The people on our trip traveled from Michigan, Tennessee, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Texas, Washington, and Arizona. My hour or so drive from over the mountains in Hailey was by far the shortest trek anyone on the trip had to make.

 

As we sat down at the long dinner table that first night for drinks and appetizers it quickly became apparent that our collection of strangers wouldn’t stay that way for long. The group was made up of a couple of families, several couples, and a few single folks. Photographer, Kat Smith, also had her Australian Shepherd, Brooke, on the trip as a fury mascot.

 

What was immediately surprising to a somewhat seasoned Idaho river rafter like myself was that quite a few members of the group had never rafted or even camped before in their lives, let alone for a week in the wilds of the Northern Rockies. But it didn’t seem to take long for them to acclimate to everything but the groover.

 

The groover is what they call the toilet on river trips, and since the Middle Fork is in a national wilderness area everything that’s packed in must be packed out. So each night the groover is set up slightly away from camp and usually offers the best views you’ll ever find while you’re taking care of business. While it can take some getting used to, the entire group eventually got into the groove of it and it soon became the butt of many jokes.

 

The Wow Factor

 

“One of the things that makes this experience so special is that when you’re out here, everyone is out of their elements. We’re way out here, 60 miles from the nearest paved road. There are no cellphones or TVs. There are no titles out here. Everyone’s on the same page, everyone is equal, so it’s easy for them to connect with each other and the experience,” Solitude’s owner and member of the Social Register Association, Willi Cannell, explained.

 

Willi was born in Maine of German heritage—thus the spelling of his name—but really grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho. Willi went on his first river trip on the Main Salmon when he was in ninth grade and was instantly hooked.

 

“It was really eye-opening,” he said. “It’s such an impactful thing for someone that age.”

 

Willi spent the better part of a decade working as a guide for a couple of different outfitters, including summer breaks from college at St. Lawrence University, before buying Solitude River Trips a couple of years ago. Though only in his late 20s, Willi has a wisdom and knowledge of river life beyond most. He also has a passion for sharing the place and the experience he loves so much, rafting the Middle Fork.

 

“What I enjoy most about being an outfitter is sharing this,” Willi said, as he guided the sweep boat down the cascading river. “It’s unbelievable to see the variety of reactions to the wilderness. It really impacts people. The more people who experience the Salmon River, the better the world becomes.”

 

Most guests on a Middle Fork trip don’t know exactly what to expect. Whether guests have been rafting before and have some idea or they’ve never been and don’t have a clue, the objective of any good outfitter is to surpass any guest’s expectations. And that’s always the goal at Solitude.

 

“When you’re out on the river, you want things to be special. You want things to be big, like a pork chop the size of your head,” Willi said, referencing several jokes made about the size of the mouthwatering meal the night before. “You want that ‘wow factor.’”

 

We Are Family

 

Rhett Harris and his family are from “Nashville America,” as the former radio announcer joked. His family of four, including a college-bound son and another still in high school, had never rafted or camped before. They weren’t exactly sure what to expect from the trip, but they were quickly wowed by the experience, the service and the food.

 

“Nothing compares to this. This is ‘oohing and aaahing’ to the max. Nothing gets boring out here,” Rhett said in an accent that still has traces of his Louisiana upbringing. “The scenery, the hiking, the fishing, the conversations with interesting people from all over America, the food. They have a gourmet kitchen in the wilderness. I was hoping this would be a good time, but it surpassed all my expectations.”

 

Rhett and his family often go on cruises—which are similar in price and the main competition for Middle Fork trips—but heard about the wild and amazing river trip in Idaho from some friends. Part of the appeal of the Middle Fork was to “get `em away from the TV and the phone,” Rhett said. Both the Harris boys, 19-year-old Drew and 16-year-old Joe, couldn’t remember a single day in their lives before the trip when they didn’t have phones in their hands. But they said they soon forgot about them and got swept up in the charm of the river.

 

“We didn’t know what to expect, but it’s better than we thought it would be,” Joe said. “It’s just such a cool experience.”

 

“To be honest, we’re probably enjoying this more than our folks have and more than we thought we would,” said Drew, who had never fly fished before but got hooked on it during the trip.

 

“The one word to describe a Solitude River Trip is ‘family,’” said Joe, who enjoys cooking so much he helped the crew out in the kitchen most nights. “Everyone takes care of each other. Everyone here is experiencing the same things together. It feels like a big family.”

 

It is nothing shy of amazing how spending a week on a river trip can make people who had been complete strangers only days before feel like family. It’s also impressive how the trip can reconnect families and couples with one another and with what’s really important in life.

 

Moving water carving its way through some of Mother Nature’s finest work is pretty powerful stuff when you can spend some time in its midst.

