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“Be a Kid Again” Pricing on the Middle Fork
Ever dream of fliying into a beautiful remote airstrip? Do you love fishing crystal clear water? Do you want to be a kid again?
There is plenty of space on our August Middle Fork of the Salmon trips. To make the trips more attractive, we’re offering our special kids pricing to adults for the month of August.
August is a wonderful time on the Middle Fork. The river levels are lower than June and July, but the rapids are still exciting. Many people choose the sensational experience of navigating the river on their own in an inflatable kayak or “duckie.” Our six day August trips begin by flying into the remote wilderness airstrip at Indian Creek where you’ll meet the guides and begin your journey.
We are also offering a shorter three day option during the month of August. On these trips, you’ll fly into an airstrip at the Flying B Ranch and float 35 miles through the famous Impassable Canyon. This is a great way to see the most striking part of the Middle Fork and spend two nights in the wilderness. Click here to learn more about our three day trips.
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ECHO Photo Submission 2007
We know there are many inspiring photographers on our trips. For those interested in having their photos displayed on our web site, we have started a formal submission process to enter the following categories of photos.
1. Rogue River scenery photo (for the Rogue River page)
2. Middle Fork of the Salmon scenery photo (for the Middle Fork page)
3. A family on the river photo (for the ECHO home page)
4. A fun ECHO camp photo
The photos selected in each category will be used on our web site next season complete with photo credit. At the end of the 2006 season, ECHO guest Lauren Kutzcher submitted a picture for consideration we and added it to our home page.
Guidelines for submission
1. Photos don’t need to have an ECHO boat or logo in them, but it is preferred.
2. For the Rogue and Middle Fork pictures we are looking for a picture that conveys the spirit of the river.
3. You must have taken the picture on an ECHO trip in 2007.
4. Submit your digital photographs by emailing them in full quality to photos@echotrips.com.
5. You are welcome to submit photos outside of the three categories above (i.e. specific guides, theme trips) and we will consider them for our site. We have special prizes for the photographers that submit the photos we use in the above categories.
We bring an “ECHO camera” on all of our trips and upload the pictures to the ECHO Photo Site. You can submit any photo you take with an ECHO camera by downloading it from the photo site and sending it to photos@echotrips.com.
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White Wine and White Water
(well, red wine too)
Imagine rafting the beautiful Rogue River for four days, and camping luxuriously for three nights.
Imagine gathering before dinner to taste excellent California wines while listening to a distinguished vintner talking about how and where the wine was made
Imagine eating wonderful food, planned to complement the great wines.
Imagine running exciting rapids in rafts and inflatable kayaks.
Imagine bald eagles up close, river otters along the shore, osprey diving into the river for fish, and black bears strolling through the woods.
Imagine sharing this special experience with someone you love.
Join Tamra Lotz, Assistant Wine Maker for Mumm California and Dick Linford, co-owner of ECHO for this very special river trip. We hope you can join us!!
Price: $815 per person
Price includes tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses, wine, and meals beginning with lunch the first day and ending with lunch the last day
Learn more about our wine trips or call us at (800) 652-3246 to hold your space.
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Salmon River Snowpack Report
Recent storms in the mountains of Idaho have increased the snowpack to 83% of average as of March 2, 2007 for the Salmon River basin. This is great news for our trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon for this summer.
The Middle Fork is a free flowing river, it has no dams on it that control the flow of water. That means that the water that we float down in the summers is due to winter snowpack, spring rain, and summer temperatures. We like to have snowpack between 80% and 120% of average. From experience we have found that this range of snowpack gives us runnable flows through August while keeping the water at a reasonable level during the June runoff.
This is especially good news for the Salmon Supreme trip that starts on May 29th. Since we run both the Middle Fork and Main Salmon in seven days, we need higher water flows to do the 160 - 185 miles that we’re planning on covering in such a short time. Below average snowpack means that the road Boundary Creek should open by then so that we can run the entire 100 miles of the Middle Fork. When the road is closed we have to fly into Indian Creek and miss the exciting upper 25 miles.
