Middle Fork of the Salmon River
(MFS), Idaho
Frank Church – River of No Return
Wilderness
(Disclaimer – This story is
written for folks that have no white water experience so all my rafting buddies
please forgive my simplifying or leaving out critical facts.)
Mention that you have run the MFS
to anyone who kayaks, canoes or rafts white water and you will immediately see
a look of envy come over their face. That is because the MFS is the premier
white water wilderness river in the country and arguably the world. It is in
the middle of the Idaho Mountains and runs for approximately 100 miles through
pristine wilderness with very limited access (see MFS details at the end). Liz
and I have been extremely lucky because we have rafted the river together 3 times
and Liz ran it once before we met for a total of 4 times; 2003, 2007, 2010 and
2012. As a side note Liz has been invited to go on her 5th MFS trip
this year 2014 and will be going while I’m on my Alaska motorcycle trip (AK2).
Only fair I guess but I am going to miss being on the trip with her. This is a
permit only river and to get a permit you enter an annual lottery. There are a
finite number of permits each year so you either get a permit or know someone
who did who invites you to go on their trip. Since there are limitations to the
number of people allowed per permit the people invited on the trip usually need
to have rafting experience, have equipment needed on the trip or are very close
friends or family of the permit holder.
The MFS is a snow-melt river
meaning the water level and therefore its difficulty is based on the annual
snow fall in the Idaho Mountains. Peak run-off is around June with big water
and by September it is considered a low water trip. Big water means big rapids
and large dangerous holes that swallow rafts and people. Low water means more
technical raft maneuvering and the chance of wrapping or pinning rafts on
exposed rocks. Low water on the MFS can still flip a raft as I proved on the
2012 trip. Liz’s 2003 trip was in high water and so was our 2007 trip. (Side
note - On our 2007 high water trip I got stuck in Pistol Rapid right where they
say not to in the MFS details at the end. Got it off by myself but very tense
for a few minutes.)
There are several types of rafts
used on the MFS. Since these are 6-8 day trips you have to carry everything you
need for the whole trip for up to 25 people. Most use large 14-18 ft oar rafts
that can carry the oarsman and 1 or 2 passengers (usually only 1) plus all
their gear and their share of the group gear.
This can mean a raft weighing from 1200 lb to 1500+ lbs (or more). Catarafts
(Cats) are also popular oar rigs because they use a ridge frame that is easier
to load and can carry a very heavy load. Occasionally a paddle raft will be
taken along with up from 5 to 7 paddlers, including an experienced paddle
captain in the back. Paddle rafts don’t carry any gear so this means that all
the other rafts in the group have to carry their gear. Paddle rafts are
extremely fun because they have lots of power and can zip in and out of the
rapids. Everyone on a paddle raft is involved since they provide the power and
running big rapids is definitely an adrenalin rush in a paddle raft. Oar rigs
are much different. Oar rigs are heavy and only have a single oarsman providing
the power and steering the raft. Being an Oar Raft Captain requires lots of
practice/experience in order to have the finesse to make that big rig go where
you want and when it needs to be there. You actually use the oars to put the
raft in the current when and where it needs to be so the raft goes through the
rapid where you want it to. You cannot power an oar raft out of trouble very
often so reading water is a skill set you must have to keep the raft off the
rocks or being pinned/flipped.
Since MFS trips are multi-day the
trip leader picks camp sites the day of launch. This is very competitive since
several groups will launch the same day and they all want the best camp sites.
All the camp sites are beautiful but some have better landing access or better
tent spots. At the end of each days run we land at our assigned camp site and
the real work begins. Each raft has to unload all their tents, personal bags
plus the group gear; i.e. water jugs, kitchen gear, tables, ice chests, etc.
Tent spots are picked and personal gear piled there then everyone pitches in to
put the kitchen together and set up the camp for the night. Only then do you
put up your tent and get out of your paddling clothes. Depending on the size of
the group, kitchen duties are shared and each day will have several people
identified to either cook or do clean up after the meal. Usually you only have
one day that you have to spend lots of time doing kitchen detail. It is
important to understand that most of the folks on these trips have made
numerous trips together and know the routine. Newbies learn quickly. One thing
worth learning is if you ever expect to be invited on future trips you better
not be a slacker. After dinner and all cleanup completed we set around the camp
fire and enjoy being in one of the most beautiful spots on earth with some of
the best friends you could ever want.
