Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Birthday Activities: Day










I celebrated my 33rd birthday by trying out new activities. First, I went whitewater rafting on the Salmon River. We drove about 30 minutes north to Sunbeam and put in with the White Otter Company. The Ranch does trades with them so, we got to go for free. There were four of us, Rosie & Issac, Pat, myself, plus the guide, Luke. I was thinking it would be scary, but it wasn't. We went through two class 3 rapids (not big ones) and they were fun, I thought I'd be glad to get them over with, but I wanted to go through more. The rest of the time between the rapids was floating down the river looking at the trees. This is the first salmon season in 30 years, so there were a lot more fisherman than the guide was used to, but we didn't catch any of their lines. We stopped and put out feet in a tiny hot spring pool and ate chocolate and nut star bars.


Luke was interesting fellow. He's 24 and got into law school, but when he got to the orientation, decided he'd rather lead raft and ski trips for awhile before settling into normal life. He has a Chilean girlfriend, which is cause for the most expensive dates that he knows of.


Then we drove back to the ranch, had lunch and naps, and set for shooting! The shooting was near Stanley, basically just off a dirt road at a nicely formed dirt hillside. Anne-Marie and Lee joined the four of us from the morning. Anne-Marie brought her own 22 pistol and birthday balloons to use as targets. Pat had a shot gun and clay pigeons. While Issac brought a 22 rifle and a 45 something. I had a lot of fun trying them all out. I've got a small bruise on my shoulder from the shotgun, but I hit a clay pigeon! I think I look pretty tough in the pictures, perhaps it will help with evictions!
The girls posed ala Charlie Angels, so we made the boys try a Charlie's Devils pose too.
Overall it was a great day. I'd love to do both rafting and shooting again, but I'll put more of an effort into finding a way to shoot again.





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