Mark Williams' 25th trip with Rocky & his family, Sloan, Sandi, Jessica & beau, Zach
5th trip with Rocky for Dan and Susan Kirkham
Rocky guides George,Johnny,Keri,Shane,Sheila,Dave,Vic & Jim
The Middle Fork One-way Club
Wow. Another great week full of new friends and return guests sharing the Middle Fork with their friends and family members.
A big splash for the paddle boat at Marble Creek Rapid.
Paddle boat and inflatable kayaks at the Whitie E. Cox gravel bar.
Hikers on the Loon Creek pack bridge.
Brian Reynolds was out on the water with us last week for the July 25th 2011 launch date. B.R. has worked for Rocky since 1996 and he’s never stretched the truth or fed anyone a line – not once.
Rocky guide Brian Reynolds teases a laugh and a smile out of everyone he meets.
A few weeks back we posted a video from the upper end of the Middle Fork. If you correctly identified one of the locations in the video you got your name in the hat for a drawing for a free print of the Middle Fork.
Same thing goes for the following video, correctly identify the rapids in the following video and you’ll get your name entered in the end of season drawing. This is a bit more challenging as it was shot from the sweep boat and some of the views were shot looking upstream.
Whatever you do, have fun.
A couple short clips from the paddle boat on the July 17, 2011 trip: future guides in training, horsing around and swimming downstream of Loon Creek, a time lapse sequence through Tappan Canyon, Tappan Falls and Tappan III rapids.
Thanks for a fun day in the paddle boat and for driving the paddle boat for me Sophie, Sophia, Bryce, and Cole. Life is Grand! – Birddog
The Salmon are back at Dagger Falls.
After rigging boats for the June 17th trip the Rocky crew wandered upstream on the Middle Fork trail and watched Chinook Salmon jump Dagger Falls.
The Middle Fork of the Salmon forms where Bear Valley Creek and Marsh Creek converge and these two streams provide the healthiest most pristine and intact spawning habitat for wild Chinook Salmon in the contiguous U.S. Dagger Falls is the final upward leap for salmon on their way back to their spawning grounds in Bear Valley and Marsh Creek.
A composite image of Chinook salmon jumping Dagger Falls.
Historically, 4-5 million salmon returned to Idaho every year.
Although returns (largely on life support via a complicated and expensive human system of hatcheries and other efforts) have crashed to around 3% of those historic numbers (about 150,000 fish in 2010), the superb habitat in the head waters and upper reaches of the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Bear Valley and Marsh Creeks means that for about two weeks each year, we are lucky enough to witness this incredible up river migration in it’s wild form at Daggar Falls.
We started the July 17th trip last week with a walk to the observation deck at Daggar Falls. While the fish were not as active as the night before, nearly everyone caught a glimpse of the incredible, beautiful, and iconic specie for which the Salmon River country of central Idaho is known.
The July 17, 2011 Rocky Mountain River Tour guests at the Daggar Falls observation deck.
Last week’s waxing moon provided some incredible night time scenes, especially at Marble Creek and Driftwood camps.
A pool of water in the upper end of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River reflects an early evening moon.
We’ve had an incredible day of thunderstorms today during what is our prep day in Salmon. The continental divide and Beaverhead Mountains are lit up right now with lightening from passing thunder cells and the official full moon.
A near full moon provides a rim lighting to the grass hillsides across from Driftwood Camp on Idaho's Middle Fork of the Salmon River.
We rig and head out the door again in just a few more hours. The first couple days of our next trip will likely provide some great near-full moon rises in the wee morning and waking hours – the new moon is on its way.
The downstream view of the lower canyon lit with moon light.
The upper end is a blur during spring run-off, but let’s play a little game of “Identify that Middle Fork site.”
There are 12 different identifiable Middle Fork locations (all on the upper end) in the following video.
Be the first person to correctly identify any one of the locations in the comment section below and you’ll get your name in the hat for a drawing of a Middle Fork landscape print of your choice.
We’ll hold the drawing on the last night of the last trip of the 2011 season, or if we get carried away telling stories that night we’ll do it during our week of clean-up at the end of the season.
We’ll give you the most difficult site that appears in the video:
#5 – The Dodge family mining claim.
Rocky guide Aaron Beck points out the Dodge family mining claim. Around 1978 Dave Mills actually had Dorothy Dodge (78 years old at the time) on a river trip.
Before she was a nurse in Idaho City and later Boise, Dorothy spent much of her childhood in the Middle Fork and Sulphur Cr. area. Dorothy’s father had a patent for a power wheel at Dagger Falls – a plan that obviously never panned out.
Ask Dave about the full Dorothy Dodge story next time you talk to him.
We’re rigging for our July 9th launch right now. Less than 24 hours and we’ll be back on the water. Right on.
While every Rocky Mountain River Tours trip offers off-the-water adventures, June trips almost always provide “extra” time for kicking back or bigger exploratory excursions.
A Forest Service trail sign posted to a Ponderosa Pine.
