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Low Flow Middle Fork Salmon

5K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  carvedog 
#1 ·
I have a 3-September Permit on the Middle Fork.

I have run the Middle Fork before a few times, but never at flows as low as I expect. Any tips for low flow floats on MFS ?
 
#2 ·
There are several old threads on this with great and detailed info.

Summary:

pack light, real light, lighter the better
leave the heavy raft (car) camping crap at home
don't be afraid to spend long days on the water
don't skip launching from the top
keep the tubes soft the first 30 miles, REALLY soft
expect lower miles per day / longer days than normal to Indian - you'll get hung up now and again
enjoy the technical challenge of low water navigation
bring some extra oar blades

enjoy the trip!
 
#8 ·
If you got something, share it up. That is how a thread becomes useful.

To the OP: What type of craft are you in? Lower pressure in the tubes was mentioned by Curtis. And that won't change with what you are running. Cats do not excel when it gets really low it seems.

I will add that whenever you get stuck try to imagine a 20 foot sweep boat going through. They do and are often close to eight feet wide too.

You should have somewhere around 600 cfs depending a bit on what happens with the weather. I ran it at about 425 cfs in my 17 foot boat. One boat float, two of us and the dog. No resupply at Indian.
That was a challenge. But it made every other trip with more water (all of them) look better.

Instead of trying to miss all of the rocks, you need to pick which ones to run over. As soft as I run my floor I can take a rock that is out of the water a couple of inches down the middle or at least just inside the tubes without hardly slowing down.

Often you will only have water deep enough to row in for a couple of strokes or less. The timing of those strokes become pretty critical. And lots of oar shipping going on during the lower flows.

Getting you and your passenger ( if you have one) to the furthest downstream point of you boat when stuck is helpful. So in bouncing with that. Add in an oar pry or two....and off you go. Hopefully. If you do end up in that almost inevitable position of being out of the boat and pulling, work together if there are two of you. Count it out, so every pull is together. I have seen decent boaters be absolutely destroyed physically by Trail Flat (mile 7.7). To the point of needing to stop for the day. Good boaters, just never gotten worked in low flow.

Make every pull and push and oar stroke count. Pull at the same time. Rest at the same time.

Team work makes the dream.....
 
#6 ·
If this is feasible, leave the rafts at home and put each person in a ducky, packraft, or kayak and pack as though you were backpacking. That will make low flow a total non-issue. Planning on 7 or 8 days will make the trip a lot more relaxing regardless of your craft.
 
#9 ·
momentum is your friend, especially in the many shallows.. pick up as much speed as you can.. I often see people trying to back row and miss rocks when contact is inevitable. This just helps you park on said rock. So go for ramming speed and hit the less offensive rock. dont dodge the rock that will be a minor inconvenience just to get stuck on one that might be a problem.
 
#10 ·
When it comes to low water MFS trips the “pain” meter definitely depends on the level of experience on the lead boat and the other members of the trip. If no one is really familiar with the lines that is a really painful trip. If one or two know the lines that is still pretty tough since other group members get off line. But if the better part of the group is really familiar with the lines things seem to go pretty well.

Just curious what others think - but it also seems like there is more floor damage (floor pinned/cut between box/cooler and rock) when floors are run too low. I keep my tubes soft but the floor fairly firm. I have seen people add blocks to lift boxes higher on frame...
 
#11 ·
Carvedog is right. On both low water MFS and Selway trips (Selway was more technical) I was on the oars nearly every second from put in to take out. There’s almost no resting. I was physically tired, sore arms and back, after 5-6 days and don’t recall taking a single hard pull or push, just thousands of very short shallow ones. Never felt nearly as tired on any desert multi day trip.

Take extra blades and oars. Didn’t break one but saw plenty others broken in other groups.

My cat had the advantage of straddling rocks but make sure to know height of frame and choose wisely. Rafts seemed to float over many rocks my tubes dragged on.

Have a plan C and D for each run as often the boats in front of you block your first choices, no matter how hard you try to maintain spacing.
 
#12 ·
We just got off the MF. Gage was 1.75 at launch. I was in the lightly loaded Aire 156R with one passenger. We had one other large boat (16 ft Hyside) and three 14 footers. I am very much a novice rower; the first day more than doubled my cumulative rowing experience.

It was hard, but it was fun. I would definitely do it again. As others have said, pack light, run your boat soft (really soft), and just be prepared for some getting hung up. Unless you think you can get on the water early the first day, I would not plan to go too far. At the end of day 1 I was exhausted. Each day got easier after that.

If you have a choice, a smaller boat is probably better, but the two least experienced rowers on our trip had the biggest boats and we did fine. We definitely got stuck more; not clear how much was due to the boat and how much the rower.

One final thing: we found it very effective to have a trailing boat bump a stuck boat off the obstruction. So, put one of your best boaters last, and if you are stuck point to the spot on your boat where a bump will be most helpful. Often a good bump would free a very stuck boat.
 
#14 ·
Lots of good beta in this thread, wish I wore gloves...We put in on August 11th at around 1.95. It was a great trip, one thing I'll add as an option, we flew coolers, beer, extra groover tank, kitchen counter, etc. to Indian creek and picked up those items at the end of our second day, floated with soft coolers with enough items for the first two days. Logistics was pretty easy with River Shuttles bringing gear to Middle Fork Aviation to fly in, all went very smoothly but we marked all items to fly in and left detailed instructions, there was a mix up apparently the week before..Anyway, if I were to hopefully get the opportunity to to go again below 2 feet I'll be advocating to fly gear again, it was pretty reasonable when you share the cost. Have a great time, can't wait to get back...
 
#15 ·
Lots of good beta in this thread, wish I wore gloves...
This is similar to what I try to wear whenever rigging and particularly when handling straps, to save my hands. I also row in them. Cheap enough if I blow a pair out or they end up in the bilge, it doesn't even faze me. I will bring five or six pair of these on a trip. It helps.

https://www.galeton.com/otterback-t...Ob9K_G6B46pHoj7s7ye2VDcNsZoaqN64aAmtDEALw_wcB

For lots of pulling on the boat I wear some thin bicycle type gloves that have a bit of padding in the palms.
 
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