Of the many reasons to love living in Idaho, its wilderness and the rivers that run and rip through it are at the top of the list for reasons Reece Hodgkins, Doug and Marguerite Lawrence, and Tyler Alan enthusiastically shared during Storyfort’s “The River Runners: Stories of Big Water and Howling at the Moon” presentation on Thursday, March 25, 2022.
Hodgkins kicked off the hour-long campfire story style event with some free verse poetry the shape of which was as unpredictable as the rivers and characters it was about. The audience responded much like first-time whitewater runners do, with nervous attention that soon shifted to delight and bursts of laughter.
Next up was Marguerite Lawrence with a story about the first rafting trip she went on with her then-boyfriend and experienced river runner Doug way back in 1981. Anyone who hates being cold and who’s every found themselves under geared for Idaho’s weather can relate to her not-a-happy-camper moments. But as she highlighted and every adventurer has also learned, relationships forged in extremes are often the most precious. As she prepared to pass the mic, Marguerite offered this advice to first-timers: 1.) Always bring your own wetsuit; 2.) Don’t trust a river runner who says, “Sure, it’ll be warm;” 3.) and speaking of that fibbing river runner, she said, “Marry him anyway.” She did and they’ve continued their adventure for more than forty years and have passed down their passion for outdoor adventures to their children.
While Idaho has hair-raising water and wildlife experiences to offer, Boise native and whitewater kayaker Tyler Alan shared a chilling story about an adventure he had with four other thrill-seekers and first-time filmmakers on Africa’s Zambezi River. His story started as most adventures do with laugher and messing about, but “then we decided to go up above Victoria Falls” injected the kind of dread good storytellers use to keep audiences on the edge of their emotional seats.
But it wasn’t one of the canoes slipping out of sight down river or the sound of the falls that foretold of mortal danger. It was a deep and unidentifiable whah, whah, whah coming from something near where Alan and two other film crew guys had beached their canoe on an island and had begun to set up their gear. As the sound grew louder, its source came into view. Hippos. Apart from Africa’s most dangerous non-human animal, the mosquito, the fiercely territorial hippo is responsible for thousands of deaths each year. In a near-miss, all men and gear escaped unharmed. Nearly a decade later on a river in Idaho, Alan once again found himself in a life-or-death situation. And it was one of the men who had been with him above Victoria Falls that saved his life.
As is the case for Marguerite, what Tyler Alan remembers and appreciates most about his white-knuckle river experiences isn’t the excitement or thrill of outmaneuvering death, it’s the people and the unbreakable bonds that that their shared experience makes possible.
Last up was Doug Lawrence. Of all the experiences Lawrence has had “in fresh, salt, wild, and frozen water” in seas and rivers all over the world, it was one hell of a Hells Canyon story about a multi-day trip to run the Snowhole Rapids on the Lower Salmon River that he chose to share.
No stranger to high-water conditions even back then, Lawrence and four of his buddies headed to their chosen launch site at Skookumchuck Creek about 20 miles away from Grangeville. They were surprised, however, to find that the river had risen so high it lapped up against the edge of the road in places. When they put in it soon became obvious that the conditions were dramatically different from any they’d experienced. In the 75,000 cubic feet per second flow, huge ponderosa pines with fresh branches and root balls bobbed, creating additional hazards for the kayakers.
A deep rumble that, as Lawrence described it, “became the bass note for the trip” was soon identified as huge boulders rolling along the bottom of the rushing river. The power of the river was undeniable. There was no room for error. The men were “honking along” and got to what they thought was “the big daddy” on that section of river, Snowhole Rapids. After a harrowing run through the rapids, the men regrouped and found the critical piece of gear every kayaker needs—a paddle.
The next day the men woke and looked forward to what they thought would be a relatively stress-free last day on the water. It was the only other human they’d see on the river during that trip, an older man panning for gold along the bank, that disabused them of that notion: “Watch out for The Slide.” None of Lawrence’s group had ever heard of The Slide. But when they heard it, it sounded like a jet. When they saw it, they saw “white chaos,” two huge waves pushing from each side and crashing together in the middle. There was no way around, only through.
Over the course of their trip down the river the flow went from a bone-chilling and mind-boggling 75,000 to 100,000 cubic feet per second.
Like Reece Hodgkins, Marguerite Lawrence, and Tyler Alan and his team, Doug and his group lived to tell the tale and laugh with others, including this Storyfort audience, about it. Whether outdoors or indoors, telling or hearing, it is our stories that bring us together in ways that make us Idahoans.
Check out Treefort 2022’s website to learn more about Storyfort and all the other entertaining and educational forts on offer through Saturday, March 27, 2022 in downtown Boise.
Photo Attributions
Storyfort 2022 River Runners Panel by Cristen Iris (CI-1)
Storyfort 2022 Podium and Banner by Cristen Iris (CI-2)
Storyfort 2022 One Lane Bridge Sign from Treefort 2022
Idaho National Forest by Jason Buscema on Unsplash
Whitewater by Josh Wedgwood on Unsplash
