Where Is The Far Beyond?

Where is the far beyond? This  is a question with an answer just as far away, quite out of reach by human understanding. But there is a river where one can go and might find a far easier answer to that question.   At least that is what the Nez Perce called the Grande Ronde River in Northeastern Oregon: “River that flows into the Far Beyond.” All their answers to many great mysteries were found there.

We do five-day float trips on the lower 100 miles of this beautiful river, and at the bottom end it has enough goose-neck bends to seem like  never-ending turns with a new view around each one.  Never ending beauty also adds to this same feeling of having entered an arena of inexhaustible wonder.  Various landscapes are encountered along the way, from a thick forest of pine and fir in parkland like stands at the top, to subtle changes along the route, finally entering the more arid environs of open rimrock canyonland territory.

Rapids are never too demanding, except for a place or two at very high water. Most is just good solid fun without worry of changing your underwear after the run. In between the whitewater sections are placid pools and quieter water where more time can be used to study the hillsides for wild animals that frequent the canyon. Many elk and deer can be found on mid elevation benches taking advantage of spring green-up for those who float the river early enough.

This river is a product of the Wallowa and Elkhorn watersheds, both draining from the massive shoulders of sawtooth mountains that kiss the sky. Snow melt gives rise to peak run-off sometime in late May and early June, depending on weather and annual precip conditions. But even when the river runs at the average peak flows, it is fast and furious, but not terribly difficult, and definitely not terrifying.  There are not many eddies, and the current is fast, so one need pay attention, all the same. Specially when camp is ready to be made, it sometimes means an adventurous landing.

Not only is the corridor of  escarpents and lava layers overlying steep benchgrass slopes, but so too is the area steeped in a colorful history of the two cultures who discovered the hidden trearues at staggered timelines of progression. It is easy to see why the Nez Perce made a part of this terrain their esteemed homeland, as well as why early exlporers and homesteaders found similar reasons to seek security in the same places. Later modern day explorers, like Buzz Holmstrom, who then began floating these waters early on, established yet another course in riverine history and is an additional  subject we like to explore during our  float trips of current times.

Side hikes to ridgeline and hillsides with a kaleidoscopic fill of colorful wildflowers can seem like jumping through the Looking Glass wth Alice in wonderland. It is like a different world, only it doesn’t take a Looking Glass to appreciate, just a boat to reach those places and hiking boots.

When waters calm down and flows are on the backside of the peak, fishing becomes good again, for rainbow trout and smallmouth bass. The additional advantage of this river for fishermen is the pool to riffle ratio that creates ideal situations for the fish to occupy.  So for fishermen who can read water, there is a story behind every appropriate rock.

This family oriented river also has great campsites where one can sit back and absorb scent of the pines waft with the coffee and bacon smells off a morning campfire, too. It is a great way to start a fun-filled day, and 5 days is too short, but better than none. And the only way to get close to the far beyond is to take the first step forward. All these rest will soon fall into place.

Let your fingers begin the walking to start the floating:     208:628-3523

A Touch Stone To Salmon

Often people on river trips do a lot of hiking and invariable get attracted by colorful stones they encounter along the way.  Many can not resist picking up some unusual  stone that speaks to them in a special way.   Later on with the passage of time and distance,  something happens when once again that same stone finds the palm of their hand.  Rubbing it is too powerful to resist, and not only does it feel good polishing the skin, but it also makes the mind take flight back to the canyonlands and river beds that sourced the stone.

It then becomes a touch stone, whereas, every time it is touched, it brings back memories and serves to keep lessons of the past moving forward.  It reminds us of the importance certain places and events have during our own life times and  contributes to personal journeys as being a part of history in the making.  One such powerful event we hold each year in a special place on the Salmon River,  is our annual Sacred Salmon Ceremony at Spring Bar.  It is a gathering of people from  two major cultures to join forces in appreciating the return of salmon to the Salmon River.   Not for political, economic, or religious reasons, but for a chance to collectively let the salmon know that all people recognize their importance as a gift to the people.   Rather, at some spiritually cosmic level, it is where an appreciation can be gained for at least the transference of various forms of energy as time expands. It gives us human life forces a chance to co-mingle with fish-nation life forces to help  strengthen a reciprocal preditor-prey bond that is the law of nature everywhere.

