By Rusty Bowman
 

Hi Vince,

Here's the trip description of Loon and Big Creeks you had asked me to send. It seems that combining the two with a plane shuttle from Loon to Big is becoming increasingly popular. The reason for this is that by linking the two together, the cost isn’t much if any more than doing just one or the other. Not only do you get 74 miles of varying types of whitewater, you also get to see some incredible scenery from both water level and the air. The highlight for me was taking off from the short and bumpy Loon airstrip followed by the 20-minute flight over roadless wilderness.

The logistics are quite simple actually. Here’s what my group did. We assembled in Stanley and arranged with Stanley Air Taxi to pick us up at the bottom of Loon Creek 44 hours later (this was to be a 6-day self-support trip so, to minimize weight on Loon, we left our food for Big Creek with the pilot). From here, we picked up a shuttle driver at River Rats who rode with us to the Loon put-in then drove our vehicle back around to Cache Bar (Middle Fork Salmon take-out).

Here’s a basic description of the two creeks. See Grant Amarals guidebook, “Idaho the Whitewater State” for additional details. The following is of Loon when the Middle Fork was flowing 4.2+- feet. The first 5 - 7 miles offer not much but swift water and intermittent class 2 - 3 rapids. In the next 5 - 7 miles, the gradient steepens and the swift water is replaced with more or less continuous class 2 - 3. After this, there is a large and easily recognizable logjam with a 100-yard long class 5 rapid immediately behind. It could be easily portaged on the river right trail. The creek then proceeds of varying difficulty between class 3 and 4- that feeds into what most people refer to as the gorge (the term gorge is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s not walled in). The Bennett Creek Pack Bridge marks the beginning of this. At the flows we had, it was more or less continuous technical 3+ and 4 rapids with lots of eddies, big boulders and a few fun ledges. These rapids feed into a fairly big ledge that is backed up by a boulder on one side and a slight undercut on the other with a small line in between. It can be scouted from the left or right and could be portaged on river right with some scrambling. The consensus is the water in this 1 + mile long gorge looks bigger from the river left trail than at river level.

This Big Creek description is based on flows of around 4.4 – 4.5 feet on the Middle Fork gauge (I suspect we had more water here than what would normally be indicative of the MF gauge as the Monumental Creek drainage was hit with a big storm the day before). This creek starts as a shallow but very swift water stream (much like the Yankee fork near Polecamp Flat at high water). It's an undefined streambed with few eddies of any size (at our flow) and a fair amount of wood in the water. It's like this for about 3 - 5 miles then chokes down and steepens providing continuous class 3 - 4 rapids with additional definition and more eddies. After a few miles of this, the canyon and streambed open up a bit and there is nothing but continuous wide-open wave trains and swift water until you hit Coxey rapid. Coxey is approximately 6 miles below Monumental Creek and is a big (compared to the rest) pushy class 4 with multiple routes in a kayak. The creek continues in swift water fashion until you get approximately 5 - 7 miles from the confluence of the MF. This last section is more or less a continuous and fun class 3 - 4 rapid. It’s reminiscent of Five-Mile Rapid on the Bruneau at 1300 - 1500 cfs but perhaps with fewer breaks. Be on your toes in here as there’s a fairly large and hard to see river wide hole about half way through.

In June of 2000, there were at least 3 mandatory log portages on Loon and one or two others that could be ducked under at lower flows. All this occurred in the first 4 – 5 miles. There seemed to be wood scattered throughout the rest of the run but it wasn’t what I’d consider excessive. On Big, there were at least 4 logs that had to be portaged in the upper 8 - 10 miles. The water approaching these was swift and the eddies scarce. There was very little to no wood after this. Keep in mind that a fire swept through Big Creek later that year and the amount of and location of these logs could have changed significantly. At any rate, keep your eyes peeled for wood on both creeks and be especially careful on Big at high water.

There’s an abundance of camping on both creeks. Good spots on Loon start appearing around mile 4 at the hotsprings and continue down to the Bennett Creek Pack Bridge. There seems to be various spots on most of Big Creek with the exception of the last 5 or so miles. The canyon opens up a few miles below Coxey and offers spectacular wide-open views with superb camping.

At around 20 miles, Loon can be done in one long day but this leaves you with little or no time to explore the two deserted ranches or soak in the hotsprings. Being that my friends had a minor mishap between their fuel and food, we had to do Big Creek in two days (34 miles on Big, 20 on the MF). This wasn’t difficult at the higher flows we had but, if you want to take advantage of the areas scenery and history, I’d say 3 – 4 days would be more in tune.

Between the two creeks, Big has more whitewater, which for the most part, is fairly open. Loon on the other hand was tighter with some harder and more technical rapids. Both have excellent scenery with Loon showing more evidence of man and Big being more primitive.

As far as taking a raft or cat down either creek, Big is the more suitable of the two. The problem however would be getting all the gear from the airstrip down to the creek. The most direct approach is a ½ mile downhill hike through the forest with no trail. The portages as of 2000 wouldn’t be fun but not overly difficult as the trail rarely leaves sight of the water. Loon Creek would require a smaller craft (Big could handle a larger boat) and I’m guessing along with Vince’s assessment, to make life easier, at least 5 and maybe 6 feet on the MF gauge. At those flows, the Gorge could become pretty exciting. Also, while the log portages are pretty easy for the kayaker, portaging a raft of any kind in there would be taxing. Add to that a few tight areas in which a raft or cat may not fit and Loon could become a very arduous trip.

The rapid ratings I listed here are only my opinion and at the water levels I saw. Also keep in mind that a permit is needed to float out on the MF. There are Forest Service officials at the guard station above the put-in of Loon and as Grant Amaral says, “….they are key to kayakers who try to sneak onto the Middle Fork”. We were stopped while driving in by two serious looking pistol-packing authorities and questioned about our plans.

Rusty Bowman

gonyakn@northrim.net