It was Saturday, which means paddle time in our neighborhood. Like always, we met in our shared driveway, loaded stand-up paddleboards onto our various vehicles, and then caravaned up Lick Creek to Eastside Drive for our weekly session.
As we pulled into our favorite trailhead, we were happy to see the empty parking lot—part of the reason we go so early in the day. We jumped out, walked the boards to the water’s edge, and pushed off.
It was mid-June, and we’d been slowly watching as the traffic on the Upper North Fork Payette River—or the inlet, as folks in town call it—picked up. We left our little eddy area and pushed into the main stem of the river, laughing as we merged with kayakers, canoeists, and paddlers moving upriver from the Backwoods Adventures McCall rental yurt.
As always, the combination of sun, crystal-clear water, and friends had everyone in a good mood, which is kind of the definition of paddling the river. No matter how you do it, there’s lots of time to chat with your friends and family. It’s magical.
The Magic Of Water
This magic tugged at Stef Woods, co-owner of Backwoods Adventures, from a young age, pushing her to follow a life on the water. After college, she became a full-time river guide, spending her spring season in northern California, guiding around Mt. Shasta, then heading to Stanley, Idaho, to spend summers guiding on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and the Selway.
Woods’ route from Mt. Shasta to Stanley took her through McCall.
“I kept coming through McCall in the late ’80s and early ‘90s and just thought it was a really cool town,” she says.
But she wasn’t yet ready to call any one place home.
“I was busy guiding all over the world. I guided in the Sea of Cortez, Ecuador, all parts of Central and South America, and Africa,” says Woods. “I was a full-time river and sea guide.”
Amidst these world travels, Woods met her husband, Chris, while on a holiday ski trip to Crested Butte. They hit it off, beginning to date in early March. By October, Chris proposed during one of her river trips.
Woods kept on guiding. Eventually, her travels brought her to Chile, which, ironically, brought her back to Idaho.
“The owner of the company I was guiding for in Chile had his home office in Sun Valley,” she says. “He asked me if I wanted to come back and work off-season stuff for him.”
She said yes and found herself in Ketchum with a husband and two young kids.
“So, it was 1998, and we had to decide if we were going to stay in Ketchum and try and make it, which was financially tough,” says Woods. “We found ourselves always leaving Ketchum on our days off and heading over the hill to go to the water. We were just constantly leaving Ketchum to go somewhere else to play on our days off.”
During this same time, Woods found herself guiding what she called “Turn the Corner” trips, during which she’d run the middle main of the Salmon, come up through Riggins, through McCall, and then back down the North Fork over to Stanley.
“So, I kept doing these circles going around it,” says Woods, “and we finally decided McCall seems like a really cool place, let’s just move there.”
And in 2001, they did just that. They rented a place and went about the business of figuring out how to make a living in town. As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself.
“We heard about a business up at the North Beach boat ramp,” says Woods, “and they were interested in getting out of the business.”
Woods, who had an outfitter’s license, started talking with the State of Idaho and worked to take over the business and make it her family’s own. They proposed the concession and, as Woods says, “They were happy to have us.”
Fast forward twenty-some years, and Backwoods Adventures has become an institution in McCall. The company opens the doors each summer around June 10 and closes on Labor Day. For that short window of time, Stef, Chris, and their kids, Ariana and Cale—all co-owners of the business—work seven days a week, rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. putting their loyal clientele into kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards and sharing with them their love of the water and the magic that comes from spending time floating with loved ones.
When the season ends, Cale goes back to college, Ariana goes back to work, and Chris and Stef head to Greece and Italy to run their Adventure Travel business for folks, most of whom they originally met here in McCall.
Like a river, their McCall life keeps spinning along, carrying them from adventure to adventure.