Chinook Salmon is an icon not only of the Salmon River, which is its namesake, but also to the Nez Perce people (First Nation) who have depended on them for countless centuries as an important element of human subsistence.  Their worldview about nature is that everything is connected and all life forms have equal relationship with each other.  All forms in nature are a gift to each other, and balanced reciprocity is required for maintaining a perpetual level of harmony  between all economies.

Unfortunately the wild fish are in jeopardy of potential extinction and thus protected by the endangered species act.  This is a policy developed by the other human culture (Second Nation) that arrived on the scene later, but had a more dominating world view about nature that led more to undermining it and thus required new means for potential restoration.

Consequently, with more means to harness nature’s bounty, dams were put into all major river’s  to help turn water into energy for a more industrial oriented economy and culture.  It was known that fish runs would suffer when dams would be put into place,  but a necessary sacrifice for the price of progress. Thus, hatcheries were spawned as mitigation for what damage dams were anticipated to create.

Hatchery fish are now the backbone of our current fishery, but long-range success is highly questionable.   Representative of a once significant natural resource that brought nutrients to the land and people before dams, their annual return is far shy of historic runs in number and contribution to the natural economy.

The long-range future is questionable, because wild fish are the vital gene pool keeping ecosystem function healthy.  Continuous dilution of what it took eons to create, is a big unknown. Speculatively, many of our scientists are not hugely optimistic for the long haul, as the more disruptive ways of the industrial economy continues squeezing everything possible out of all natural resources in the name of progress.

But part of progress is recognizing when to stop, or change horses mid stream, to avoid total destruction brought about by riding a run-away horse with no bridle.  But a bridal has its place in the grand scheme of things, when wisdom is practiced to let the wild horse run free at times. Likewise with the river, some portions need to run wild with no cement  bridle to prevent that pure natural flow.

So too, in a country composed of two sovereign nations tied to each other with treaty obligations and similar interests to maintain the integrity of all our natural resources, fostering mutual cooperation between them is very important. When two cultures have different world views towards nature, it becomes crucial to find as much common ground for the better good of all people, fish, and wildlife.

This is why we started a sacred salmon ceremony 11 years ago.  A big part of it is to recognize our differences, honor our treaty obligations, and develop better trust levels between all people’s who share the same planet. Face to face contact is the most powerful way to appreciate learning more about each other’s culture and is our “touchstone event”  to help remember the importance of our relationship to all of nature.

The 12th Annual Sacred Salmon Ceremony is about appreciation for our human dance with the  gifting economy of nature. It is free and open to all people. To learn more about the specifics: http://www.doryfun.com/uniquetrips.html.  Please join us on the Salmon River May 18, 2013 at Spring Bar – 10 miles upriver of Riggins, Idaho.  High Noon, Mountain Time.

Best Trip Ever?

Best trip ever?  I just got off a 6-day Owyhee River trip that I like to refer to as the Estrogen Express on Little Grand Canyon North. Being the only male in a party with three females, has its challenges. But fun!  In fact, so much fun, that one guest (I won’t mention your name here Terri) told me it was her best trip ever.  This is always a welcome but troubling thing for me to hear after the completion of any river trip that people have enjoyed so much.

It is a bit embarrassing and I am tempted to fudge the truth a little and agree, but then what about all those other super trips in the past I have been on? Like the trip where I proposed marriage to my wife by scribbling with a stick on a magnificent sandbar in an outrageous canyonscape.  Once someone in my profession  gets nearly 40 years worth of trips behind them, that adds up to a lot of trips and happy times.  I would not like to discount any of those other great experiences, or rank them in any kind of order.  Minus a trip or two from hell, most of my experiences have been highly pleasurable. And I certainly would put this past one up their in the high level redline of the fun meter.

In fact, despite getting occasionally ganged up on,  almost all female trips I have led have been a real hoot. That is, at least gaged by the soreness of my guts during the trip of belly laughs that almost took me rolling to the sand. Good humor adds so much to an adventure that it is easy to send them to the top ranking positions of how much fun one journey can be.  It almost makes me think perhaps all female (or mostly female) trips might be a good niche market to consider.  Although, it might lead to early insanity and is always a risk for potential  male ill-mind health.

