After about five miles of very mellow floating through a crystalline stream, we came to the first rapid. As you drive to the put-in, this is visible from the road. It is at the large hay barn built by the Forest Service for winter elk feeding. (To keep them out of the rancher's hay meadows, not merely an elk welfare program.) We stopped to scout, not because it was big, but because it was small: a river wide rock garden with only one apparent line, on the far left. That line washed straight into a house rock. Doug was on his very first run in his new SOAR and coming off a long recovery from a serious back injury, so he was leaning towards lining. It was my first time on the water in eight months, so I was a bit apprehensive too, but after a long look and some discussion we ran it. The run went just as we hoped, narrowly missing the end rock.

The first rapid of the trip. Similar rapids occurred periodically from here to Warren Bridge.