Salt River Snow Pack 200+%

[luke c]

We have a permit for April 9th if the snow pack stays like it is now what might the flow be like then? April 9th is near the end of the season for the Salt right?

[wildh2onriver]

Right. This river is VERY hard to predict. It can come down in a week or less....or, it could be epic in April--we'll see. Much better chance this year that you'll have some water.

[scooby450]

Our permit is for April 11(?), hoping the water holds. Typically it is pretty thin by then. If we get our regular storms, late Feb. - early March, we could have a great year! I am optimistic, which iis not the norm for this river.

[wildh2onriver]

Or, it could rain in one of these upcoming storms and send it all down at once. This happens a lot--it being Arizona...

All I know is--I'd hate to get caught above Quartzite if the snow came down too fast, not sure at what point Quartzite washes out, but Corckscrew would have one hell of a lateral that you would need to break coming out of a very powerful eddy. I'd bet that several of the rapids would connect from the Maze down?

The highest I've ran the Salt was about 10k, very fun level....in my 18' cat. One year (94?) the river came up from 3k to 29k overnight, but we were below Corkscrew. Took about 2 hours to float out.

Originally Posted by scooby450

Our permit is for April 11(?), hoping the water holds. Typically it is pretty thin by then. If we get our regular storms, late Feb. - early March, we could have a great year! I am optimistic, which iis not the norm for this river.

[Mut]

We floated it in 94 when it went from 3k to 25k+. We arrived the night before. It rained all night. The next morning the water had risen and was rising fast. We sent our shuttle to the takeout while the rest of us readied the raft and kayaks. While we were talking to the ranger he pointed over our shoulders and asked "is that yours". He was pointing to 2 kayaks, a cooler, and a kitchen box. They were all circulating in a huge eddy on river right just below the put in. The water was coming up so fast that it took our gear while we were talking to the ranger. We had left the gear high and dry, completely out of the water. It was less than 10 minutes and our gear was in the drink. I jumped in another kayak and got out to the raft. I was able to get everything back with one exception. Our cooler had been full of beer and was not strapped shut. The cooler tipped over and spilled all of our beer out. Some was retrieved as it circulated in the eddy.

When the shuttle came back most of the group was over the rain and over the high water. A few of us put on anyway and had a great day. I was a newer kayaker then but I remember some HUGE holes. All of them had easy lines around them, but if you went into one you were going to get thumped.

-Mut

[wildh2onriver]

Sounds like the same high water event that we were lucky to have already made it through the rapids--and that your group was running day trips? I remember it raining non-stop at Cherry Creek camp all evening and most of the night. I got up to adjust the bow lines twice that night, once to pull them in and the other to let them out.

Originally Posted by Mut

We floated it in 94 when it went from 3k to 25k+. We arrived the night before. It rained all night. The next morning the water had risen and was rising fast. We sent our shuttle to the takeout while the rest of us readied the raft and kayaks. While we were talking to the ranger he pointed over our shoulders and asked "is that yours". He was pointing to 2 kayaks, a cooler, and a kitchen box. They were all circulating in a huge eddy on river right just below the put in. The water was coming up so fast that it took our gear while we were talking to the ranger. We had left the gear high and dry, completely out of the water. It was less than 10 minutes and our gear was in the drink. I jumped in another kayak and got out to the raft. I was able to get everything back with one exception. Our cooler had been full of beer and was not strapped shut. The cooler tipped over and spilled all of our beer out. Some was retrieved as it circulated in the eddy.

When the shuttle came back most of the group was over the rain and over the high water. A few of us put on anyway and had a great day. I was a newer kayaker then but I remember some HUGE holes. All of them had easy lines around them, but if you went into one you were going to get thumped.

-Mut