During the late summer of 1994, three close friends and I joined an expedition down the Salmon River (that's in Idaho; here's a map) in small wooden boats, called dories. More on dories, later. (Here's the Brittanica Online entry for the Salmon River, and for Idaho). The trip was run by a company called O.A.R.S. (Outdoor Adventure River Specialists). The friends who went with me were Dominique Thongs, Richard Wong, and my girlfriend^*, Tatiana. Let me introduce them.

First, here's a picture of me . I am wearing my standard river-rat garb: an indestructible hat and really dark sunglasses. We spent twelve days on the river, and of those days, eleven were hot and mercilessly sunny. We travelled more than 200 miles, camping out on sandy spots along the shore each night.

Here is Dominique . He is pictured partaking in one of our late-afternoon rituals, known as a Hippo Bar. After a long, hot day of floating down the river (temperatures were up around 100 F many days), when we got into camp at the end of the day, everybody would grab a beer from the supply raft, and sit half-submerged in the water to cool off! Ah how I long for the simple pleasure of a Hippo Bar once again!

Here are Tatiana and Rich , with me, during dinner one evening. We ate well on the river. Surprisingly well, in fact. We carried all our food with us; the Salmon River goes through some very formidable terrain, so we only got re-supplied once, on Day 7. But we carried fresh fruits, vegetables and meats with us. We filtered water right out of the river, for drinking.

Also on Day 7, we passed a large forest fire, covering many square miles. The fire-fighters were flying helicopters overhead, dipping their 500 gallon buckets into the river right around us, and carrying the water up to the flames. That evening, there was an amazingly beautiful sunset , a pleasant side-effect of the fires. Then, we sat in camp and watched the flames dancing on the mountainside a few miles away.

At meal times, the "official meal announcement" was performed by blowing on the Conch-shell Horn that our leader, "Bronco" carried with him. Here is a picture of me, demonstrating proper technique on the Horn.