So on a break from a twenty mile day of paddling on the Middle Fork of the Salmon, some of our group decided to hike up this creek a little ways. While they were gone, the most impressive thing on the whole trip happened, my girl friend actually gave me a back massage. This was then interrupted by a equally as rare and impressive of a site, 4 F-15 fighter planes roared only a few hundred feet off the canyon floor and directly overhead. Diane commented that it was obvious I made the correct topic of study in school as I was running from the back massage to get into a clearing to have a better look. Man that made my trip. So anyways, a few moments later the people who hiked up the creek returned and Brad sought volunteers to run it, so I was persuaded and we ran it. It was fun; the first stretch is the only challenging part and was class III to III+ creeking. Up river from the rock slide were some bigger rapids that appeared to need more water as there were way too many rocks in the middle of the lines. If boating the Middle Salmon this will be a nice change after the previous forty or so miles of continuous class II-. I highly recommend this run. Later that day you could also consider running Loon Creek from the hot springs down as it is class II+ looking and has easy trail access.
Mi 0:
- First (III+). Directly at the put in gravel bar is a ledge, on the right it is a slide,
we ran left of the center rock and boofed the landing. We then worked right of some
partially submerged rocks.
Second (II+). Boof over the center line.
Third (III-). There is a lateral hole, it can be avoided or you can hit the meat.
Fourth (III-). A junky rock pile has a few options, one of which was right down the center of it. Be careful not to breach.
Fifth (III). Just around the turn below the bridge is a nice slide. I ran left of center down the slide.
Take out: You have to be on the Middle Salmon to do this creek…
Put in: Hike up the up steam side (of the Middle Salmon) and cross over the bridge, continue up the creek until you see a nice gravel bar just ten feet below the trail and a rock pile from a landslide in front of you, put in on the gravel bar.
