V is for Vinegar

Mile 299.9. One of the biggest drops on the river. Vinegar. The name is applied to the drop at this point on the Main Salmon, as well as the creek that enters the river close by. I was always so focused on the drop, I never even looked for the creek, but it's there. Somewhere.

This is near the end of the line for a Main Salmon river trip, but if you like size, then the river has saved the best for last, as many think this drop is the biggest on the whole trip. Or at least that is what I thought when I was guiding on the Main. Seeing the horizon line and the occasional spray being thrown up where I could see it, always helped me focus. Alot.

It's the end of the trip. The guests know it and are already starting to put their game faces back on. Flights, connections, the mountain of email waiting for them. Although I have to interject here that email did not exist when I was guiding on the Main. Funny how things add up and become a staple of life in just a few short years. Say 25 or so of them. For me, assuming Vinegar passed without incident. Vinegar meant that it would soon be time to aim fo the landing at Wind River and look forward somehow to the sweat of packing up after the end of a trip and heading back to the top end to do it all over again.

I do miss those days. I hope those guides that have taken my place know how lucky they are to sweat under the sun at the Wind River takeout.