In the morning it all happens in
reverse. The breakfast team works the kitchen detail then everyone tears down
the camp and repacks the rafts. Repacking the rafts is not a task to take
lightly. Everything has its place and everything must be tied down in case of a
flip. The last thing you can stand is to flip a raft and all its gear including
group gear be lost to the river. Another important fact is that if the raft
flips the people on that raft have a very good chance of being entangled in
ropes or loose gear or being hit by flying objects. I flipped a heavily loaded
14 ft oar raft in 2012 (to be described later) and it was upside down for over
an hour. Nothing came loose or was lost except for Liz’s hat which she gave me
the devil for since it was here favorite hat (also because I flipped the raft
and put her in the water at a big rapid).
You may want to skip this
paragraph if you have a weak stomach! A couple of miscellaneous items before I
describe our 2012 MFS trip. Because these are wilderness trips on Government
controlled rivers they are closely regulated with will defined rules.
Everything you take on the river has to be carried off the river, this means
EVERYTHING; i.e. Trash, camp fire ashes, uneaten food scraps, human waste. Yes
I said human waste. You can urinate in the river (even the girls) but solid
waste must be hauled out. In the old days surplus military ammo cans were used
(still are really) and you would have to set on the edge of the can to do your
business. This would leave grooves in your thighs so of course the rest room
equipment received the name “groover” which it still uses to this day. Modern
groovers use regular toilet seats but they are still some sort of sealed
container that can be taken apart for easy carrying and storing on the raft. A
group of 20+ people will fill two groovers on a 7 day trip. Cleaning the
groovers at the end of the trip is a whole other story. BTW this is usually the
biggest shock for new people on these trips. When they are told that they have
to pee in the river with little privacy and do their other business in a
metal/plastic container causes many to decide they don’t want to go after all.
One good thing is that the groovers are usually put in a secluded spot that has
a fantastic view of the river and mountains. Bathing is optional meaning you
can take a bath in the freezing river water or like we do, use a solar shower
that I carry on the top of our gear. It actually gets the water up to an
acceptable temperature after riding in the sun all day (if there is sun). The
amount of privacy depends on the camp-site.
Clothing while on the river
varies. The MFS is snow melt and very, very cold. The air temperature can be
very cold due to the altitude, cold because of rain/snow/sleet or hot due to a
blazing sun. Liz and I usually wear our dry-suits because if you go in the
water, you won’t last long. If it starts getting too hot we just pour river
water onto our suits. Some others wear shorts and t-shirts but they’re very
accomplished rafters who think they won’t flip (foolish people).
In summary, it has been an
extremely exciting time for Liz and I on these trips and even though it is a
lot of work, some discomfort, sometimes rainy and cold with the chance we my
die in a flipped raft in a monster rapid, we wouldn’t change a thing.
2012 MFS Trip Report
I’ve included a number of pictures
from our September 2012 trip with Walter and Gale. Liz and I were invited to go
on a late season low water trip with only 2 oar rafts. Normally you would drive
your trucks to the put-in (Boundary Creek) and launch from there. Because the
water was low the full river could not be run with heavy oar rigs so we had to
fly into a dirt landing strip 25 miles downriver (Indian Creek) with all our
rafts, frames and gear. Having only 2 rafts did not mean we carried less gear,
we still had to carry all our personal gear plus half of the food and kitchen
equipment. Walter had the larger red raft so carried more but my 14’ purple
raft was pretty heavy as can be seen in the pictures. As a side note there were
forest fires all around the MFS at the time so you will see lots of smoke in
the pictures plus this was a problem flying in due to low visibility at the
landing strip. In addition, there was a chance that the river take-out would be
closed due to the fire being around the only road we would use. Walter, the
trip leader, had this all figured out so I was confident we would prevail.
Some of the first pictures show
us getting all the gear together on the airport ramp in preparation of loading
the twin engine airplane we chartered. Because we had 4 people plus 2 rafts and
all our gear, the plane had to make 2 trips to get it all to the launch site.
