Thursday, September 13, 2007

Hell's Canyon Boat Tour

Whitewater on the river
Our boat - 40' long, 2 - 400 HP motors that each burn 12 GPH of diesel fuel and 200 gallons for the day. The boat has no steering wheel as it wouldn't be fast enough to maneuver the rapids. It uses a lever to steer.
Morning sun in the mountains
Small sand beach
Yesterday was our 26th wedding anniversary and we spent most all the day on a boat trip to Hell’s Canyon. The ride is on the Snake River and borders Idaho, Washington and Oregon at different times. Hell’s Canyon is 1000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon. The pictures just don’t do justice to the rugged beauty we saw.

There were a few interesting stories. One fellow along the river got an advertisement for a mail order bride. He sent for her and she said that she would be afraid of the animals and the only way she would marry him is if he built a fence to keep the animals away from the property. He built a stone wall fence (it looked at least a half mile long) and when he got finished she told him it took him too long and she was marrying someone else. It had taken him three years to build the fence. He then became a hermit and lived very secluded from others.

A rancher had an upper ranch on the mountain and built a lower ranch on the banks of the river for winter use. He supposedly did this without his wife’s knowledge to surprise her. When she saw the completed ranch she said that it was beautiful, but there is no way she would live there without a telephone – so he built a telephone line over 3 miles long with poles and wire. It is still in use today.

There were some other oddities. The mail only goes on Wednesday and that is by boat. If you click on the picture blog at the end of this blog you will see a mailbox or two literally in the middle of nowhere! There are many miles where there are no roads so everything you see built was brought in by boat. There was a 55 foot mobile home that was brought down a mountain trail with a bulldozer and placed in the wilderness.

The boat we rode on is 40 feet long and has two 400 horsepower diesel engines. It uses jet propulsion that takes in water from the bottom of the boat, pressurizes it and then shoots it out through nozzles that can swivel left to right. It steers the boat by turning the nozzles left to right – like a jet ski. There was a lot more maneuvering through the rapids than we had anticipated. There is no steering wheel as the pilot would not be able to steer the boat quickly enough in the rapids. Instead, there is a long lever on the left side of the pilot that moves the jets from left to right and steers the boat. It travels at 45 MPH with full load and only drafts 12 to 14 inches of water when at speed. We used 200 gallons of fuel on the trip and transported 40 passengers 100 miles each way on the river(200 miles total). Kim and I sat in the back on the right side. We had no side windows like the other passengers, but the view was great. It was a little chilly in the morning but beautiful the rest of the day. We left at 8 AM and returned at 5:30 PM. We would recommend this trip very highly. We used the Beamer service but there are others. I saw some of the other boats and liked the layout of the Beamer boats best.

I think this was a time of great trust in the pilot. We went through stage 4 rapids and the maneuvering was very quick to miss the obstacles at 45 MPH. The pilot said you basically have to memorize the 100 miles of river. We went 100 miles each way. There would be times when he would maneuver quickly and there would be large rocks on both sides of the boat maybe 30 feet away. It was fun and exciting. There is no way we could put all the pictures on this site. Click here if you want to see them all. http://picasaweb.google.com/kimitchpics/HellSCanyon

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