Kayaking the Payette River - Wrap-up to our Boise Weekend

This is a long time coming considering Kyle and Kendrich completed their race a little over two weeks ago. How is June already almost over!? Craziness...I was expecting two half-Ironman finishers to be pretty beat for a while following the race. And they were... for like, a day. So what did we do our last two days in town? Hiked around Tablerock and whitewater kayaked the Payette River.

Tablerock

Kyle took me to Tablerock a couple times when I came to see him at school. As much as I like to bash Boise and southern Idaho sometimes, I have to admit, it can be quite beautiful in a dry, deserty kind of way.Earlier that day (Sunday, June 8) we had a lovely family picnic in the park with Kyle's extended family and met up with his school friends for some beers at a couple local breweries (10 Barrel Brewing Co. is a must-do by the way). After, we decided to drive up to Tablerock and enjoy the last little bit of the Boise sunshine. I have to imagine this is the perfect spot to go on the 4th of July and watch all the random fireworks going off in the city below. That would be awesome.It really is a beautiful view. My biggest complaint about Boise (other than the extreme weather) is the lack of water and trees, no real "nature" as I'm accustomed to. However looking out at the rolling high-desert hills, I could finally see why Boise is called "the city of trees."

Kayaking the Payette

Because we can never get enough adventure, Kyle's uncle Keith suggested we try whitewater kayaking while in town. So on Monday he graciously rented two inflatable tandem kayaks (found those at https://www.naturerated.com/best-inflatable-kayak-guide/), packed some snacks and drinks, and headed to the river. We put in at Banks (you can see these different locations on the map I linked to up above from PayetteRiver.org) and got out at Bee Hive Bend.

Now, if you're like me, these names don't (or didn't) mean much, but I guess it's kinda the main drag for rafting in that area. Prior to this, I had never participated in whitewater anything, so this was huge. And by huge I literally mean that some of the rapids were taller than me (class three I think) and had I seen the rapids beforehand, I probably wouldn't have gotten in the kayak. I cursed like a sailor (which isn't normally like me) over almost every single rapid.I also loved every single second of it and I hope to do something like this again very soon. We've driven along the river so many times, it was great to get a new perspective from down in the river - so beautiful!

Kyle wore a GoPro we borrowed from a friend and got some great footage - check it out!

I hope your summer is off to a great start!