The 2 rafts and their break down frames were loaded first then what ever would
fit. Due to the smoke from the forest fires our take-off was delayed several
hours. The “Islander” airplane was heavily loaded so the pilot looked at Walter
and me and said Walter was too heavy to go on the first trip so I won the prize
(sorry Walter). This didn’t work out as well as I thought it would. Although I
had a front row seat on the very tricky approach and landing at the dirt strip (see
video) it also meant that the pilot and I had to unload the airplane by
ourselves and I had several hours of solo work to do before the other 3 trip
members got there. The rafts are extremely heavy and it was a challenge to get
them out of the airplane door with only 2 people. By the time Walter, Gale and
Liz arrived I had both rafts unrolled and mostly inflated using a hand pump
(hard work at a pretty high elevation). We then had to slide the empty rafts
down a log ramp to the river and carry all our gear down including everything
we would load the next morning onto the rafts.
The next sequence of pictures
shows camp life and some of the scenic spots on the river plus a few of the
numerous rapids. The MFS has some serious rapids (see MFS details at the end).
During high water they are massive, during low water they are technical as I stated
earlier. My biggest concern was getting hung up on a rock or wrap the raft
around a bolder, both of which are potential situations. On a couple of the
bigger rapids Liz decided she would rather ride in Walter’s raft (chicken) and
you will see her in the red raft running a rock embedded rapid. You will also
see pictures from my GoPro as I run the rapids solo. Normally Liz sits up front
and reads the instructions for running each rapid to me as we approach the
rapid. Walter and I scouted a couple of rapids from shore so we could see the
best way to run them. The one rapid we didn’t scout kicked my a__ and we
flipped so live and learn. One pic shows Liz standing in the raft trying to
look down a rapid as we approached. An important point to consider is that with
only 2 rafts and 4 people there is a limit to the support you have available in
case of problems. The front raft picks the line to run a rapid while the back
raft is available to help them if they get into trouble; i.e. swimmers, pinned
raft, etc. The back raft has no one behind to help if they get into trouble and
in some places the folks in the front raft can’t get back to help due to rock cliffs
on both sides of the river. They are downriver so if someone is in the water
they can rescue them hopefully. Just something we always had to remember and
another reason we always wore our dry-suits.
The last sequence of pictures is
at Cramer Rapid only ½ mile from the take-out. I had run the rapid on two
previous trips so wasn’t really too worried about it. Plus we were close to the
end of the trip and we had get-home-fever. I knew this was a bad rapid at some
levels but since we were on a low water trip, what could happen? I’ll tell you.
We watched Walter enter the top of the rapid and I noted the exact point he
entered because that was where I was going to go. The rapid has an extremely
big and violent hole on the left side and a long slopping run on the right side.
There is a lateral wave generated by the hole that runs all the way over to the
right side where it blasts into a great big bolder next to the shore. Walter
entered just to the right of the hole near the center. We watched him hit the
lateral and get pushed to the right where he hit the bolder with his bow and
then spun off down river into the clear water. I told Liz that if Walter hit
that rock in his big raft and as strong as he is that we better move a little
more to the left on our entry which we did. Bad mistake, we should have scouted
this rapid. As we went over the lip of the rapid right next to the big hole I
was pulling with all my might trying to offset the lateral wave which was
pushing us straight to the big bolder. You can see Liz facing to the left and
start to climb up as the raft hit the bolder. She is going what we call high side
in an attempt to stop the raft from being wrapped around the bolder. This was a
very good possibility and would have been extremely serious. We were lucky in
that the raft rode up the side of the bolder on the water pillow caused by the
lateral wave. As the raft goes vertical (sideways) you can see Liz give me a
“You dumb a__” look over the top of one of the water jugs as she prepares for
her graceful jump into the river. One picture is me under the raft as I get my
foot untangled from a stray rope before I could get to the surface. Walter and
Gale where downriver but they said they could hear me cussing as I came out
from under the raft. The rest of the pictures show the rig it took to flip that
heavy raft but upright. Good thing that Walter is a Swift Water Rescue
Instructor and had all the ropes and tackle required but it still took over an
hour and lots of muscle from the small crew available. As I stated earlier, all
our gear stayed attached and even though in the water for over an hour it all
stayed dry due to the type of bags we use for these trips.
