DAY 1: Jos and I started our trip from the Portland airport after I arrived in Portland at 2:30 AM. We took turns driving the ~7 hours to Hells Canyon, and took an hour break at Denny's for me to eat while Jos slept in the car. We stopped at the Enterprise Ranger Station and talked to 'Pop' who told us a part of the trail had been lost from a rock slide, which was going to shorten our trip considerably (from 56 to ~36 miles), and then drove up the road past Imnaha and on to Hat Point. We took some pics from the top of the fire tower at Hat Point and then started down towards the Snake. This being the deepest canyon in North America, we were planning on stopping about halfway down for the night since we were tired from the drive. Instead we made it down to the river the first day; along the way seeing mountain goats (with baby), Flicker babies, Buntings, Elk, and other wildlife, as well as losing the trail about 2 miles from the river. This afforded us the wonderful opportunity (sarcasm) to do some backcountry hiking through waist high, barbed grass and intermittent poison ivy, all while heading down some very steep terrain. We made it to the Snake, waded around a bit, and then slept in 'til late the next morning.
