Wanted: Backcountry bus service
Jan. 6—A successful wilderness rafting trip depends on a complicated set of logistics.
It turns out maneuvering people, boats and gear through remote canyons peppered with Class III and IV rapids is the easy part. The hard part is getting people and their stuff to and from the river.
And for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and the main Salmon River, both of which flow through the largest chunk of wilderness in the Lower 48 states, that task just got more difficult, especially for those who offer commercial river trips.
So hard that a coalition of whitewater outfitters recently penned a news release seeking help. At issue is the retirement of Mike Stephenson, owner and operator of Caldwell Transportation.
For more than two decades, Stephenson has ferried the customers of outfitters from Stanley to Boundary Creek, the put-in for trips on the Middle Fork, and from the town of Salmon to Corn Creek, the starting point for trips on the main Salmon River. His company also picked up rafters at Cache Bar, where Middle Fork customers end their trips. (Another company picks up customers at the end of trips on the main Salmon River.)
According to the news release, Caldwell Transportation ran eight buses during the heart of the 90- to 120-day rafting season — June through September — and served about 10,000 outfitted river runners each summer.
"There's 40 river businesses trying to figure out what they're going to do next summer," said Steve Zettel, owner of Idaho Wilderness Company, a Middle Fork outfitter, based in Challis. "We see this as a business opportunity for an existing bus or transportation company that might want to expand to Stanley, Idaho."
He noted it's not a job for novices. Both routes include not only highway miles but 20 to 30 miles of narrow, winding gravel roads.
Still, Dustin Aherin, of Lewiston, and owner of Idaho River Adventures based in Salmon, thinks there's a profit to be had for the right operator. He told the Tribune he thought about jumping in himself and even discussed it with his banker. In the end, he decided his life is busy enough running one company.
Stephenson gave the outfitters plenty of notice and worked to recruit a new carrier. So far no one has stepped in to fill the unusual niche in Idaho's backcountry tourism economy.
"Our hope with the press release is we would get that in front of somebody we didn't realize was in the area who could either step in and do business for us or look at the numbers and what we are needing and realizing if they had some money to invest and need a couple more buses they could grow into the business," said Aherin.
The outfitters pay the transportation companies to move their clients.
With rafting season just five months away, some outfitters are starting to make arrangements. For instance, Aherin said he might purchase a bus as a temporary, stop-gap measure.
"Most of us would rather pay for the service," he said. "What we are trying to do is offer up a business opportunity to a community member we may not know exists."
Those who would like more information can contact Colin Hughes of Hughes River Expeditions at colin@hughesriver.com.
Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.