In essence, what is really  fun for me is to see the transformation that takes place between launch and take out, especially for those whom are on their first time on a river or a new one.   These ladies had all  been on other river trips, and two of them, on the Owyhee before. But each water level is never exactly the same,  so essentially a new river. Of course, the group dynamics were different, and fortunately a great mix of compatible personalities, so that adds significantly to the pleasure principle.

And of course, for Misty, who was rowing the other raft and guides for us here at the Wapiti Clan, had not been on this waterway before. The low water conditions were a far different experience than the big water of the Salmon River that she is used to.  But, being good on the oars and reading water helped her to successfully make good runs.  The technical aspect of bony boulder garden rapids actually makes one  better on the sticks when they get back to larger volume rivers.  I’m sure she will soon appreciate it once the dust has settled and her memory kicks-in to help finesse a good route through the challenging rapids of the Salmon River.

The entire experience of this trip reminded me of a passage in a book I had once read: “The Gulf Stream will flow through a straw provided the straw is aligned to the Gulf Stream, and not a cross purposes with it.”  …  “So now I always tell my students about the Gulf Stream: that what it means for us, for writers, is that we need to align ourselves with the river of the story, the river of the unconscious, of memory and sensibility, of our characters’ lives, which can then pour through us, the straw.”

And so it is with a river experience. When we align ourselves with all the current, not only of the river, but everything else that flows between the canyon walls, we become the vessel through which it all pours. We can absorb all the juices that leaves a stain forever on our inner walls…and add that much more to the next time we dip that same straw into the flowing waters.  Fortunately, there are a lot of best trips ever,  soon to be, laying there in wait for another vessel to appreciate it once again. It is the way of the river and waters magic.

The Power of Place

In nature, certain places have a special power to pull in one’s soul.  The mystery of why these types of places have such a magical feel to the traveler that discovers them, may never be adequately expressed by words. Just as photos can never adequately paint a picture of those same areas. Only the human in real world experience can feel such things.  To me, the Owyhee River in SE Oregon, is one of those places that continues to suck me in each spring when the snow begins to melt.

It is a time I relish, because this desert river only provides enough water to float in the spring time.   It is also a fickle time of year weather-wise, which in turn affects flows and boating. Crossing fingers, doing a sundance or raindance, maybe an incantation or two, and a lot of hoping help describe the waiting times for floating this river.

For me, aside from winter steelhead fishing by driftboat, the Owyhee is the first extended, multi-day river trip we begin to run each year. It is our kick-off to another whitewater season, so it also means a lot of elbow grease working on boats and rafts to get the dust and cobwebs off.  The water levels of the Owyhee dictate which type of craft we will take, as hard boats do not do well in very low water conditions. Wood and rock are not a good mix when it comes to floating.   Rafts are better, but in extreme low flows, size of those critters are critical too.  Trying to squeeze a 7′ wide raft through a 6′ wide slot, is in the realm of a magic trick gone bad.

Having floated this river for around 40 years worth of trips now, my back log of stories includes lots of personal relationships with a lot of rocks, hard places, and some experiences I am glad are behind me.  A lot of images come to my mind as I work on boats and visualize up coming adventures.  These same extreme experiences have given me a good backlog to evaluate water conditions and develop cut-off levels for determining what kind of boat or raft I will take for the next trip.  Reducing risk for potential problems from day one is the name of the game for minimizing problems and having more time to enjoy the canyon, rather than pulling rafts off rocks or putting bad dings in hardboats.

So far, based on rare evidence of other party wreckage and carnage, I have been pretty lucky not to have the worst nightmare stories to tell, and I plan to keep it that way, as much as possible. Those kind of stories are better for someone else to have and tell. But, I do whisper all this, nare the river might hear my words and reciprocate by playing  tricks on me.

But as I work on boats getting them shined up for the Owyhee, I can feel the river’s pull from this high desert sage plateau. I can even smell the pungent sage and feel the desert breeze wafting its aromatics across the wide expanses.  It is hard to put a finger precisely on just what that magic is that contains such a power.  It’s only a feel, and one must go there to really know what that really means.  All I know is that it exists, is real for me, and that it is calling now. Only a few more suns for trip number one on the Owyhee and soon magic will be all around as each oar grabs another foot of downstream progress.

Always room for more

http://www.doryfun.com

800-488-9872

Who Needs A Guide?

