Since I've been in Boise, I have spent considerable time watching people float down the river, whooping and having a fine ol' time. I have only done it once so far, but of course I am going again. But I have been working on the logistics, checking out the take-out point, which is about a mile and a quarter downstream from my abode. And today, I finally found how to get to the entry point, which is at Barber Park, in the southeast part of the city.
The trip To Barber Park by bike is not so bad, as long as you keep a lookout for low-flying golf balls and don't get distracted by Ed the Elk. (Ed wasn't there today. The cows were on some kind of sit-down strike in the pasture, possibly anticipating a thunderstorm, but Ed was probably still up in the foothills.) i found a crossing past construction on what will be a new wetland area and park (Boise is really impressive for the many parks that are named after wives of prominent Boise citizens. Those husbands must have loved them very much indeed to invest in such classy real estate as parkland!). There it is, just across the bridge.
Finding the bike path back is not quite so easy, mostly because the sole map that shows the river rafting route and associated hiking and bike trails has been faded into monochrome. But by using the Braille method, I found a bike path that follows a fenceline past the backside of a residential area. Because of more construction, part of the path is currently detoured through a new subdivision before coming out near the crossroads at Bown Crossing.
Bown (pronounced bone, as in T-Bone Walker) Crossing was a famous ford across the Boise River along the Oregon Trail, and there is a nice little business district in the wash between the path of the old pioneer trekking route and the river that includes an excellent candy shop that sells not only all the favorite penny candies of my childhood but those of childhoods of people waay older than me.)
Anyway, I made it. And the river rafting plan ultimately is to have a vehicle of my own, so I can enter the river just outside my apartment, float down to the takeout point, deflate the raft and haul it and myself down to Barber Park to the entry point, re-inflate the raft, and float back down to the takeout point at my apartment, deflate the raft again, and go have a shower and a glass of wine.
How does that sound to ya?
