We had a group from Scotland fly 24 hours to Boise and meet us on May 16 for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Unfortunately, the road still had 10 ft of snow on it and the weather was too bad for flying into Indian Creek. So we made the call to do the Main Salmon as the road is open and we do not depend on flying into the river.
The Main Salmon River was flowing at 60,000 cfs (Cubic Feet/second) when we put-in and went down considerably as we had colder temperatures.
We met with Greg and Sue Metz at Yellow Pine Bar, Doug and Phyllis Tims at Campbell’s Ferry and with Barbara and Heinz at 5 Mile Bar. The flks form SCotland felt refreshed in seeing folks live in simplicity and off the grid and said they were the happiest people they had ever met. Made them wonder why they get so busy all the time and forget to slow down and create some space for oneself.
We ran the new rapid at Black Crek which was formed on April 1 and it was a straight forward wave train with big 10-12 ft. standing waves, super fun. We renamed it Waldo Rapid for one of the guys in the group from Scotland who’s nickname is Waldo.
The group was initially a little disappointed as they had come to run the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, but by the end they had more than enough adventure and lots of fun around the campfire. One game they loved was “name that tune” and you had to name the artist singing it and then sing the song for an extra point. We also had the Main Salmon Olympics with knot tieing, throw bag tossing and relay match. Fun was had by all and it ended with a dead even match.
We are packing today for the Canoe and Kayak Magazine trip June 2-5 on the Middle Fork. We are planning on flying in as there is still lots of snow on the road. Should be another fantastic trip, the weather forecast looks good for the week so we could get some of the snow to melt finally. The Middle Fork snowpack is 195% of normal. Could get huge water while we are down there.
Best you you and yours,
Ellsworth
Find us on Facebook
