Ben, Taylor, and Mike drifting under an old abandoned bridge part way through the first day.
R ays of light cut down through the water around the raft like laser beams; the already brilliant emerald-col- ored water glowing even more spectacularly with the added light. A large trout dashed from beneath a submerged rock through the light as we drifted over it. Its rain- bow scales shimmered in the light up through the shallow water. An active fish in the frigid cold spring waters was just the sign we were looking for on this trip. The fishing and the company were going to be nothing short of delightful.
trip was no different. Gathering cold-water gear like drysuits and personal floatation devices, fly fish - ing gear, overnight camping gear and rafting gear made my gear room look like an explosion had happened. Packing all of that into drybags, then onto my dad’s 16-foot cataraft that I was borrowing for the weekend felt oddly familiar, yet totally foreign. I have participated in, orchestrated and packed for so many different types of trips over the years, but overnight whitewa- ter rafting was not one I had done up to this point. It felt similar to
After an abysmal winter for ice climbing and other winter esca- pades, as measured by my win- ter-loving standards, I only begrudgingly accepted the ear- ly spring runoff with essentially no snow below 4,500 feet. As a re- sult, our options were limited for late winter and early spring snow- themed adventures. So we all de- cided that with the unseasonably warm temps, some river time was in store. As a group, we have a bit of a hab- it of planning logistically challeng- ing trips into remote places. This
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