MF Salmon Trip Report

12 People - 3 Rafts - 5 Kayaks - 8 Days

We just got off the Middle Fork of the Salmon yesterday. Great trip.

We expected low water but were greeted with a week of pretty much
constant rain (only one day was completely dry). The rive rose from
1.74 to 2.09.

We launched at Boundry Creek and had 700 pounds of food and gear flown
into Indian Creek on our third day.

The upper part of the river was great. The low water (1.88 on launch
day) was hard on the rafts and one of our rafters got stuck multiple
times. That made for a long day and we did not make it to our
assigned camp that night. It rained all day. We camped in a serious
downpour that lasted all night. Velvet falls was a fun drop for all.
Gradient = 40 ft per mile or so - Some sections very steep.

The second day was better. Everyone loved Powerhouse and Pistol Creek
Rapids. We made up our distance from the previous day.

We picked up our flown-in gear and entered the flatter middle-section
of the river on the third day. Great scenery as the hilsides rather
dramatically changed from wooded conifer to burn or semi-arid desert.
The whitewater was pretty easy and making our miles was easy. Tappan
Falls was the only good rapid in this middle section - It was a short
and violent drop worth scouting. The
margin for rafts was narrow.

We finally saw our first bighorn sheep at about mile 70 - there were
three rams that let us get to within about 40 feet.

The final section of the trip is called "Impassible Canyon" - It was
pretty fun with a relatively short class III or IV rapid each mile or
so. Many of these were tight for the rafts. There were also multiple
Indian Pictograph sites in this section.

The final class IV was on the Main. A rockslide caused a new rapid at
the mouth of Cramer Creek. It was a jumbled mess of rocks,
pour-overs, and holes. One hole would have, I believe, easily flipped
my 15 foot raft. There was a narrow line on the right that we all
followed that skirted the hole and grazed a room sized rock that we
all sucessfully followed.

By the way - There were apparently many cancellations due to the
expected low water. We saw several groups that had just come up and
launched without prior permits.


Randy

Randy Hodges <randallh RemoveThis @sonic.net> wrote:
 >
 > We launched at Boundry Creek and had 700 pounds of food and gear flown
 > into Indian Creek on our third day.

Just think what would have happened if each of the 3 rafts had carried
233 pounds of additional gear!

 > The upper part of the river was great. The low water (1.88 on launch
 > day) was hard on the rafts and one of our rafters got stuck multiple
 > times. That made for a long day and we did not make it to our
 > assigned camp that night.

Were there any consequences to not making camp? For instance, did you
have trouble finding a spot to camp because somebody was already in it?
Trail Flat is at mile 7, but if you camped there, were you fined for
camping in another spot with a hot spring?

 > It rained all day. We camped in a serious downpour that lasted all night.

Too bad it didn't rain *before* your trip, thus making Sulphur Slide easier.
Was the "rain all day" the typical kind of Idaho mist, or real rain?

 > The final class IV was on the Main. A rockslide caused a new rapid at
 > the mouth of Cramer Creek. It was a jumbled mess of rocks,
 > pour-overs, and holes. One hole would have, I believe, easily flipped
 > my 15 foot raft. There was a narrow line on the right that we all
 > followed that skirted the hole and grazed a room sized rock that we
 > all sucessfully followed.

A friend of mine ran this in a raft, instead of his IK, because he thought
he might flip in his IK. Unfortunately the commercial raft flipped anyway,
and he ended up swimming right into the rock (on the right, same as your
"room sized rock"?) that he was afraid of swimming into. Ironic.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->