We flew from San Jose to Boise on Thursday night and picked up our rental car. National had upgraded us to a Grand Wagoneer, which we quickly decided was much too big for hours of windy mountain road driving. Paul exchanged it for a RAV4 the next morning, and we set off for Salmon, Idaho.
We stopped to walk down a short path to Cove Hot Springs. The setting was beautiful, but after a low rainfall year, the warm water was only ankle deep.
In Salmon, we checked in to a riverside room at the Stagecoach Inn. After dinner, our guide described the trip details and gave us dry bags: a large one with a sleeping bag that would be packed on the sweep boat during the day, and smaller one for items we wanted on the river.
