Paddling the Main Salmon River

I was fortunate enough to draw a Main Salmon River permit for early September.  The group was Jim and Jake in a raft, Debbie and I in solo canoes, and John and Ann in a tandem canoe.

On Sunday, Debbie and I drove to Alpine WY,  and camped near Idaho. A friendly family invited us to join them at their campfire, we declined.

Monday. The drive north to salmon, on highway 28, was through emptiness and thick smoke.   In Salmon ID, we happened to see Jake and Jim, who were being driven by Doug from White Otter outfitter. We went to the ranger station and picked up our permit and lecture. We were able to drive to Cache creek, launch, and camp on the beach. (The usual launch site was closed for construction).  Anne and John arrived while we were launching. All in all things had gone well, it is always good to see the whole team in one place. The smoke was bad; the moon was orange. We had dinner on the beach.

Tuesday was launch day.  We shuttled my car to Ebenezer. I got something stuck in my throat. It was painful and kept me from eating or drinking. I thought it would clear up, but it did not. We were making plans to evacuate me by jet boat. Luckily, it cleared up while I was asleep. Kitchen rapid was straightforward, with big waves that filled up boats. The smoke continued. We camped at Phantom.

Jim and Jake

On Wednesday we got a relaxed 10:30 start. We scouted several rapids. Devil's tooth rapid looked bad, but there was a straightforward line. We saw two bald eagles in one tree, and across the river, an immature bald.   The smoke was worse; visibility not much more than 100 yds. We camped at big squaw camp.  Jim took many excellent bird photos on the trip, I selected this one.

On Thursday we scouted Black Creek, a new rapid.

Scouting Black Creek

I got flipped over so fast I do not know what happened. We stopped at the hot spring pool, ideal temp. There we chatted with folks from Encampment WY. Jim and Jake kept catching fish. We camped at Bargaman creek. The smoke continued, and some ash fell. A jet boat pilot stopped to talk to us, and confirmed the story that we had heard about Thumbs, as a mountain man living in the wild.

Friday was a big day, several major rapids, no swims. Rapids included Bailey, Five Mile, Split Rock, Big Mallard, and Elkhorn. The smoke let up some. We camped at Ruff creek, the rain started after we stopped. Later we saw blue sky; we applauded.

John and Ann

Richard

Debbie

Sheep near Buckhorn Bills

Saturday we ran some easy rapids, and stopped at Buckhorn Bills, now a kind of museum to the mountain man. We saw his fortress, and some of his handmade equipment. We also bought ice cream and root beer floats. This was the largest concentration of rafts we had seen on the river. We proceeded to the South Salmon, where Jake and Jim stopped to fish. The rest of us proceeded to Red Harlan camp, where we enjoyed a warm sun, something we have not seen in this trip, due to intense smoke.

Later in the trip, Jake used his stand up paddle board, and did very well. 

















Sunday we were on the river before 10. We had a pleasant stop at Polly Bemus ranch for lunch. This was the sunniest day of the trip, and was actually hot. Strong headwinds started about 2, so we stopped early, and camped on a sandbar across from California creek.

Monday we had a short day to the Vinegar Creek takeout.   Our shuttled cars were there, as was Doug from White Otter, to haul Jim, Jake, their raft, and their gear, back to their car.   Debbie and I had a late lunch with John and Anne in Riggins ID, and then we headed south.    We ended up at the Super 8 in Burley Idaho, arriving at 10 PM.   We drove that late because we still had a long way to go.

Tuesday was a hard driving day, 660 miles from Burley to Boulder.  We traded off driving.  I dropped Deb off in Loveland.    I was really beat by the time I got home.