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Main salmon rain/rising beta

4K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  t-clark 
#1 ·
Anyone have any idea how much the main salmon will swell with 1.5-2 inches of rain over the next 48 hours (snow above 7,000ft). We launch Tuesday morning and I’m just looking to get a prediction on what she’ll be doing. It’s currently hovering around 4ft and 12,000cfs at the ramp.

Thanks in advance.
 
#5 ·
Not a hydrologist in any way but do watch that river fairly carefully and drive 95 most weeks. I would suspect snow up high will spread the flush out so not as steep a change as if it was coming in warmer and causing rapid snow melt higher up. It's a big drainage and isn't as reactive as something like the Selway which can flush spectacularly (got flushed back in '93 and still haven't recovered!). I'd be surprised if it were to spike as high as that prediction.
If you have younger kids it might be a bit spicy at 5ft depending on everyone's comfort level, also runs fast and cold so not a good place for swim team. I'm a wuss, my personal cut off is around 6ft.
 
#6 ·
We're launching 7/3 on the Middle Fork so have been watching these forecasts https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/rfc/. It must have moved further north as yesterday it was showing over 5ft and today max is 3.8ft forecasted for the MF.

Missoula area looks to be actually having and forecasted spiking and lochsa/selway seems to be jumping as well. Also, they had a weather warning for Stanley yesterday thru Tuesday of the rain/snow and now they don't.

These forecasts can be helpful to give you a direction, but usually are not real accurate. I like the main at 4-6ft, should be super fun rapids.
 
#8 ·
Flow at Corn Creek - take the Main Salmon flow at Shoup, plus the flow of the Middle Fork as it enters the main, add maybe a couple hundred more CFS for a few additional creeks and that's roughly the flow at Corn Creek.

Example:

River App shows
MFS at mouth flow being 5,210 right now
Main near Shoup shows 5,200 right now
+ a few hundred additional CFS for side creeks between Middle mouth and Corn and you're 10,500 - 11,000 CFS at Corn.
 
#10 ·
I just got off the Main Salmon on 6/22. It rained a lot at the beginning of our trip, we put-in above Corn Creek at Spring Creek and did a layover at Lantz on 6/17 while it rained all night and into the morning, I am not sure how much rain fell as it seemed to rain the most in the Middle Fork drainage, but the snow line on the Main was about at about 5,000 feet. The river below Corn Creek and above the South Fork rose from about 12K to over 16K by 6/19. After the South Fork comes in the water level came up significantly.

The higher flows washed out a lot of the rapids making them simpler, but not necessarily easier, to run. If you have not run the Main at high levels before it is a good idea to scout Black Creek, Elkhorn, and Chittam at a minimum.
 
#12 ·
Reminds me of a high water run I did years ago. I was not expecting to to see Elkhorn so washed out and no rocks, no holes, just four or five huge rolling waves, some of the biggest of the trip.

Disclaimer: That description above was a pre-season medium high water run, and will NOT apply to your upcoming trip this month. Have fun!

The higher flows washed out a lot of the rapids making them simpler, but not necessarily easier, to run. If you have not run the Main at high levels before it is a good idea to scout Black Creek, Elkhorn, and Chittam at a minimum.
 
#11 ·
You may find this .gov website useful.......
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/...d_date=&cb_00060=on&site_no=13307000,13317000


I've tailored it for Shoup and Whitebird, but you can 'dink' around with dates to look back etc.

...........Ran the main this year 6/6 thru 13/6 - Spring Creek to Shorts Bar.
Rained first 3 days and poured on the 13th.
River was waaay down from usual flows for early June :(
Selling my trusty Cougar setup if anyone's interested. Fun cat and set up for sleeping on-board. In classifieds.
 
#14 ·
Well, that was a lot of rain.

Had a 6/17 MF launch and it rained for dang near 24 hours. Our entire drive from Salmon to Boundary, the rockfall (not a singular landslide, but dozens of bread box sized boulders on the road between Challis and Stanley) was awful.

Plus rain when rigging. Fortunately it let up a bit and the rest of the trip was merely overcast. I heard it was only 3.7' at MF Lodge on 6/17 when we launched.



Laid over in Corn Creek 6/23-6/26 while it was nice...then it started raining again on 6/28 and didn't stop for 3 days. My wife's first Main trip and she wondered why I get so excited about bringing sunscreen. fortunately it was nice while we rigged and derigged. Nothing on the Main was awful big; Black Creek rock in the middle was completely covered by the green tongue. Elkhorn was a read and run. Chittam yesterday was burly--just pull back hard to the right, lots of energy going into that wall.
 
#15 ·
We launched on the MFS on 6/19, with the flows around 4.1'. That was one of the best flows i've ran it at. Rubber was raging pretty good at that time! We also launched for the Main on 6/26. Your group was right behind us at Carey take out, I recognize your Dory from your other post. You guys helped us load up that older Avon! How did the Dory handle through Chittam?
 
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