Boldly Go Solo

I talked to my friend Laura into going alone on a river rafting trip. We were in our 20's. I'd loved my trip and insisted she would have a great time too. Risky recommendation, I suppose. I couldn't guarantee her happiness.

Her trip was on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho with Holiday River Expeditions, the company I'd gone with. Recently, I asked her about her memories of that trip. "It was one of the travel highlights of my life."

The only other solo travel Laura had done was to visit a
friend who worked at Club Med. Mostly, she'd traveled luxuriously, with
her parents, to ski resorts in Europe.

The rafting trip really
was her first ever on-her-own trip where she wasn't meeting up with
anyone familiar. She was nervous about the whole thing. The idea of an
adventure vacation, with a bit of roughing it, was a new concept. No
little bath soaps. No comfy quilts. "I didn't know what to expect," she
says. "I don't know what possessed me to do it."

Everything
about it turned out to be perfect. The weather, the group, the staff.
There were two couples, two guys and Laura. It happened that the
daughter of the rafting company's owner joined the trip with friend.
Two of the regular guides brought their girlfriends. So six people
affiliated with the company served seven guests. Attentive hardly
describes the service.

Laura brought a bottle of Scotch. As a "social lubricant." She didn't say whether it was for her to get tipsy or for the other guests to get friendlier.

The trip remains a golden travel memory. Perhaps because it was so different from anything she'd ever done. It also sparked a desire for more active vacations. She has since gone on several biking trips with Backroads. She chooses not to camp. She prefers the more luxurious route of inns and hotels. Yet, she still talks about that summer under the stars.

Photo: Orion. By NASA.