon. The Salmon flows into the Snake near the western edge of Idaho, and eventually into the Columbia just East of the Gorge.
My hosts with be the Marvels. Johanna is an old friend from Grinnell, Adam is her older brother and lives and acts in London, Jon is her father, a retired architect who runs the Western Watersheds Project, and Stephanie is her mother. They have rafted this river together more than 8 times.
Look forward to sharing some photos and maybe a plant or bird list when I get back.