[pearen]

I wasn’t really planning to share my Middle Fork Salmon experience on the buzz, but this thread is getting juicy and I’m in the mood.

Our party launched on 5/19 and took off on 5/22, perfect to hit this year’s peak of 7.3 ft. We were 5 people in 2 playboats, 2 14’ cats, and a 14’ round boat. I would describe us overall as being less experienced, but competent boaters, safety minded and adventurous. We had zero carnage other than the story below and we loved every second of the trip. We were good kids and said our prayers before bed every night, “Please river, could I not swim in you tomorrow! Oh, and by the way do you mind coming up another foot overnight!”

Before I tell my story I also want to say that the Middle Fork the week before Memorial Day was the biggest junk show I have ever seen! We encountered 10 other parties in 4 days and only two of those groups were solid. Of the competent parties one consisted of three well seasoned catboaters from Boise and the other was a dude in a Dagger Green Boat running the whole thing solo in a day. On the river I was under the impression that the brothers Burger were also competent, but recent buzz posts have proven otherwise. We saw two parties on Marsh that we heard later had epiced. Three parties at dagger, two of whom were waiting for the snow on the road to clear so they could escape, the other party had lost a raft on Marsh, but did fine for the rest of the trip. We also saw two scared shitless parties at Loon that were flying out and one party from Bellingham, WA that had the biggest fucktard asshole I have ever met on a river. In my opinion, we should have been one of the least experienced parties, not one of the most experienced. The overall level of competence was minimal for a 100 mile wilderness Class IV run at peak flows and lots of folks got their shit handed to them. Why anyone would go in there if they are going to spend the whole time scared shitless of the river rising another inch is beyond me?

I also got taught a lesson by the Middle Fork:

Beatdown Lesson #37 - Always look upstream before pulling out of an eddy.

The story of my beatdown- Dagger Falls @ 7’:

We arrived at Dagger Falls to find the bank lined by freaked out gapers with whistles and throwbags waving at like crazy fools to eddy out. My first reaction was, ‘Shit, someone died! Hopefully they just have ropes in the river or there is wood in the falls.’ The Dagger scout is pretty hard to miss. Bridge over river. Check. Giant eddy with stairs leading to it. Check. Thundering Class V clearly audible around the corner. Check. Why people were offering to throw me bags as I made the easy pull into the eddy is beyond me. Anyway, I looked at the first competent seeming person and asked what was wrong and if our assistance was needed. “Nothing is wrong we just wanted to make sure you guys knew this is the portage.” Portage?

I had a quick look at the falls to make sure it was wood free and to get my bearings. The two other oarsmen in our group decided they didn’t feel up to it. The three extremely competent Boise catboaters and I agreed to run it Blue Angel style for safety and off we went. Four cats four clean lines. The three Boise cats agreed to set safety for me while I ran our round boat through and our two kayaks joined me in running the falls. Raft and two kayaks, three more clean lines. At this point our group has just one more cat at the top of the falls and the Boise crew graciously agreed to set safety for me while I ran the final cat through the falls.

I jogged back to the top of the falls and took a breather for a second to get my game face on for round three then hopped in my buddy’s cat and pulled out of the eddy. I was in the swirly room above the falls getting boiled and swirled around similarly to my previous two runs when all of a sudden I experienced what can only be described as whiplash. It took a split second to realize that something totally unexpected was going on and I turned around to see the two foot diameter butt end of a 60’ pine tree between my tubes and pushing on my cat frame. At this instant the thing was lined up perfectly behind me and pushing me off line and sideways into a part of Dagger falls I had no interest in investigating. My first instinct was to get ahead of the thing so I started pushing on the oars like a crazy fool, but I quickly realized the insanity of dropping into Dagger Falls with a tree chasing me. My second instinct was, ‘Get me the fuck out of here before I die.’ I pushed harder than I ever have for the fish ladder on river left and abandoned ship in one magnificent leap. I mantled up onto the concrete of the fish ladder and turned around just in time to see the log mash by buddy’s cat into the boulder that forms the lip of the falls. The log then released and chundered on through the falls followed closely by another huge tree trunk and a full tree with attached limbs and greenery.

All three trees disappeared around the corner and I turned my attention back to by buddy’s pinned cat. His boat was pinned, bow upstream, right at the lip of the falls with the only damage being a mangled oarlock and a broken oar shaft. Realizing that I would only be rowing with one oar over the falls backward I hopped back in the cat and bounced it a couple of times so it would release. I promptly flipped in the hole at the bottom of the falls and climbed into the cockpit of the upside down cat. My safety chased and we herded the cat into the eddy at Boundary Cr. We reflipped, replaced the oar and oarlock and proceeded to have the best MFS trip ever.

All told, I feel incredibly fortunate to have escaped the nightmare situation of being pushed around by wood above a big Class V with only a broken oar and oarlock. This could have turned out very badly! I learned this lesson and learned it well, I will always look upstream before pulling out of an eddy!