It’s river day!! The first float of the year!! Its a bit late in the year for our first float but we had more rain than usual in June and the rivers weren’t floatable. You can’t float when the river is high and full of run off. Multiple dangers await in the fast, murky water. One of the biggest is snags. These are trees or big branches that get swept down stream in the spring run off and get stuck in the river. Sometimes you can’t see them under the water until the last second because the water is brown from debris and the churning of the river.  Your raft can run over a snag and get punctured. Or when the river is fast you can get swept into a large bunch of trees as you round a bend. Your raft risks puncture as well as it being extremely difficult to get the raft unstuck. If things go very badly your raft could be flipped as it’s sucked into the stack.

Once the water level comes down a bit and the river slows you can easily avoid snags. However there are other types of ‘snags’ we encounter on this trip. Our usual route is to put in at the Stevensville bridge and take out at the Florence bridge. Scouting the night before the float we discovered that the Stevensville bridge has been closed due to concerns of bank erosion. The next available boat launch is at Bell crossing. This adds a considerable amount of time to the float. Well we decided we had all day to float so it wouldn’t be a problem.

Our rafting party consisted of two rafts, two small kayaks, eight adults and six kids. We loaded up coolers full of food and drinks, sunscreen, bug spray, life jackets and an inordinate amount of enthusiasm.

The float got off to a great start! The kids bounced from raft to raft. I bought my husband a waterproof blue tooth speaker for Christmas so we had our own summer theme music playing. We stopped to play and eat on sandbars. Along the way deer, cranes, a bald eagle, a beaver, ducks, and geese were common sights.

The weather was hot and clouds rolled over giving temporary refuge from the sun. The water was cool and crisp. Perfect to drip into when the clouds were at bay.

Our journey hit another ‘snag’ in the late afternoon when the pizza had all been eaten and granola bar rations were running low. Due to us having put in farther up stream we were still a fair ways from the take out spot. We floated on and as we neared the take out spot I began saying it’s just around this bend slightly too soon.  We went around at least 6 bends before we got to the last one. In my defense it’s a VERY windy river. At any rate we made it to port.

A beautiful day, and friends and family made the first float of the year aweome in spite of a few ‘snags’.