No one, and everyone, is the finely distilled answer.  If you could ask Lewis and Clark what value a guide has, you would soon discover how important their guides were to the success of their mission.  For example, on the 1806 return trip in June, Lewis and Clark had great apprehension about crossing the snow-covered mountains in ID/MT without guides. They felt they could not cross without them and luckily were  able to persuade  Speaking Eagle, Black Eagle, and Ahs-kahp, who were three of the very best Nez Perce guides to lead their way. Of course, these were not their only guides, as Sacagawea also played a huge role in leading them a good part of their distance in uncharted territories.

These  Indian guides were as excited about leading the expedition then, as guides of today often get when taking modern people into some of the same  rugged and beautiful landscapes that continue to drop jaws.  The Nez Perce were paid with guns which made their hunting easier, while guides today get paid in money which  make their livelihoods possible. Though the more esteemed value to both types  of guides was deeply felt in the heart and spirit where no material things can be taken.  What is life really about, if not to get out and see what there is to see and to share with others the utter magic that it represents to all ?

But, in the process of getting out and seeing things we have never seen before, it is only reasonable to find a good guide. It can be a writing guide, or human guide, but in either case it is the information and knowledge they contain that we seek. Sure, anyone can go out on their own without consulting any form of guide for true unadulterated exploration. But, aside from that goal, guides help us save time and offer more opportunities to see cooler things we might otherwise miss.  It takes a large chunk of time to make your own trial and error path trying to negotiate any new jungle.  The learning curve is greatly reduced by piggy-backing off someone elses  consumption of time to figure things out.

Even guides consult other guides, maps, guidebooks, and any source that might provide additional insights into becoming more intimate to an area. Whether it is new country, or a different perspective in familiar country, one can never learn too much.  So while some say adventure is not the map, it is still true that a  map  has an advantage to make the adventure less risky and time effective endeavor.  Dead end trails eat away time and back-tracking efforts can sometimes even be cause for missing a final planned destination when time runs out.

Hidden dangers, and dangers not even suspected to be dangers that are known to guides, but not the uninitiated, can mean the difference between failure or success, or in extreme cases life and death.  All through time humans have sought the advice of guides. From soothsayers to Youtube, people continue to seek some kind of source to guide their way forward through the world.

As a river guide, I often find myself in places such as where  the Nez Perce guides of yester-year once stood, in awe of their surroundings. Like a special place in the mountains where Speaking Eagle, Black Eagle, and Ahs-kahp stopped before a rock Caryn built by their ancestors to remind other travelers to pause and wonder at the meaning of their world.  It is said that the voice of Itsi-yai-ayi, or spiritual Coyote, would sometimes speak to those who listen:

“Frail Human, standing tall with head near the stars above,

Proud-standing, with feet on the birthing-place of rivers,

Safely have you come thus far through these mountains.

How could you tell which way to go?

Looking up, what do you see? Nothing but sky.

Looking down, deep canyons.

Behind – mountains. To right and to left – mountains.

Looking ahead – mountains. Mountains as far as eyes can see.

You, who are a mere Human! How can you find your way?

Something Greater than you has been your Guide.”

 

Who floats your boat?

See www.doryfun.com for guided adventure.

The Roundness of Ice and Absurdity of Irony.

Well, ice is nice, but sun is fun, and spring is beginning to fill my mind. However, before winter fades totally from the carnival of natural events during this time of year, some thoughts about ice still keep re-circulating here.  Why?  It is all quite amazing.  One of our previous river guests found the above picture of an ice circle on Planet Earth Phenomenon Facebook page. He then posted it on our FB page with the following comment: “This is a pretty cool picture of a Idaho river I am sure Gary could take anyone to it.”  Little did he know, I was the person who actually took this picture.

Then my wife, Barb, tracked down the photo on Planet Earth Phenomenon and noticed someone else had taken credit for it, though probably not intentionally, (truth gets  distorted easily ).  So she went about the task of  attempting  to set the record straight.  After all, we do take pictures to share, but would at least like credit for it.  Once informed, PEP then corrected the  misinformation.  Following their change, another guy whom had been trying for about 5 days to track down the true origin of that picture, rippled yet another set of motions. He went on a mission to contact us to see if we were indeed the people responsible for taking that picture, because he wanted to know the story behind it all.

