The+Way+I+Ski+It

It was about five-thirty p.m. when my dad, Bill Dobbin, and I arrived on a flight into Boise, Idaho. We then took our luggage from the baggage claim and went over to a charter flight company with our luggage in hand to fly some more, into the middle of nowhere. This plane would take us into Stanley, Idaho where we would spend the night before we disembarked to go to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River to begin our white water rafting trip. Stanley Idaho is about a five hour drive from Boise, but if you take a plane you can make it in forty-five minutes because you can cruise right over all of the mountain ranges without winding through them. After we check in, we bring our luggage out to the tarmac where our plane is and where another couple is joining us and happen to be on the same six-person white water rafting trip as us. We barely fit all of the luggage and people into this six-person plane before the severe storm can delay us that is heading into the Boise area. Our captain tells us that this time of year in Idaho is like anywhere else, very prevalent and prone to strong and severe thunderstorms. We get the engine started, and clearance from the traffic control, and we are ready to roll. We are soon off the ground and on our way heading towards the metropolis of Stanley, Idaho. As we get higher off of the ground, I notice that the winds are ever intensifying and that it is going to be a bumpy ride to the town. Even over the loud roar of the engine, I could hear the thunder in the distance and see over a mountain range, some serious lightening that probably would not coincide well with an aircraft. Our captain tells us that the thunderstorm is directly over the normal flight route to Stanley, but since planes are prone to getting their equipment destroyed in a lightening storm, we can’t fly that way. This tradeoff seems ok to me. Our whole plane is constantly getting knocked around, because we are so vulnerable and exposed to the winds whipping over the mountain ranges. Although flying near a thunderstorm isn’t the most safe thing you can do, I really enjoy the flight over because the mountains are absolutely beautiful, with their snow capped peaks, and the lightening flashing down upon them. We start to descend into Stanley Idaho and I can see the valley where it is located and all the large mountains surrounding it. When our plane lands on a “runway” that is basically a grass field and a wind sock, our captain tells us who has been flying for a long time with our charter company, that we just flew into Stanley with the strongest crosswinds he has ever flown into Stanley with. I am kind of glad he didn’t tell us that before we had landed. Although Stanley, Idaho is in the middle of nowhere and there is not much to do, the town has a sort of nice appeal to it, in that there is a main strip of some restaurants, bars, and a few hotels, but other than that there are just ranches. I could tell when I arrived at Stanley that most of the people that were in Stanley were there because of white water rafting, as the Middle Fork of the Salmon River is one of the most famous rafting rivers in the world, and it is a protected forest area that is considered the “Final Frontier” of the Lower Forty Eight states. After a quick bite to eat, my dad and I were really exhausted after a long day of traveling to Idaho, and we needed to wake up early to travel to the river to start our adventure, so we decided to go to bed early.