Final notes:
1 - On our previous two MFS trips
I had broken an oar blade one way or another on the rocks. I had actually made
a comment to Liz just before Cramer Rapid it looked like I was going to make this
trip without breaking a blade; look at one of the pictures after the raft is
flipped back upright. I now have three broken oar blades at the house I’m going
to make a wall decoration out of.
2 – I’ve been asked “how do you
get invited on these types of trips”. Liz and I both started kayaking around
2003 and quickly got heavily involved with the Arkansas Canoe Club (ACC). We
both became white water kayak instructors and taught classes at the annual ACC
White Water School and Recreational Kayak (Rec School) every year. We became
friends with a number of ACC members that had rafts and did these types of
wildness rafting trips every year. Liz and I bought a small 13’ raft and picked
up the skills for both paddle rafting and oar rafting on AR Rivers and out East
on the Nantahala and Ocoee Rivers and out West on the Arkansas River in CO. We
both attended the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) raft guide school on the
Nantahala River, NC and another raft guide school on the Rogue River, WA. We
have both received Wilderness First Aid and White Water Rescue training. I can
only surmise that due to our volunteer work with ACC and being on the river
many times with these folks they considered us as the type they could trust in
emergencies and good company in trying situations. There is no other easy way
unless you go on a commercial trip with a lot of strangers or make friends with
a rafter.
MFS Details
The Middle Fork is a tributary of
the Salmon
River, which is
the main tributary of the Snake River, which in turn is the main
tributary to the Columbia
River. The
Middle Fork is one hundred miles of whitewater. The nearest town is Stanley, Idaho. The Middle Fork's elevation
starts at 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above sea level and drops down to 3,900 feet
(1,200 m). Bear Valley Creek and Marsh Creek converge to form the Middle Fork.
The Middle Fork has around a hundred tributaries; some of the bigger
tributaries are Rapid River, Loon Creek and Camas Creek. The Middle Fork flows
through 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2) of rugged terrain known as
the Salmon River Mountains, in which there are peaks that reach as high as
10,000 feet (3,000 m) (Midmore 1–2).
The
Middle Fork has three hundred rateable rapids. Some of the well-known rapids on
the Middle Fork are Dagger Falls, Sulphur Slide, Velvet Falls, the Chutes,
Power House, Pistol Creek, Tappan Falls, Red side, Weber, Cliffside, Rubber,
Hancock and Devil's Tooth. All but one of these are class III+ to class IV (on
a scale of I to VI), with Dagger Falls being class V. Dagger Falls is just
above the put-in of the Middle Fork which is on Boundary Creek. It is runnable
on the left above 3 feet, but best at 6–8 feet. Velvet Falls, a class IV, has a
recirculating ledge hole in the middle at some levels. To avoid danger take the
left side. Velvet Falls gets its name from the small stream, Velvet Creek,
flowing in on river right immediately above the drop, which refers to the
velvet-like layer on developing antlers of deer and elk. (Other nearby streams
include Elk Horn, Buck Horn and Ram's Horn.) Power House is a class IV where
you have to pick your way through gaps and at the same time not get stuck on
rocks or driven into the wall on river right, especially in higher water. Near
mile 20, the river makes an S turn which is called Pistol Creek, a class IV. A
person must make sure that they don't let the water slam them on the last turn
of the S. Tappan Falls (class IV) should be run right of center to avoid a
recirculating hole in the middle. It is a straight shot and hard paddling must
also occur. At Red Side (class IV) there is a big rock in the river and the
river is trying to push you into the rock. In high water, sneak far right. In
low water, enter center and run far left of the wrap rock. Weber (class IV) is
known for the big holes of whitewater that it makes. Angle to left bank in
higher water to square up on laterals. Make sure when entering the rapid to hit
with speed and keep the boat straight. Cliffside (class III+) is a big wave
train that pushes you into the side of the cliff. Rubber (class III+) has very
big waves. Keep the boat straight to laterals same as Weber and avoid the rock
on the right side. Both Rubber and Weber are biggest at 4–5 feet of water. Hancock
(class III+) can be rocky at the top; the river goes right and one has to hit
the wave train straight. At Devil's Tooth (class III+) put the boat into a
small gap to avoid flipping. After going through the gap, turn the boat
straight.
All
of these rapids change significantly with water level. See the Forest Service
guide book for complete details.
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