One River, One Family

Aggipah Peak is the second-highest point in the River of No Return Wilderness Area, above the lower end of the Middle Fork of the Salmon. The name comes from the Shoshone Indian term for the Salmon River, which roughly translates to “Big Fish Water.” When we began our river business in the late ’70s, we chose “Aggipah River Trips” as a company name, as it is emblematic of the central Idaho back-country. Whitewater rafting began as recreation and a summer job during college, but became the central portion of our lives- a way of life as much as a living. After several seasons working for other river outfitters on various western rivers, we chose the Salmon River to begin our own river outfitting business in 1977. Large volume tour operators, we are not..

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Bill Bernt, Owner

Bill began floating on the Green, Colorado, Salmon, Snake, and other rivers in the late ‘60s. A winter-range thesis on antelope led to off-season employment for several winters as a wildlife biologist in the Salmon area, working primarily with big game distribution while continuing to float during the summer. A career with a government agency, having to move every few years, was not attractive. Running river trips was. Now, preparing for the coming season occupies the winter. Bill has been active in management issues in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, served six years on the Board of Directors of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association, and a dozen years on the Outfitters and Guides Licensing Board for the State of Idaho.

The old log cabins along the river have a particular attraction for Bill. His great-grandpa homesteaded in a sod house along a prairie river in the 1880s, on property that is still in the family. Bill grew up in an area that, while fully road-accessible, had a strong pioneer heritage. As a small kid, electricity had not replaced kerosene lamps, indoor plumbing had not yet been installed, the telephone was hand-crank, grade school was one room, and the cows were milked by hand. Later, when guiding whitewater trips on various western rivers, the harshness of the Southwest environment did not appeal as much as the richer, more productive, Salmon River, where the early prospectors, trappers, and homesteaders had scratched out a living and become part of the environment instead of just visitors. History of the region, horse-packing into the back-country, flying the back-country in small planes, and firearms of the early West are personal interests.

Peg taught high school biology and science in Salmon, Idaho for 35 years. She ran a boat during July and August for several years before kids. Later, we sometimes could leave kids with friends, or as they got older, bring them along on trips, so that she could get on trips. She passed away in 2023 of accumulated health issues.

Family

Stephanie and John started going on Main Salmon trips when they were four, and on the Middle Fork when they were seven. Stephanie helped in the shop, around camp, and ran a duffle boat before she was old enough for her license to carry passengers. She has been a licensed boatman for 25 years. She is one of only a few women who run sweep boats and drift boats, and guide steelhead fishermen. With a degree in Western history, her personal interests include hiking, marathon running, backcountry skiing, travel, river history, and, of course, whitewater rafting. She spent a year in Anchorage at the University of Alaska and spent several falls as a cook in pack-in elk hunting camps. She served on the Board of Directors of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association. She is currently working toward becoming an R.N.—as both of her grandmothers were.

She has two sons: Wesley Koffler (12) and Walker Monroe (7), both named for Salmon River boatmen. Wesley took his first river trip at 18 months, Walker at two years. They have been on numerous trips since. Both boys enjoy paddling kayaks on easier sections of the river. Wesley will take his first boat down the Main Salmon within a year or two.
She is married to Greg Eastwood, who has run nearly 200 trips on the Colorado River through Grand Canyon. He now flies for Sky West Airlines and does river trips with Aggipah as schedule permits. They have a house a dozen miles out of Salmon on Tower Creek, a nice orchard and garden, and elk and deer in the yard.

John served two enlistments in the army and is now a helicopter pilot when not on the river. He roped calves in High School Rodeo, hunted, fished, and worked for various horse outfitters in the Salmon River and Selway back-country before his enlistment. His primary military assignment was as a sniper in Afghanistan and Iraq. While off-base opportunities were non-existent there, in other areas he took full advantage–ice and rock climbing in Korea, racing and jumping motorcycles in Louisiana, surf fishing for sharks in Virginia, and extreme kayaking in New York. Here, in his time off, he fishes for steelhead with a spey rod, snowmobiles, hunts elk, and pursues his interest in long-range riflery.

Home on the Salmon River

We live on 60 acres a dozen miles from the historic town of Salmon, just under the Continental Divide. The Lewis and Clark trail crosses the property. While their name has become attached to the route, it was the major passage for generations of Indians and early explorers, and, later, for stagecoaches carrying gold shipments from the downriver mines– lots of history to stimulate the imagination. A creek runs through the place, which borders public land. Elk, deer, and antelope roam the ridges above the house, and we have seen moose, mountain lions, bears, and wolves from the house. We keep a few horses, mustang and Mustang/Morgan Cross, to access this back-yard back-country. A private airstrip extends onto the property.

Keeping us on the Salmon River

All the elements of Western history, from prehistoric Indians, Lewis and Clark, fur trappers, prospectors and miners, cattlemen, and sheepmen, to the current wilderness, water, and endangered species controversy, have intermingled in the Salmon River country. From the depths of Hells Canyon to the peaks of the Continental Divide, sagebrush to subalpine fir, its diversity has a fascination that holds us on the “River of No Return”.

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