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in memory of Vince Thompson
Vince's Idaho Whitewater Page
Vince Thompson
in Raspberry Rapid on the South Fork of the Boise
Welcome to The Idaho Whitewater Page
See all of the spotlight photos from the past 6 years on the
Spotlight
Photo Pages. These pages take a little time to down load but the photo's
are worth it!
September 2:
SEARCH AND RESCUE LOOKING FOR TWO MEN POSSIBLY MISSING IN THE SALMON
RIVER
05/27/2003 Custer County Search and Rescue are looking for two
men who are possibly missing in the Salmon River. Approximately one o'clock
Sunday, a boat floating the Salmon River carrying several people, struck
a rock near Marsh Creek and 27 year old Von Jones of Arizona, fell overboard.
Search and Rescue have been searching the area since Sunday when they received
a call that 47 year old Matthew Bartley of Montana, had also been thrown
from the back of a raft on Sunday.
Idaho Fish and game, U.S. Forest Service and the Idaho National Guard
are working with a plane and a helicopter to search for the two men.
Go to the 2003 Trip Reports page for
2 trip reports from my group that was on Marsh Creek that day & an
Article from the Missoulian
Drowning on the Main Salmon
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Police recover body of drowned BYU professor
The Associated Press on Sunday, August 17
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RED RIVER, Idaho -- Idaho County Sheriff's deputies had to call in
help from a Forest Service helicopter to recover the body of a Utah
college professor who drowned in the Salmon River.
Michael Perkins, 45, of Provo drowned Thursday in a kayaking accident
while on a chartered float trip with his family.
The body was found lodged between rocks and a 40-foot-long log,
according to Sheriff's department Detective Vince Frazier.
Perkins was a former reporter for the Deseret News and Albuquerque
Journal and served as the chairman of BYU's communications department.
He had also held teaching positions at the University of New Mexico,
Drake University in Iowa and had been recently named as head of
the
media law division of the Association for Education in Journalism
and
Mass Communications.
Deputies received the report of Perkins' drowning late Thursday but
the area's rugged terrain made it impossible to begin retrieval
efforts until Friday morning.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B5.
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8-22-03 Just got off the Main Salmon ... a few notes.
The gentleman who lost his life on Bailey ... in fact may have saved
another.
In their failed original attempts to retrieve him...the outfitter
left a
rope suspended from the lodged log, to a rock on shore. And
so the day after
...when a woman also capsized in her kayak left of the same log
(inflatable), a
member of her group was able to use the existing suspended rope
for quick
access to climb out on the log where she appeared to be holding
on desperately. He
was able to keep her from going under the log(lots of pour over
there) by
holding on to her until they could get a rope to her to pull her
ashore. It was
clearly a close call.
Wow... we were all cheering their success on the scout rock above
the rapid.
What a blessing... and kudos to her fellow team of boaters who saved
her.
What timing!
Boise_eyes
Creature Craft comes to Idaho!
Check out the new creature craft as it goes down the North Fork Payette
and "Big Falls on the Canyon Run of the South Fork Payette:
http://www.creaturecraft.com
.
Cabarton takeout closed
6-8-03 The traditional takeout for the Carbarton run was closed Friday
with a stout barbed wire fence. A sign there directs you to "The Last Chance
Takeout" in the field just downstream from Cougar Mountain Lodge. $5.00
per car to park. Correction...make that "The Last Takeout". Kayakers are
still taking out upstream of the old takeout and climbing the steep embankment.
Idaho Whitewater License Plate- Signed into law!
The governor signed the bill authorizing the Idaho Whitewater Rafting
Plate. I wanted to thank you for your support. It made a difference.
The plates will go on sell January 1, 2004.
Current
Snowpack conditions
Idaho Whitewater Association April 2003 Newsletter
Check out the latest news from the IWA in the April
2003 edition of "On The Eddy Line"
Check out past editions of On The Eddy LineJoin
IWA!! download the IWA_application.doc
from here and send it in!
Idaho Whitewater Discussion Group tops 665 members!
The new Idaho
Whitewater Discussion Group topped 665 members . Sign up today for
an exciting new discussion group for Idaho Whitewater enthusiasts.
Your photos gets new page
If you have any classic carnage of other great river photo's you want
to share send them in and I'll do my best to get them on the page as time
allows. Please send photo's in .JPG or .GIF formats only. (no .bmp's as
they tend to be huge files). I'll post a link on that page for some software
to convert them to .jpg. Also include a brief description of the photo
and who took the picture so I can cut and paste it on the page.
Go to the Your Photo Page.
Planning tools for your river trip!
As you're planning ahead for the big trip you will want to use some
of the other resources on this page. Check out the Flows,
Weather and other local conditions page for up to date info. Then you'll
need to cruise to The Shuttle page to coordinate
your return and The River Maps page to help get
you down the river. You can also find some links to good reading about
Idaho rivers on The Books & Video page.
-
For up to the minute snow pack information check out the Idaho
snow pack report in text format or if your a color and graph person
check out this cool Graphical
look at regional snow pack compared to average. And the Idaho
Snow Survey main page has lots more snotel info.
-
I have also posted a very, very comprehensive permit list for rivers
throughout the west, with Dana's permission of course. Dana's
2003 River Permit Info contains links to all the managing agencies
and permits where available on line.
-
Spotlight site of the month is
a Cartoon on the Privitization of the National Park Service. It would be
even funnier if it didn't hit so close to home
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/parks.html
On the lighter side
I've started a new River Humor Page. Send in
your links and stories and I'll keep building!