A glass-is-half-empty personality might react to the proposition of a lay over day with the attitude of “I’m on a rafting trip, why would I want to stay at the same camp site two days in a row?” At the end of a trip, however, everyone is always in agreement: lay-over days are bonus days.
Bonus lay-over days are perfect for napping, book reading, napping, plant i.d. excursions, napping, journaling, wanderings up the Middle Fork trail and, you guessed it, napping in the shade of a stately Ponderosa Pine.
Of course, with a little ambition, a pack lunch, some hiking shoes and a water bottle, layover days also provide the unique opportunity to gain some serious elevation, soak up some incredible views, and gain a completely different perspective on the Middle Fork River corridor and the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
Mead Hill boys descending into Camas Creek.
A later than normal water flow peak allowed us to work in two “bonus” days this year, one on the June 13th trip and one on the June 22nd trip.
Panoramic image from the Camas Creek overlook.
On the June 13th trip we spent two nights at Camas Creek. The night we arrived hikers headed up the grassy slope immediately behind camp. The following day folks chose to nap, read, and wander the sage brush flat behind camp or follow the Camas Creek trail up to the last major Class V rapid on Camas Creek.
Some of the more ambitous hikers almost reached Middle Fork Peak Lookout on the second day – their approximate route is marked in red in the following screen capture:
We laid over at Camas Creek on our June 13 trip. Trent Kristen and the Mead Hill boys nearly hiked to Middle Fork Peak Lookout.
On the June 22nd trip we laid-over at Funston Camp. A trail heads Out of Funston Camp, up Big Bear Creek, and on to an overlook point 1,400 feet above the river – the perfect spot for a lunch break and views looking into the Camas Creek drainage.
Ron takes five and takes in the views from the Funston overlook.
Panoramic image of the Salmon River Mountains, - Shane Moser photo.
Super ambitious hikers worked the trail even further up the ridges until they reached the snow line. Guests Cornelia, Humberto, and guides Shane Moser, Jon Green, and Frank Garrett actually trudged through the snow to the abandoned Big Bear Creek fire lookout – a 4,000 foot elevation gain!
This was a walk in the park, so to speak, for Cornelia and Humberto as they live at 9,000 feet in central Mexico, and they had more than enough energy to get off the mountain in record fashion. What a hike!
Humberto and Cornelia breathing the Rocky Mountain air at 8,600 feet at the Big Bear Creek fire lookout.
Rocky guide Jon Green (left) descends through the snow field at 8500 feet with guest Cornelia (right).
A screen capture of the approximate route from Funston Camp to the Big Bear Creek overlook (blue) with the Camas Creek hike (red) from the June 13 trip in the foreground:
Approximate route from Funtson Camp to the Big Bear Creek fire lookout.
There are more photos from the layover day and hikes here, and Shane Moser’s incredible images from the Bear Creek Lookout hike here. Life really is Grand, isn’t it?
Our final June trip of 2011 turned out to be our highest water trip of the 2011 season. The Middle Fork peaked on our fourth day at around 23,000 cfs at the confluence with the Main Salmon.
Camp time, night one, Pungo Camp, Middle Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho.
A huge 2010-2011 winter/spring snow pack had the potential to break record 1974 flows, but a cool (and nearly rain-free) June meant that water levels bobbed along between 5.5 and 7.2 feet at the Middle Fork Lodge for the entire month – fun, big, flushy white-water.
Hugs, smiles, laughter. Jim and Nancy, night one, Pungo Camp.
Literally blasting down the upper end of the Middle Fork, we camped at Pungo Camp on night one, which set us up for Shelf Camp on night two, and a most memorable lay-over at Funston for nights three and four.
Check back later this week for some video clips of Velvet Falls and Pistol Creek rapids as as well as a post about lay-overs.
Lewisia rediviva Pursh, Bitterroot
We would like to think of the June 22 trip as a “break-out” trip for Bob, Kay, and their three children Clayton, Caley, and Jordan. Clayton launched the atl-atl on his first attempt, Caley climbed all the way to snow-line with Bob and others on our lay-over day, and Jordan is now a semi-pro wildflower expert. We looked forward to seeing you all back in the next couple years – if not next year!
The Comiskey family enjoys Poverty Flat Potato Salad at Cow Camp on day three.
Rocky guide Keri Knudsen working the fire and coals for the last night's desert - Rubber Rapid Rhubarb pie.
Rocky guide Keri Knudsen works the fire (above) and an Idaho evening reflects in high water remnants (below) at Survey Camp.
High water reflections, Survey Camp.
Thanks to everyone for a most memorable June 22, 2011 Middle Fork trip, and happy birthday to Rocky guide Shane Moser who turned 29 on the last night of our trip – just like the river, it’s all down hill from here, Shane.
The June 22 Rocky Mtn. River Tour guide line-up. Left to Right: Collin Ponzo, Todd Jackson, Frank Garrett, Shane Moser, Keri Knudsen, and Jon Green.