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Recipe for Contentment
by Penny Foster (ECHO guest since 1972)
Take 5 to 6 ECHO guides (absolutely no substitutes)
Add:
A half dozen or so rubber rafts and duckies
Some rigs
One truckload of paddles, PFDs, tents, dry bags, sleeping bags, oars, helmets, ice chests, and other equipment you’ll remember after put-in
2-6 gargantuan tarps
4-5 miles of duct tape (to be used for any medical or other emergency)
4-5 miles of hoopie
A stack of LUXURY edition thermarests
Fold in:
6 to 12 shopping carts of varied food items - roughly 33% of every aisle of the supermarket - include ample servings of steak, gorp, cold cuts, bacon, smoked oysters, and Snickers (figure 1-2 pounds of each per person per day)
Cooking instructions for 18 to 25 three to five star meals (depending on mood) plus helpful hints on how to feed two dozen for dinner when you don’t have the ingredients
Peet’s Coffee
Margarita mix
Two one gallon containers of tequilla (one for guides)
Mix together with:
Sunshine (if you don’t have this, don’t worry)
“Just enough” whitewater
A perch
Hot Springs
River booty
Plenty of guide gossip
A few otter and osprey
Some shooting stars
Laughter
Duckie wars
Great conversation
Trip tales
Being there
Cook at any temperature for 5 to 12 days
Feeds the heart and minds of 20
Satisfaction guaranteed.
Side notes: I got goose bumps while typing this in anticipation of the season.
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ECHO River Guides - Winter 2007 Update
Here’s a glimpse into the lives of some of our river guides during the winter months. Over the years we’ve found that most guides travel, teach, ski patrol, or hole up in a shack in the San Juan Mountains during the Fall and Winter months.
Shawn White decided against going back to her real job and instead has been preparing her sailboat for her eventual sailing trip around the world. She’s planning to sail from San Francisco to Baja after the 2007 river season.
Adam Farmer and Zach Collier have been integrating into the Hood River, Oregon culture over the past few months. Adam’s been slowly working on his ping pong skills and hopes to soon be the Hood River ping pong champion. Zach is trying his hand at kayak water polo and is just trying to stay in his boat.
Geoff Phillips just returned from Nicaragua where he was doing electrical work for the past few months. He’s trying to avoid working until the river season so he can plan a rafting trip in Croatia.
Colleen Winters continues to ski patrol at Deer Valley in Park City, Utah where she is working on her poker skills.
Dewi Butler has structured is life to maximize his love of the outdoors. He and his girlfriend Lynn spent September mountain climbing in southern France. For the winter Dewi is living in Park city where he skis, manages some properties (including several that he owns) and bartends for a caterer. In the spring they will spend a month or more climbing in Oregon before Dewi guides and manages for us in Idaho.
Jim Toney has been skiing the mountains around Salmon, Idaho all winter. Every time we try and reach him his wife (and fellow ECHO guide) Kelly tells us he’s off in the woods. The last we heard he was headed to interior British Columbia for a ski trip.
Vladimir Gavrilov continues to share his passion for astronomy and physics with high school students in Sacramento. He’s planning several rafting trips in the Altai Mountains of Siberia this summer.
Megan Anderson is in her first year of law school at the University of Utah.
Maggie Hodges and Hata Hill, who have been sweehearts since grammar school, almost grew up and took serious jobs last year. But a rafting trip down the Tatshenshini River in Alaska convinced them that they still had some river running to do. They are currently living in California, where Maggie can be close to her first nephew and Hata works in “green” construction. They plan to move to Hood River, Oregon, so they can run rivers with Adam and Zach before the ECHO season begins. They have a private Grand Canyon trip planned for late summer.
Tessa Sibbet has been helping ECHO with the web site and writing for this blog since the river season ended. Next week she is headed to Argentina and Chile so that she can raft the world famous Futaleufu River and do some backpacking trips.
Rio Jose Hibarger has spent is winter in the typical Rio style. He tried to drive his van from Olympia, Washington to Boise, Idaho for a rafting convention and it broke down about half way. He’s spent the last two months rebuilding then entire thing and swears it won’t break down again. At least his sailboat didn’t burn down and sink this year.
Shay Mavis is spending his winter skiing six days a week and attempting to finish school in New York. He met Zach and Adam for some west coast skiing a few weeks ago during his winter break.
Mike Burke is teaching at Colby. He is also on an author’s book-reading circuit promoting his new book The Same River Twice, which is both a memoir and an adventure travel story. He has a sabbatical in the spring. He and his family will visit Greece and continue to South Africa, where Mike has a grant to study several game preserves.
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Luxury Rafting Trips With Children
"What a pleasure to see our children so happily entertained by skipping rocks, and playing tag and cards with other children. Nintendo, Gameboys, and TV were forgotten."
