Rafting down the Thompson

'Tis my friend's vacation time; he figured he'd take time off and yet had little desire to go or do anything far from home - while every other travel bug I know is screaming to get as far away from the daily routine as possible.  "Why sit by a pool drinking in Mexico when I can do the same thing here?"  Maddening, yes I know!
Yet he came up with this bright gem, to go white water rafting on the Thompson River up the canyon here in BC.  He'd never been rafting before.  I'd only been rafting once with my mother down Montana's Snake River when I was 14, so I was eager to go again.
Many were invited, yet only he and I went.  We departed at 6:30am to reach the Kumsheen Rafting Resort near Lytton by 10am.  It was nice to see the sunrise.  A few kilometers south of Hope we narrowly avoided hitting a bear as it ran across the highway, it ran into the truck behind/beside us but I didn't see it on the road so I hope it's okay.  It made me think that everyone everywhere should have a number for wildlife rescue saved into their phones, because how do you search for that quickly on a highway? Just out of Hope we encountered fog; deep river valley, autumn morning fog.  It slowed our progress, the turn of roads revealing just fragments of scenery like a story unfolding only as fast as a storyteller can tell it; a few close rocks or trees here and there, all that drop off steeply into grey below over the edge of the road.  I knew we'd have a different view coming back home the other way, so I enjoyed it for what it was.
We got to the rafting campground in time, set up tent, went rafting; we'd got the paddle+motor package and got both boats to ourselves since no one else signed up for that day, so we paddled the slower parts in the morning and had a great view of the sculpted canyon walls and green/grey water and it was still pretty quiet, some easy rapids.  We saw a lone female Merganser, one of the few waterfowl that don't mind the fast-moving water.  Saw an eagle, and a dying salmon that lingered near our oars.  It was a a gentle beginning to the day yet I felt giddy.  This is just so nice!
Lunch break was at their kitchen/dining hall facilities, simple make-your-own tortilla wraps.  Perhaps it would've been more elaborate if more guests had been there, but this was fresh and simple and one wouldn't want a heavy weight in their stomach going over the next stretch of white water.  I had tea and that suits me fine.

After lunch we were on the larger power boat, which just ploughed right through the cresting waves, I laughed so much I couldn't keep my mouth shut and kept getting a mouthful of water, tasted clean and wild.  Water held on my eyelashes that I could only brush away once we'd cleared the rapids, so much I saw with one eye open and just enjoyed feeling the bow of the boat drop and get pummeled.  My friend had a GoPro camera recording on his helmet so I trusted the footage would be fine to review later.  For now is just feeling the thrill.

The trip ended where the Thompson meets the Fraser.  I'm sure that had we paddled the silt-brown Fraser that water wouldn't have tasted as nice.  A van returned us to the resort.
The resort and town of Lytton itself is busy for the River Days on the labour day long weekend, but alas we were at the end of season.  The hot tub didn't seem as warm as I'd hoped, the restaurant was closed and we drove further onto another sleepy town of Spences Bridge to find food after 7pm.  Retired to our tent early for lack of anything else to do, but didn't sleep as the trains on either side of the canyon ran frequently as well as the large trucks with their engine brakes.  In the morning while we found a couple of geocaches in Lytton, a woman at the visitor's center confirmed you'd have to be quite far from town to escape the sound of the trains.

View from the back of our campsite, looking left...

and looking to the right.  Note how close the train tracks are.

As in our Sasamat lake floating excursions, we are always on the lookout to refine and improve for next time.  Next time we'd like to come during the River Days, when there's a live music stage in the center of town.  Next time we'd like to have more people to get the group discount and play cards with in the evening and make big-batch camp cooking worthwhile.  Next time we'd like to be far from trains. 
But I was happy with this time, just the way it was.