Main Salmon Raft

Original Trip Description: (June 15-21, 1997)
The Salmon River flows through a vast wilderness in the second deepest gorge on the continent, one fifth of a mile deeper than the Grand Canyon. For approximately 180 river miles, this canyon is more than one mile deep. From North Fork to Riggins, the River drops at the average rate of 12 feet per mile with frequent rapids.
It was historically known as the "River of No Return" since the many rapids only allowed downstream travel. It flows through pine-covered mountainous terrain, with numerous sandy bars, and usually has a large volume of water during the spring run-off. Peak flows can occur anywhere from the middle of May to early July. It is a big river and its hydraulics are comparable to those encountered rafting the Colorado through Grand Canyon.
The rafting difficulty level is Class III-IV during normal flows but a few rapids become class V when in flood. The trip usually starts at the Corn Creek Launch Ramp on the Main Salmon River but spring flood flows make Spring Creek Campground a great alternative put-in, allowing one to boat an additional 30 miles. The beauty of this country makes frequent return trips irresistible. The trip difficulty is rated moderate to strenuous depending on the flows (M/S).
Originates @ North Fork, ID.

Barth Hot Springs

Above the River

Trip Report:

On the way north to Idaho, we stopped to visit friends and borrow an oar frame for the Achilles tomato from the Salt Lake City rafting cooperative. It was a good thing we did, as with a couple of last minute cancellations, we wouldn't have had enough paddlers for a paddle raft. Eventually ten of us boated in three oared rafts and two kayaks. We shopped our non-perishable food items in Salt Lake and the perishable food two days later in Pocatello. The Main Salmon was in high flood as were most of the Idaho rivers. A heavy snow load and a wet spring pumped the Main up to 11' on the gauge (about 50,000 cfs) at Corn Creek on the day we arrived. By the day we launched, it had dropped to 8.9' (about 35,000 cfs) and it continued to drop as we went on downstream, sometimes as much as a foot over night. We were told that side stream inflows usually doubled the flow by the time it reached Whitebird so we were expecting 70,000+ cfs by the time we reached Riggins. While we were camped at Corn Creek, several commercial guides came over and warned us about which rapids to watch out for. The low water biggies were pretty much washed out but some that were not much of anything at normal flows, were supposed to be huge at high water. We considered Whiplash, Elkhorn, and Chittam to be the biggest.

Our Canadian kayakers found us at Corn Creek and were thrilled to run the North Fork section from Spring Creek to Corn Creek while the rest of the group was air taxied over from Grangeville and shuttled out to the put-in. They deemed this section pretty kicky but enjoyable. We spent the first night at Corn Creek enjoying an 80 degree afternoon, followed by mostly 70 degree days on the river. We experienced intermittent rain storms along the way but no totally foul, cold days. Luckily many of these rain storms took place for an hour or so during the night. The morning we left Corn Creek, Brian turned out to be our best wildlife spotter when he noticed thirty elk grazing on the hill across the river. We later saw several groups of bighorn and some deer. Different varieties of butterflies congregated around us everywhere. We also saw several fast moving snakes but no rattlers.

On our first day, within five miles of the put-in, after less than an hour on the river, Susan flipped her 16' raft at Legend Creek Rapid. This came as a surprise to everyone since she'd been rowing for close to 10 years, with many big water trips under her belt, and had never flipped before. This rapid is insignificant at low flows but an error in judgment while boating flood flows quickly led to an upside down raft. Our kayakers were instrumental in fishing out her two passengers. Susan came up thirty feet downstream from her boat and swam immediately to Bob's leading raft. Bob grabbed her and the boat while Cree grabbed one of her passengers. Unfortunately, Judy had to swim quite a ways before the kayakers were able to pull her over. Fortunately, no one was hurt and nothing was lost. We bent one of the oar pins all to heck when we double z-dragged the raft over. Some of the personal gear was wet after being upside down for half an hour or so. All in all it was a cheap lesson and we were relieved that everyone was okay. We cheated all the big rapids for the rest of the day so that Susan and her crew had time to calm their nerves and rebuild confidence.

