Rapids on Main Salmon River

[Sully1987]

I understand in the last couple of years there have been some changes in a couple rapids on the Main Salmon River after the Corn Creek put in Central Idaho. Please tell me what you know about the rapid near Alder Creek and the other new rapid that is just below the old Salmon Falls rapid.

[cataraftgirl]

We did not scout either of these rapids, so my recollections of them come from one quick ride through.
Alder Creek - Large pour over rock on right, wave train with fun waves. Class IIish.
Black Creek - Big pile of rocks in river center. Most folks run the left side. Well defined tongue leading into big waves and a fairly solid drop. I ran down the tongue and got a big bounce. Others in my group ran towards the right side of the tongue and didn't get as big of a bounce. Long fun wave train. Class IIIish.
Salmon Falls - Sadly one of my favorite rapids is now covered.
There are lots of videos of Black Creek on You Tube. A few of Alder Creek.

[Sully1987]

I had some people that I am shuttling their trucks & trailers from Corn creek, that asked about the change in rapids on the main salmon. Thanks

[cataraftgirl]

The bounce on Black Creek came as a surprise. I got knocked off my seat, and my friend's dog (a seasoned vet river pooch) got launched. She swam the rapid and came through just fine.

[mtnkasper]

We just got off the main- aw said 30,000 cfs, but corn creek rangers were calling it 4.6 ft and just under 14k. Everything was read and run for us except for chittom above vinegar creek takeout.... Which we should have scouted! Holy moly was it huge. Flipped two boats and resulted in nasty...nasty swims for my buddies. Scope that one if yer level is close to ours
Have a great trip!

[cataraftgirl]

The 30,000 cfs was probably the gauge at Whitebird. That's the gauge that's on the USGS website. Getting the actual numbers for Corn Creek is a little harder. We are launching next week, and I'm hoping for flows under 3 ft. I have heard that Chittam can be nasty at higher levels. The highest I've run is 2.4 ft. and it was ok. Bummer than your trip ended with carnage. Hope your buddies are ok. You definitely go out with a bang on the Main Salmon with Chittam & Vinegar.

[Rich]

We took off June 5th and it was 54k at Riggins/Whitebird.
Best/biggest two rapids are Ruby and Lake Creek.
Glad we went to Riggins and beyond.

At that level we never even saw the big rock on bottom left at Big Mallard.

[rti50]

We floated chitton on the June 24th make sure to scout chittom above vinegar creek takeout. We flipped 1 boat and had swimmers. Bad thing is that our flipped boat was just at the take out and a guy standing at the take out didnt want to get his shoes wet so he watched the boat go by ended chasing the over tuned boat about 6 miles pasted the take out. Crappy day all i can say is that is bad boaters carma!!!!

[cataraftgirl]

Just got back from the Main Salmon. Awesome trip. Flow was 2.55 ft./9800 cfs at Corn Creek when we launched. Rapids were super fun. No flips or problems. Black Creek still had the big bounce in the middle. Alder was easy, Chittam required a little extra effort to stay right & away from the wall, but no big deal. Had one spectacular lightening & thunder storm, but otherwise it was beautiful. I'm guessing temps. were in the mid to upper 90s. We get on the river early each morning to avoid rowing in the afternoon heat & wind. A great time was had by all and we introduced a couple new river rats to the Mighty Main Salmon.

[Sully1987]

Thanks for the update on Black creek and alder rapids. I glad you had great trip! Where are you off to next? Take Care.