-S. Hendler, San Francisco, CA (Rogue)
Many of ECHO’s rafting guests are families with kids. Because rafting offers something for people of all ages and interests to enjoy, a river trip is the perfect family vacation. ECHO even offers luxury rafting vacations for children and adults on the Rogue and Middle Fork that specifically cater to families.
Sometimes parents get nervous when they think about taking kids whitewater rafting for the first time. An article was written by Cindy Hirschfeld in the Rocky Mountain News in October that has useful information for parents who are at all apprehensive about going on a river trip with their kids. The article explores the challenges and rewards of being with children in the wilderness. A mother who recently took her 10-year-old son on the Middle Fork of the Salmon said he “found his inner river rat” on the trip.
At ECHO, we see kids (and adults) delight in more than just the whitewater excitement. Often children’s favorite part of the trip is in camp, competing in a Koob match, discovering Native American artifacts, and swimming in the river. Our guides love leading kids to new experiences such as watching otters play in the river, soaking in a “natural jacuzzi” (aka hotspring), or baking a Dutch oven birthday cake in the “middle of nowhere.” Ear-to-ear smiles are common on both children and parents faces when kids make it through a big rapid in a ducky or discover the art of skipping rocks.
On a Middle Fork trip last summer, a group of teenagers decided to ditch their luxury tent packages on the last night and sleep out on a sandy beach under the stars. Although they were only a few feet from their parents’ deluxe tents, they were thrilled about the freedom they found from sleeping outside.
The article points out that adults do not have to give up an adventurous, active lifestyle simply because they have kids. Although it takes more patience and spontaneity to do adventurous activities with kids, there are many rewards as well. Hirschfeld writes, “There are distinct advantages to slowing down and viewing your surroundings from a child’s perspective. The kids are the ones taking it all in and noticing the details.” So, join ECHO for a luxury river rafting vacation on the Rogue River or the Middle Fork of the Salmon in 2007. And make sure to bring the kids!
Recommended reading: Extreme Kids: How to Connect with Your Children Through Today’s Extreme (and Not So Extreme) Outdoor Sports, Scott Graham, Wilderness Press
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Family Yoga Trip on the Rogue River
Yoga instructor and long time ECHO guide Dennis Eagan has just scheduled a “family yoga” trip on the Rogue. This is a four day camping trip that starts July 24, 2007. He has put this trip together as an offering for people that want a yoga retreat they can combine with famiy time.
Dennis focuses on yoga training for outdoor sports enthusiast. Dennis is an experienced skier, kayaker, and climber who turned to yoga to maintain his abilities in these sports. He enjoys helping others do the same.
Learn More About Yoga Trips on the Rogue River 
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Experience the Best of Both Worlds - Rogue Lodge Trips
Throughout the spring and early summer, ECHO River Trips is offering a whitewater adventure with all the comforts of home. These three-day lodge trips on Oregon’s Rogue River combine running the wild and scenic River by day and relaxing in a rustic riverside lodge at night. The private lodges are comfortable, providing all the amenities of home, and are set back from the River so they can’t be seen. Most of the rooms are in cabins away from the main lodge. The lodge trips begin May 19 and 29, June 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2007.
The Rogue River offers the perfect combination of exciting but safe rapids, warm water, a lovely green canyon, a comfortable pace, and plenty of wildlife. It is a wonderful river for families and beginners, yet it still offers enough whitewater excitement for young adults, and river veterans. Over three days, guests will travel the same 38 mile stretch of River that is usually done in four days on the camping-only trip.
The first night’s stay is at the Black Bar Lodge. The staff at the lodge will transport guests’ luggage and equipment to their rooms. There is ample time to hike around the premises or relax on the lawn. Dinner will be served as a group in the lodge. This is a day to tell stories about the upcoming rapids and bond with other travelers.
The second night will be spent at a scenic lodge downriver from the famous Blossom Bar Rapid. Again, the staff at the lodge will transport guests’ bags to their rooms and guests will have the opportunity to explore the grounds and participate in many of the activities that the lodge has to offer. These activities include a five-hole “wild and scenic” gold course, hiking trails, and a wide variety of games. A hearty dinner will be served inside the lodge amongst newfound friends.
On the last day of the trip, guests will wake up to breakfast and coffee before loading into the rafts and floating down to our take-out at Foster Bar.
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Happy Holidays From the ECHO Family
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