MINAM — Looking for the most direct route from Minam to Troy? It starts at the Minam Store — and bring your life jacket. The route is by raft down the Wallowa River to the Grande Ronde and onto Troy — about 45 river miles.

Grant Ritchie and his wife, Lottie, bought the store in 2011. It then included a motel, but they closed that part in 2018. They gutted the motel and turned it into what would become their home.

The “back way,” Ritchie said, is overland via the Promise Road just west of Wallowa. But that’s also the rough way — a dirt road through scenic country over a ridge to Wildcat Creek and down to the Powwatka Bridge. There, drivers cross the Grande Ronde and drive another seven miles to Troy.

If a driver wants to take paved road all the way, that means going to Enterprise and up Highway 3 into Washington and down the grade to Boggan’s Oasis. There, after crossing the Grande Ronde, it’s another 16 miles to Troy.

Ritchie said multiday trips can be booked in advance. A three-day trip, where rafters pull over and camp, doesn’t start until April. Rafters can enjoy the moderate whitewater of the Wallowa and the Grande Ronde

The store’s guided rafting trips last until mid-November. See www.minamstore.com for details, including prices.

“It gets to where you don’t see anyone for two weeks at a time,” Ritchie said.

He said those not up to the three-day trek can do a day trip that goes down 9½ miles to about where the Wallowa empties into the Grande Ronde. From there, the rafts are placed on a railroad flatcar and Ritchie tows them back to the store with his rail-equipped Chevy Suburban.

He said he’s allowed to use the tracks from 3-6 p.m. each day. The tracks are shared with the Eagle Cap Excursion Train on Wednesdays and Saturdays and by the Joseph Branch Railriders.

The half-day raft trip starts at 1 p.m. Customers have lunch outside the store at the food truck.

The rivers give rafters an overall smooth-sailing trip. Although there’s a little whitewater, it’s nothing serious, Ritchie said.

“It’s pretty mild whitewater; it’s not fast and it’s not eddies,“ he said.

In the early months of the year, rafters and other boaters are mainly out there for the steelhead. Later on, anglers will find trout and whitefish, with bull trout coming occasionally.

During the seasons when the store isn’t open, anglers and rafters can launch opposite the Wallowa River from the store and take their own trips.

Those making the trip to Troy usually take out near the Troy School, said Doug Wittherrite, owner of Wenaha Bar & Grill. He said no one is at Troy to help with the rafts; rafters are on their own to take out.

“We feed a few of them and that’s about all,” he said.

Wittherrite said the water gets low in the middle of summer.

“It kind of comes to a screeching halt in the middle of July because they run out of water,” he said. “But the water comes back up in the fall.”

When the water is high enough, some rafters choose to go onto Boggan’s Oasis and take out there — or even on down the Grande Ronde to the Snake River. But that’s another story.

As for the cross-country trek, a trip in late February encountered a bit of snow on the Promise Road, but this year it wasn’t bad. The road’s a bit rough and it helps to have four-wheel drive engaged.

But be on the lookout for wildlife. Drivers will occasionally stumble on a herd of elk or a scattering of deer.

Wittherrite said Troy sees so many head of wildlife because “It stays green here.” That’s understandable at only 1,624 feet above sea level.

Getting near Troy, there may be bighorn sheep. They’ll stand in the road until a driver makes it clear he’s coming through.

Then, there’s the wild turkeys. They can be in a flock of scores not at all worried that they might be seen as Thanksgiving guests. The wild birds are much smaller than their domestic cousins raised for the table.