Meet Jed Tarlow
Jed was born and raised in Bozeman, MT and learned to kayak when he was 13 after hurting his knee skiing. He immediately fell in love with whitewater and learned to guide a raft, turning his passion into a career. Now he guides for us on the Middle Fork of the Salmon.
When asked about the Middle Fork, Jed says:
"I love running all rivers, and they all have their own unique charm. I think what I really love about the Middle Fork specifically is the mountain landscape. The Middle Fork is just this little gem hidden in Idaho. The country looks like the mountains I grew up playing in, but then there just happens to be this unbelievably deep canyon right in the middle of them.
"The Middle Fork is just this little gem hidden in Idaho."
I also love progressing from the low volume beginnings of the Middle Fork into the Main Salmon. You get to start on what is basically a big creek, and watch it grow underneath you as the week progresses. I feel like we start at the tops of the mountains and float our way back to civilization each trip."
Here's Jed's report from his winter adventures:
"I spent the winter in Central America. I flew into Nicaragua with a friend I hadn't seen in awhile and no plan whatsoever. We bought bicycles for $50 and bike toured around Nica. After of month of hilly pedaling and non-stop sweating, we went to Guatemala and bought cheap, small motorcycles. I spent the next few months riding dirt backroads through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. In northern Panama my bike blew up, so I headed to El Salvador, with a quick stopover in the Caribbean for some diving. In El Salvador, I rented a hut near the beach and spent the last 3 months of my trip surfing, reading, hammocking, and eating lots of avocadoes. There are plenty of good stories, but those will have to wait for some lazy river afternoons and late night campfires."
Three days ago Jed left his Central American paradise for a much snowier one. He'll be spending the spring traveling, car living, and kayaking around the Northwest. This summer he'll be on the Middle Fork.
