We had only one other person from the club show up for our day of tubing the Salt River. So in total there was Tom and me, our sons Jason and Jon and their friends and Robert Bonne, We proceeded to get our needed inner tubes. We had to get an extra as the tube we use for our water cooler deflated by the time we drove from home to the Salt River Recreation parking lot!

After waiting for Tom and Robert to shuttle our truck to stop number 2, we boarded the bus and headed to the first bus stop. Once we were let off the bus, it was a quick trek down the path to the river where we found the shore busy with tubers arranging coolers, towels, and themselves for launch! We tied the much-needed old sheets around the tubes and launched our mini-crafts into the swiftly moving current. After about a 1/8 mile, things began to settle down and we began to relax, taking in some of the wonderful mountain scenery.

Riding the waves, river style.

As we came out of the rapids of the river fork, the river widens and the rocky beach is filled with trucks, waders and boom boxes crowded along the shore. We headed to the beach ourselves just past the bridge. After “docking” our watercraft, we headed to the truck and got our lunches and cold drinks. We enjoyed lunch watching other tubers drift by.

Back on the river, we passed through some small rapids as the river started to slow and widen a little. Now it was time to relax and enjoy the scenery. The only wildlife I saw along the trip were some hawks and a few jumping fish!

As we neared the cliffs we could hear people give encouragement to the jumpers. Some more small rapids, another fork in the river, and large boulders to avoid crashing into and soon we were slowing at stop number 5 – our getting out point. It was 3:00 and time to drain the water from the sheets, climb the banks to the bus stop, wait for our bus and endure the hot and cramped ride back to the parking lot.

But our adventure was not over yet. As we attempted to get our cooler out of the bus, it broke into tiny little pieces, leaving ice, sodas, and the open Pringles can to be scattered across the floor of the bus! We quickly put our wet dirty sheets to use to pick up all of our “belongings” and soon we were in our trucks and saying goodby to the Salt River until our next adventure!