Was it Cold? Yeah, it was Cold.

Let me just start by saying my dad is far more hardcore than I am. He could probably beat up Rambo. That being said let me fill you in on what Errol Ormond likes to do for fun, he likes to run white water in freezing snow storms. Every year my dad gets together with some of his friends from Pocatello and heads to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. In April. When it's still snowing.

So last year I wasn't able to go because of craziness at work. This year though, I was all over it. Here's the run down.

We got to Challis airport on Wednesday afternoon, and loaded up the lawnmower with wings, the guy behind the wheel called it an airplane but my weed whacker has more horse power than this thing. We took off in the middle of 40 to 50 mph winds. It was the most intense plane ride I've ever had. My head hit the roof more than once, even the statuesque Errol K. showed a few beads of sweat.

We woke up the first morning to about one inch of snow blanketing everything. That was fun. It snowed and rained everyday as a matter of fact. The snow melted (kinda) and then we jumped on the rafts and headed down the river. As you can imagine the water was cold, really freaking cold. The kind of cold that gives you an instant brain freeze when it hits your face.

All kidding aside it was really fun. There was lots of good food, nice warm fires, and fun water. We saw tons of elk and deer and some mountain sheep. That kept us amused between rapids. Only three out of 15 people fell into the river and that's not too bad. All and all it was a really fun trip. I got to spend three days with my dad out in the wilderness and all my toes and fingers are frost bite free. Win, win.

(This was the first major rapid of the trip. There are actually two people on the front of that raft. Yeah.)

(Along the river there were Indian cave paintings. That was pretty cool. I hadn't even heard of the Sheepeater Indians before, and that's not a joke, they're really called the Sheepeaters. Wonder what they ate?)

(This was the camp for second night. Pretty cozy actually.)

(Just a picture of the river.)

(Another rapid, the picture doesn't do it justice. That wave was at least seven feet high. It swallowed boats and spit them out the other end.)

(That's my dad getting stuff ready for the day. We stuffed our junk into dry bags, which actually lived up to their name this time. Last time, well last time they were more like soggy bags.)

(This is what we woke up to the first day. And this is after a couple hours of melting. A winter wonderland, or night terror.)

(This is my dad in the back of the lawnmower. Beneath that smile is a very excited man.)

(We landed at a back country airstrip camp site; those white things are snow flakes.)

(That's the launch area. All the boats are behind the trees.)

(Can you see the landing strip? We couldn't either until we were almost on top of it.)

(It looks placid, but believe you me this was flying the unfriendly skies.)

(Flying over some majestic snow capped peaks, in 50 mph head winds.)

(Cool mountains and trees and junk.)

(Right after taking off from Challis. And absolute terror starts in 1, 2, 3...)

(The Challis airport. Those are the lawnmowers with wings, and the mountains right behind them are where we flew.)