[mikes]

Looking to get on the Lochsa this spring/summer. Can not get there until middle to late june. Looking for some insight on flows from folks that boat it frequently. The hydrographs that I have found seem to have flows on average around 4K that time of yr?

1.Is this accurate?
2.What foot gauge is that at lowel?
3.How late in the season do people run this?

We will be cats and kayaks. Thanks for the help.

Peace
Mike.

 

[MT4Runner]

1. Yes, that's accurate. I typically hit the Lochsa 2-3 weekends in June.

Actual flows really depend on late season snows or warm rains either building a bit of snowpack in April or May rains really flushing everything out.


2. No idea. People on the river reference the gauge on the bridge, and online it refers to a different staff gauge, so I tend to talk in CFS. 1st weekend in June you can see 10-14,000cfs; 2nd weekend will be 6-11,000cfs. 3rd weekend is almost always 4-6,000cfs.


3. It turns into a ghost town after the 3rd weekend.


It's a small watershed and drops off quickly.
It's humorous that people will run the Lochsa in April and early May at 4k, but avoid it in late June at 4k (as other stuff is running).

It's still fun at 2,500. Slower and slightly technical, but fun (so 4th of July is runnable). The Upper is too bony at that point.

Not sure where you're driving from, but it's worth it. Even more worth it if you can come June 14-16 as opposed to the weekend of the 22nd or 2th.

 

[mikes]

Thanks

MT4Runner, that's great! Just what I was looking for. Appreciate the help. One more question for you. What do you consider a typical low flow (minimum) for the upper?

Thanks again
Mike.

 

[MT4Runner]

Maybe 8,000?

Don't take that as gospel.
It may be runnable, it just doesn't seem to get much traffic below that flow.

I'm not a regular, but I have run it 50 times in 12 years...of those, probably only 8 or 9 Upper runs.

 

[montuckyhuck]

3,000 is kind of my cutoff for having fun in a cat boat. I've kayaked it down to 1,500 for the novelty of getting it on holloween. I live 1.5 hours from the put in and will drive over early season for 3k but I wouldn't drive any great distance under 5-6k. Horse tail becomes the hardest rapid at most low flows.

 

[Pine]

It really depends on weather. One year I ran it the 3rd weekend in June at 8' on the Lowell Bridge, which is around 18K cfs. Other years its kind of over by then. IMO flows over 3,500 are still fun, but the big water Lochsa experience starts at around 5 or 6 feet at Lowell. Here is a bridge to cfs conversion chart:

https://www.northidahorivers.com/Lochsa_Gage_Conversion.jpg

Here is a write up from my website that explains gauges:

https://www.northidahorivers.com/Lochsa_Lower.htm

 

[MT4Runner]

2. No idea. People on the river reference the gauge on the bridge, and online it refers to a different staff gauge, so I tend to talk in CFS. 1st weekend in June you can see 10-14,000cfs; 2nd weekend will be 6-11,000cfs. 3rd weekend is almost always 4-6,000cfs.

It was 7,000cfs on Saturday 6/8 and 6,000cfs on Sunday 6/9. Dropping LOW this week.


Ran the Upper on Sat and it was just a little sticky, but lots of time to make moves and not pushy.

I got lucky and ran down the middle of Onno's and went left of the bottom hole in Triple Hole. God loves fools, children, and dogs....and I'm not a child or dog!

3. It turns into a ghost town after the 3rd weekend.

It was pretty much a ghost town yesterday, but forecast was big rain Saturday which did happen.

 

[roundboater]

Conversion guage

Yer welcome. This is a conversion from the USGS to the bridge at Lowell

 

[roundboater]

Here’s the photo

Here’s the photo

 

[mikes]

Thanks for the help!

Thank you ya'll for the posts and updates. It is much appreciated. Based on the info and the forecast we are planning on heading up this weekend. IF if holds, it looks to be in the 5-6K range. If any of you are in the area we have an older maravia payette cat and couple of kayaks. Hope to syotr!

peace mike

 

[WyBackCountry]

Could anyone chime in with opinions on running it in a packraft anytime between June 28th - July 8th? Flows will apparently be low, but possibly optimal for fun in a packraft?

 

[MT4Runner]

Thank you ya'll for the posts and updates. It is much appreciated. Based on the info and the forecast we are planning on heading up this weekend. IF if holds, it looks to be in the 5-6K range. If any of you are in the area we have an older maravia payette cat and couple of kayaks. Hope to syotr!

I'm in C20 with a crew with 3-4 round boats and a bunch of kids.
Stop by! Shawn


You're welcome to run with us, or it's pretty much read and run at this flow. Just about everything is start middle right and move left.



The only exceptions that aren't immediately obvious:
Morning Glory is a blind left hand corner at about mi 118. Stay left.
House is just after Morning Glory (roughly 117) and the big line is on the left

Split Creek is right before the pack bridge at 111. You kind of start middle left and finish middle right.

Could anyone chime in with opinions on running it in a packraft anytime between June 28th - July 8th? Flows will apparently be low, but possibly optimal for fun in a packraft?

I'd think those flows and weather will be ideal in a packraft. Should be very Class III+. If you like bouldery/technical, the Upper from 139 down to 123 (or stop at Ninemile at about 129.5) might be fun in a packraft.

 

[WyBackCountry]

I'd think those flows and weather will be ideal in a packraft. Should be very Class III+. If you like bouldery/technical, the Upper from 139 down to 123 (or stop at Ninemile at about 129.5) might be fun in a packraft.

Thanks for info bud!

 

[MT4Runner]

We went again this past weekend, had really fun flows. Had a couple of flips and dumptrucks (lochsa newbies) even at these flows. Level is going down but still moving around a bit:

https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?LOCI1