Thanks Logan! I think there was 75 coming out of the dam but with some minor pickup from tribs it was around 120 in the actual "Upper Run". That was a fun day of ELF'ng....
I've run the Taylor at [all on
[email protected]] 80 cfs, 120 cfs, and 160ish cfs.
My friend Jess and I went up with about 50 on the dam and about 80 at Almont, and I would skip out some of the sections and just run from Initiation to about Ranger Station and call it good at that flow. The rapids are surprisingly good and still channelized but the in between is rough, and some of the wider rapids in the lower 2/3rds will be too manky. We had a driver who was kind enough to shuttle us around some longer flats and that allowed us to run
just the rapids.
At 120 at Alont you can actually boat all the way, but it still is somewhat manky. Logan, did we go all the way through from Initiation to S Bank? I can't remember and don't have my book in front of me. I feel like we did......Still, that being said, it's a whole lot of fun with lots of channels and micro boofs. There are some unfriendly rocks here and there but on the whole you will be surprised with it. I'm pretty sure the photo above was at this flow. In the section just below Ranger Station there is a rapid with a nice juicy hole (I always forget it's name) and at these flows that hole becomes a nice vertical drop. There are other goodies like that scattered through the run.
And finally Logan and myself (and I think some others?) did it one day with 120 on the dam but we had about 160 at Almont, and it was a hoot. We ran everything from Initiation down, and apart from a random rock here and there it was actually quite good. I don't think i'd want to take anything other than a hardshell or a wee little ducky down it but in those boats it is a blast. I would go back and do it at this flow just about any time.
And then 200 is the widely accepted cutoff for single boats. Most sane (or non diehard or non ELF) boaters will wait for this. Larger boats need a minimum of 250, although closer to 300 is much more advisable. Logan, any ELF thoughts you want to add?