Ian and I just returned from a trip to Montana to raft down a 60 mile stretch of the Smith River. To be honest, while I always thought it sounded like a cool thing to do, I had a couple reservations because I am not a real outdoorsy sort of girl and I had never really been camping before. I am so glad we went! It was wonderful and amazingly beautiful and I have become a bit enthralled with flyfishing.
We were lucky in that our friends planned everything, from getting the access permits, to planning, procuring, and packing the food, to supplying the rafts and gear. We simply needed to show up with tent, sleeping bags, and clothes. The meals were wonderful and not the beans and wienies I had been expecting. We had spaghetti and homemade meatballs, beef stroganof, and sweet and sour chicken. For appetizers we had smoked salmon, cheese and crackers, washed down with wine, beer, and G&T's. Not really roughing it when it came to food.
On the other hand, the plumbing facilities left a little to be desired.
On the plus side, latrines had been provided at each campsite. On the not-so-plus side, the latrines consisted of a toilet over a stinky pit. At our last campsite, the mosquitos were so bad around the latrine that there was no escaping at least one bite while one had their backside exposed.
Bathroom facilities aside--it was a wonderful trip and incredibly beautiful! I would go again tomorrow if I had the chance.
