Our guide Ben met us after breakfast, and we boarded an old school bus for a short drive to the airport. The successfully fit everything into the 8 passenger plane for a 35 minute flight to the Indian Creek airstrip at river mile 24.7. Our guides introduced themselves and made lunch, then loaded our bags onto the sweep boat. The sweep boat set off downriver to set up camp. Our guide Ben outlined the river day rhythm, as well as river rules such as don't stand up in moving water, pee in the river, don't bother snakes, wash your hands, and no soap in the river. We boarded Mad Dawg's oar boat, and relaxed on a stack of sleeping pads as we floated past ponderosa pines.

We stopped to explore an old mine shaft, which was just long enough to get completely dark. After a few more hours on the river, we arrived at Marble Creek Left (mile 31.6), our camp for the night. Evan and Kimberly jumped from a rock above the river; Evan did it again from the higher rock. After dinner, we spotted bighorn sheep on the hillside above camp.

The pilot loaded our gear into the plane.
We flew southwest from Salmon towards Indian Creek airstrip.
We flew over the Salmon River on our way to Indian Creek.
map on the signboard at Indian Creek airstrip
At Indian Creek, we met our guide, had lunch, and got ready to launch.
We walked up to an abandoned mining tunnel.
leaving the mine tunnel
Our guides set up camp at Marble Creek Left, about 9 miles downstream from our launch.
We moved our camp chairs to a shady spot with a view of the river.
Evan's second jump, from the higher of the two jumping rocks.
sheep on the ridge above camp