But, when he called, we were upriver.   I was fly fishing for steelhead while Barb was helping some other lady friends pick up garbage on the river (ya I know, typical man – but hey, historically I have spent many such similar days). However,  when we got home, Barb found his message,  so gave him a call.  He told her his story and it ignited a series of several emails back and forth, where we soon learned we had many similarities in life styles, appreciation for rivers,  and nature.  Thus, the snowball grew.  After all, “it only takes one rock to start an avalanche.

This is also when we learned this photo had been going viral, which also led to our discovery that when we googled “ice circle” our photo came up everywhere on a ton of other sites. Little did we know the power of our own reach.  It also led me into a giant loop of feedback in memory.    Many past events of my various encounters of ice related situations began playing around in my head.

An ice circle, more technically called pancake ice, thus created quite a stir. It sent my thoughts far back to times when I floated the Grande Ronde in the middle of winter, when I  had to pull my raft across several ice bridges. Quite terrifying at first, but I learned how to read ice, like reading rivers, which helped me know how to deal with a host of unusual conditions more reasonably.  But, it also increased my awareness for how to access areas most people don’t, and to see things  most people won’t, because of their fears. It catapulted my appreciation for barriers. They are like walls to keep at bay those things that make solitude hard to find.

I soon learned that the “offbeat”, (climbing over or around barriers) is a great dance step.  May not look pretty on the dance floor, but what a fun dance it makes to put your toes into wonderful places without worrying about getting stepped on.  Not being afraid to look or be different and to go against the common flow of things has great rewards.

Like seeing deer grazing under giant frozen waterfalls, elk swimming across a river to gain more food on southern exposures,  bald eagles cruising for prey weakened from harsh weather,  and water ouzles (dippers) playing amidst it all – taking underwater dips in all that coldness.

Note: as I was writing this post, yet another writer/photographer from a paper in Montana contacted us to get the back story to our picture.  Again, seems quite amazing.  On the surface it all seems like such a random thing.  But diving underneath it all, like the dipper, another world exists, along with new revelations. Sometimes random, is not as random as one first thinks. ( absurdity of irony). In nature, there are power laws that rule which serve to bring order out of chaos. (more fodder for another post down the line).

For the curious, here are some interesting links all related to ice circles and the back story:

https://www.facebook.com/Riverdoryfun
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2013/feb/27/salmon-river-eddy-creates-ice-circle/http://www.salmonriveridaho.net/2013/02/salmon-river-ice-circle-photo-story.html

The Number “One”

When we are younger, we often fail to pay attention to history and sometimes think we may have been one of the first person to have seen or experienced a certain place or event. Only later, as knowledge grows and more truth is revealed, do we learn that we are not as original that earlier we believed.

As I look back at my personal history and first time running various rivers that was brand new for me, I often wondered if anyone had done them before me. Having no good way to know the local history at the time, I could only guess.  My perception in some of the places I dared tread, my steps were first, aside from ancient man.  So,  it came as a bit of a let down when I learned that indeed there had been others, or sometimes many, that had beat me there before.  Even more surprising was by how much earlier they had trumped my time-line in the world.  It can make one feel like a meaningless rag being tumbling around in the giant “Time Machine”  with a zillion other rags, many of which had entered the machine long before you. So,  you just blend in with the group, barely indistinguishable, and a seemingly insignificant cog twirling about in immense and meaningless circles.

However, sometimes that step back you can take to re-examine your place in the world, despite the past and future, where you only account for the now, a new perspective can help give meaning to your “place.”  When you realize time is relative and it does not matter what happened before you were here,  or how many others did what you did, saw what you saw, discovered what you discovered, you can feel better  just knowing you are alive in the here and now.  It reveals your true significance.  What matters is you are in the present doing the doing  and being the being.

You can go places for the first time for you…and guess what? It is a first? Your first. It doesn’t really matter who went where or did what, the experiences you are having are relative only to you and how you perceive of them.

Though, it does help knowing history from before your time, because it can enrich how you understand the forces that helped shape our world. It also gives you an advantage to build on them with your own version of reality and personal humanity.  The world really does revolve around you, just like it does for everyone else. Why? Because you are at the center of the universe, and it is everywhere. There is no place it isn’t, so you can always enjoy every place you go as being in the center of the all.  Any number divided by one, always gives itself as the answer.  But, it is only the number one that can render this result. Therefore, the number one is more significant than any other because it is reflected in all places. Remember, only you are number one, along with everyone else. So, take your stand proudly.