Tubing on the Salt River

Lindsey finally did it. She drug me (and Kyle) out to the Salt River to go tubing. It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be.

First the good stuff. Salt River Tubing Company is well-run and efficient. There's plenty of gorgeous scenery along the river, and lots of pretty birds. The cool river water keeps you from getting too hot. In fact, when we first waded in, Kyle and I both thought the water was too cold to sit in an inner tube. It isn't bad once you get used to it.

Then there's the down side. Tubing on the Salt River is a very popular summer activity. There were several times that we were jammed tube-to-tube with crowds of people. At least most of them were very nice. But most of them are pretty loud. Lots of stereotypical Nascar types. Loud, lame jokes, and borderline crude, with cheap boom boxes tied to an inner tube with the volume cranked up far beyond distortion. A histogram of words used by people on the river would show the f word being used twice as much as any other word in the English language. Most people were drunk and a lot were smoking. All the commotion made it difficult to enjoy the desert. All this is why I've avoided tubing on that river. Now it's done and over with. I can't wait to get out to the desert by myself.

I bought NO AD SPF 45 waterproof sunscreen for this trip. It's a CR best buy. I'm disappointed in its performance, though. We all got burned. I put in on thick before we left the house, especially on my mayonnaise white legs (I never wear shorts on hikes; there are too many things out there to poke and scratch your legs). Part way through the trip, my thighs were looking a little pink. They were still greasy with thick sunscreen, but I put some more on. They still got burned. I also had sunscreen on my arms, and they are tan from hiking, but they burned, too. I'm glad I wore a hat with a brim all the way around. Maybe the noon Arizona sun is too severe a test for any sunscreen.

Lindsey has been on a few tubing trips before and always comes back with scrapes and bruises. After seeing her in action on this trip, I've decided that she must be afflicted with the same curse as her aunt Julia. Poor kid. At least it only affects her, though. Kyle and I weren't drug into any disasters by her presence.

I couldn't take my camera on this trip, though there is very little that I would have wanted to take pictures of. There were a few drunken idiots that would have made funny videos. I'll hike down to the river to get pictures of the herons and other birds some time.