Our plan to stop and soak in Barth Hot Springs was thwarted when we couldn't find the developed tubs. Everything looked different and the pull-out isn't that easy to find at normal water levels. There was some discussion with another group that the springs might be under water but it was more likely that both of us simply searched in the wrong places. We stopped in the right area at two different spots and found hot water running into the river but couldn't locate the tubs we've stopped at in past years. Many of the good beach camps were submerged and two of our camps were less than ideal for the boats. A lapping wave beach with ugly, abrasive rocks caused a several square inch wear spot through one layer of Susan's double-layer, wrapped floor. Although it never leaked air, we'll have to patch it this fall when the temperatures are more suitable for working with glue.

The commercial guides repeatedly warned us about scouting Whiplash Rapid. They were concerned that we would blow by the last possible scout and be forced to run it, so they recommended pulling over at the Jim Moore Place and taking a high hike on the pack trail above the rapid. It supposedly had unavoidable huge waves and holes on the right with a possible cheat run through the rocks on the left if the flow was high enough. We stopped at the pack bridge, wandered through the Jim Moore Place and realized that we would have a long, poison ivy laden hike to get a view of the rapid from there. We nervously continued downstream, stopping for lunch on river left. While the cook team prepared it, the two Bobs and the kayakers stomped through the brush and poison ivy to try for a view of the rapid. Cree returned with three wasp stings, no one got a view of the rapid, but Bob M. got far enough down-river to locate yet another scouting beach which was closer to the head of the rapid. Away we went for the third scouting place.

This time we were actually able to get a good view of the rapid although some of us would rather not have seen it. It was as ugly as reported, with two large flipper lateral waves and a hole on the right and a huge boil, rocky eddy entry area on the left. Laurel took one look at that downstream Niagara-like whirlpool and decided to portage her kayak. Brad ran his kayak down the left side and both he and Laurel spotted from below while we ran the big boats. With Brian as his bailer and possible swimming companion, Bob. M. ran first with Susan and Cree on shore with throw lines. Once he successfully ran the left side, Susan ran while he and Cree spotted. She dropped through a fierce looking reversal at the top which was actually quite benign. Her run allowed her to reach the left shore and pick up Judy who had walked around the rapid. Cree came last and had a fine run. Mark later said that it was a good thing that he wasn't sitting on his little green cushion or he might have sucked it right up while running Whiplash.

Mackay Bar was just starting their season when we stopped in. We had lunch on their deck and contributed to their economy by purchasing t-shirts, ice cream bars, and beer. While lounging around we talked to our first jet boaters who had come up for a joy ride from the Polly Bemis Ranch. They told us that a few weeks earlier Shepp Ranch sunk a jet boat against the wall at Chittam Rapid. While Chittam was pretty huge, we had no mishaps there.

The wildflowers along the river were in full bloom. Judy brought a flower book but unfortunately many of the ones we saw weren't listed. Most of the berries were not quite ripe but we did pick some small cherries at our last camp and a few of us got to taste thimbleberries and gooseberries while hiking that last day. Few private groups were running the river, we saw only one between launch and take-out. Even the commercial traffic was sparse. Another private group who had done the whole Middle Fork through Main Salmon float on flood flows pulled in just as we were taking out. With the high water it was easy for them to make miles quickly and they had covered close to 200 miles in only 8 days.

We considered the trip a tremendous success. With the smaller group, everyone had to spend a little more time on cook team than usual but it led to a cohesive, over-fed group. It was a delight to have Bob Cree join us on the river again after an 11 year sabbatical. Our Canadian kayakers were hot paddlers and extremely helpful with all aspects of the trip. Our vehicles were at the take-out as promised by River Rat Express. We piled in the gear and headed for Riggins where Mark treated us all to lunch at the boater's bar. The Riggins bridge was expected to re-open at 3:00 PM that day so we parted company, leaving Laurel and Brad to ferry Mark and Brian to Grangeville while we dropped the rest of the folks in Boise and Salt Lake City. After leaving Riggins around 2:00 PM, we dropped off the borrowed frame and oars at Paul's about midnight, took turns driving through the wee hours, watched the sunrise over Lake Powell the following morning, and arrived home around 10:30 AM. It took a couple of days to clean and dry everything but all the gear is now stored away for another year. So ends another boating season!

Other Main Salmon raft trips from our quarterly newsletters:

* June 7, 2004