Family Picnic, White Bird Cemetary, Evening Lightning Storm
Aug. 11, 2013
Today was full of awesome, mostly. First up we joined Velma and Brandy for breakfast at Hootie's before heading south (into a different time zone!) along the Salmon River. We turned off at the town of Riggins and headed further up stream through some beautiful canyons to a legendary spot called Ruby Rapids. Though we passed it at first some locals let us know where to find it. I loved that the directions were pretty much "the first set of rapids up stream from the bridge, near the house-sized boulders."
After we scurried down from the road the area revealed it's garnet secrets all too easily with some boulders dense with the soccer ball-like red gems. We all took turns with my rock hammer and I had a blast geo-geeking out here for a bit. From there we went back into Riggins for a fantastic lunch and shakes at the Back Eddy. Back up towards White Bird we flitted away the rest of the afternoon swimming in the river (and playing ladder ball on the beach). The evening was filled with tons of people I didn't know (but, Connie grew up with) at a wedding reception for two of her high school friends. After the reception a group of us went into town and closed with the bar.