 

Amy Tremper and her family of four, plus their youngest son’s longtime girlfriend, all made the trek to Idaho from Michigan. They have long enjoyed taking family trips to hike, fish and raft throughout the West, though they’d usually eschew tents in lieu of hotel rooms. What appealed to Amy about taking a trip with Solitude is that they not only offered all three activities, they also do all the cooking and take care of just about everything else as well.

 

“I said I’d go as long as I didn’t have to cook or set up the tents, then I’m golden,” said Amy, who is a successful gynecologist, as we enjoyed drinks and watched the river roll by one evening.

 

For Amy, another enticing thing about a rafting trip on the Middle Fork was the appeal to the whole family. Her husband, Kevin, a professor and chair of the anesthesiology department at the University of Michigan, is a gifted fly fisherman, so she knew he’d enjoy the trip. Her sons, 26-year-old Tyler, 23-year-old Connor and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Lindsey Holland, were all up for the adventure of a whitewater trip in the wilderness. So if they were all happy, Amy figured she’d be happy, too. But she never thought she’d enjoy the trip as much as she did.

 

“It was beyond my expectations in a positive way. I liked all the local color the guides had to offer. It was fun to learn how to cast. I didn’t realize it before but I really like to fly fish,” she said on the last night of the trip. “If you didn’t feel comfortable doing something there was so much opportunity to find something you were comfortable with. You never get bored out here.”

 

Like the rest of us, Amy also enjoyed getting to know and connect with like-minded people.

“It’s been a real pleasure to meet all these people. You bond. You bond with them and a lot more with family members. They have absolutely loved this,” she said.

 

“Dad made us do it,” Connor joked.

 

“We were definitely a little apprehensive,” Lindsey agreed. “But it was awesome.”

 

“It was a great experience. I don’t know how you could do anything that can match this, the sense of excitement,” said Tyler, who also got hooked on fly fishing during the trip.

 

“I thought it would be great, but it was better. The people, the scenery, the fishing, the food, you can’t beat it,” Kevin said.

 

“And the wine was really good, too,” Amy added with a smile.

 

Hooked on the Middle Fork

 

While a lot of companies offer trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon only one of them meets the rigorous standards that earn an endorsement by Orvis.

 

One of the big reasons why Solitude River Trips is connected with America’s premiere outfitting company is the quality and experience of their guides. While the average Middle Fork guide for most companies is about 20 or so years old, the average Solitude guide has been on the river long enough to be the other guides’ dad, or even their granddad.

 

Mike Gehrman grew up on the McKenzie River in Oregon and built his first boat with his dad when he was just 10. Mike began guiding in 1968, taking his first trip on the Middle Fork in 1978.

 

At the tender age of 72, he still handles the wooden

 

McKenzie-style drift boat he made himself with an ease and skillset those 20-somethings can only dream of. Mike seems ageless with the oars in his hands. It’s not until you see him slowly shuffling across the rocky banks that you realize he’s no longer a young buck.

 

“Being out here is like having a sponge that soaks up everything that’s been stressing you out: work, family, whatever. After one day it kicks in. After six days it’s weird to see a car again. Nature therapy,” Mike said. “These memories and these moments out here last. You can keep them in that place in your mind you need to go to when you’re having a tough moment.”

 

At 33, Derek “DK” Kellenbeck was the youngest guide on the trip. He also grew up as a “river rat” in Oregon and first swam whitewater when he was just five. DK has spent most of his life on water, from guiding drift and jet boats on the Rogue River, to earning his captain’s license running scuba diving trips in the Caribbean, to guiding rafts on the Middle Fork. He even met his wife on a river trip.

 

“It’s about getting out and getting away,” he said about the beauty of river trips. “I love seeing people unwind into river time.”

 

DK explained that it’s the diversity of the ever-changing landscape and the true wilderness experience that make the Middle Fork so special. “It’s so unique because you go through such a variety of terrain,” he said about a river that starts as a small mountain stream cascading through pine forests, then meanders through the sweeping sagebrush of the high desert, and finally carves its way through a canyon deeper than the famous Grand.

 

“It’s too awesome out here to not appreciate it,” he continued.

 

Awesome is a word Cole Majors used a lot during the trip. Cole is originally from Texas and still has the accent to prove it. He now lives in Las Vegas and had only rafted once before the trip.

 

Cole is a big fan of fly fishing and found out about the trip through Orvis. He said he booked it for a combination of reasons. He wanted to totally disconnect from everyday life, he wanted to do something that offered a sense of adventure, and he wanted to do some good fishing. As the Middle Fork emptied into the Main Salmon River and our nearly 80-mile trip came to a close, Cole talked about how much he enjoyed the experience.

 

“I was totally blown away,” he said. “The people on the trip, the staff, the sights, the sounds, the fishing, the food. Looking up at the stars at night. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places and artwork before, but nothing is more impressive than that.”

 

Cole then added a line repeated by just about every one of us on the trip: “I want to do this again!”