Main Salmon Questions

1848 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Kickinback, Jul 6, 2014

Kickinback

Discussion Starter · Jun 26, 2014

I have never run this section before and my 13 year old wants to run it in a 14' cat. He is pretty good on the oars especially following me or after we scout. He has not done any big water yet. If we were doing Hells Canyon I would feel good about him doing it as I am familiar with that section.

One book I am looking at states it a Class 3 river at 20,000CFS on the Whitebird gauge. Which is close to where it is at currently.

I have added the MF and Shoup gauge and it look like 11,000CFS which a book ranks it at moderate.

It also looks like it is raining over there. Is the river going to rise much? Right now I am leaning on letting him run it. But I am also trying to get as much info as possible before I make a decision.

Thoughts?

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carvedog

· #2 · Jun 26, 2014

When? My first inclination is let him run it. Let him take a look at a couple of the bigger drops.

My other question is do you have other boats along? Safer with three or four.

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duct tape

· #3 · Jun 26, 2014

Would have to agree with the when question. We're putting on July 20. After this cool spell for the next couple of days the temp will rise up to the high 80's in Salmon and maybe into the low 90's. There's almost no lower level elevation snow left and I'm guessing the higher snow is going to go fast with the projected weather. That could mean a cfs bump in the near future but a drop by half within a month.

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Kickinback

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 26, 2014

We put in this Sunday. It's just us. Thanks

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Kickinback

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 6, 2014

Update

We put in on June 29th and took out at Carey Creek on the 4th. The river was running at 3.4' when we put in. My son is 12 will be 13 in a few months. He has taken his 14' cat down 3 rivers before doing the Main. The plan was for him to haul his buddy and a cooler. But while loading the boats up it was real easy to keep adding a little more gear to his boat. I told him it was for balance.

He was going good from the start until he hit a wave at Alder Creek Rapid where he did not carry enough momentum and ended up surfing a little then almost flipped. He would have not made it if the wave had not been bigger. So he got a pep talk. Our first scouted rapid was Black Creek Rapid he decided to run it left, his passenger decided to run it on my boat. He hit his line perfect but lost an oar and came out of his seat. Luckily he was able to get back up while grabbing the oar getting the cat back straight and ride it out. He was excited after that and ready to go. His friend stayed on his boat the rest of the way down the river.

He thought Elkhorn was the hardest rapid because it was long. I was the most nervous at Chittam Rapid. We scouted it and just after leaving the bank and pulling river left to line up a jet boat started his run up the river. Just bad timing. But the Captain just saw us in time and was able to stop his run and back down the rapid, he did a really good job. When I got through I could see he was to far left and would have to hit the hole on just left of center then keep pulling right. Which he was able to do and made it through without a problem.

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