Payette Rivers
The Salmon River
Middle Fork Salmon
Blowout eliminates Haystack Rapid; Creates Lake
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I'm sure you've heard the news by now, but we were about the third boat
through the new Haystack rapid on the MF last Sunday. Bernard Creek blew
out in a rainstorm and pretty much diked the river. The two biggest rocks
at the bottom right of Haystack are now in the middle of a lake. Only about
the top four feet are out of the water. Amazing what Mother Nature can
do. Robert Lilly
-
Just got off the MF (Aug 24 to Aug 30) kayak self support. Great trip.
Air was just a bit hazy from smoke but not a problem like the Main Salmon
reports.There were no new blowouts on the MF, but water clarity was down
a bit. The river is still quite constricted by the month old blowout at
Quick Stop/Lake Creek above Pistol Creek, but it's a straightforward wave
train. No log hazards noted anywhere. Gary Miller
What do you think that Bear was doing in the woods?
6/28: Hello All,
I just got home from a June 18 MFS launch. Just before pushing off
the ranger came down and informed us that the night before at Shelf camp
above Big Loon creek that a bear had tore into an outfitters client's tent
and started biting a dude. The rumor in Stanley later was that the guides
had to charge it with oars and lots of rocks to get it to leave. So....you
may want to pack some extra protection with you. There were some comments
made in Stanley that this may have been a relocated Yellowstone problem
bear but not sure about that one. Any other info out there?
Bret McMackin
We also put on the 18th.....Warning was heard from Rick....Also the
Middle Fork Rumor Grapevine was running high....Stopped and talked to Fish
& Game at Simplot and the revised "bear attack" was not an attack but
maybe a bear in camp investigating. Please take heed when in the wilderness...wild
animals do still exist and we are visiting their homes...At night we hear
noises and chomps but a clean camp and a healthy frame of mind will preclude
those "attacks".
Van
6-29-03: The road to Boundary Creek is open and flows
are hanging in there around 3.2 and slowly dropping'. The Middle Fork peaked
at 8.23' on May 31st,surprising many of us. The river is settling down
now. Marsh creek saw some real trauma on May 25th when two rafters from
two different groups dissappeared in the frigid water and are feared dead.
Go to the 2003 Trip Reports page for 2 trip
reports from my group that was on Marsh Creek that day & an Article
from the Missoulian
Main Salmon Road Now Open
Got off the MF yesterday and was told the road to Corn Creek was open.
Stopped at the temp check in station and no one was there. Can't believe
they finished ahead of schedule. Happy boating, Brooks
Boise River
SF Boise flow info
6-29-03
It's a tight call right now. The
flow will be 600 now and may rise to 1200 until the completion of some
maintenance work at Anderson Ranch Dam that is scheduled to be completed
at the end of June. The flow may not be increased to 1,600 cfs this year.
Valve replacement work at Arrowrock requires that Arrowrock be empty (almost)
by Sept. 15 so we'll be conservative with the release from Anderson Ranch,
perhaps 1,200 cfs through July.
Rick Wells
Snake River
Hells Canyon
No news is good news. The water just keeps flowing!
Murtaugh
6-29-03 There is only 250 cfs being released
from Milner to feed the Murtaugh run. We hope to see 1500 cfs Salmon
augmentation water for 7-10 days in July.
Selway/Lochsa
Selway Peaks at over 10'
6-29-03 The Selway peaked at over 10' this year. I had a permit for
May 31st and it was 9.7' and rising. We made the wise decision to go home
after a high water Middle Fork run. Selway
flows are dropping off. (The link is to the gage at Lowell so don't
use the feet on the graph,instead use thisSelway
@ Lowell Vrs. Paradise gage height conversion chart.)
I recently returned from a June 20th trip where we saw flows drop
from 3.6 at launch to 2.2' at takeout. Never boney enough to put my Maravia
through more tough abraision testing, although now that I think about it
I was up on 2 rock's. Mack knocked me off the first one in galloping Gertie
and then simply out boated me as a took him through a tight move below
the canyou. I did the airplane move up and around the rock and he manuvered
through the move with ease. It was a fun relaxed trip and my 14 year old
son Mack's second class IV river on his 12.5 foot cataraft.
Selway fun at 2'
I put on the Selway June 20th with a great group of 8 boaters with a
flow of 2.17'. It was a very nice level. The fishing was outstanding and
there was enough water to move the boats around with ease. We took 3 different
courses through Ladle!
Click
here for a 48 photo album of our 2001 trip at 2.17'.
-
I did an August 1st launch at Paradise with just over one foot several
years ago. I had a solo canoe loaded with my own gear and traveled with
two other small cats hauling their stuff. The canoe floated through everything
fine. The cats had to lift one tube to make it through Washer Woman and
Ladle was a pinball game.
We had the river to ourselves above Moose Creek. Large rafts
were putting in there after flying-in.
Have fun, Bruce
Selway conversion guide
Here is a rough conversion guide to help translate what you might expect
at the Paradise Launch site when reading the on-line gage from the Selway
at Lowell. Realize that things can fluctuate considering the large amount
of inflow from Moose creek and other tributaries.
Selway @ Lowell Vrs. Paradise gage height
-
1999 trip reports page includes a Selway '99
trip.
Lochsa conversion guide
Flows
on the Lochsa are in the 3.2' range and shoul remain above 2' for a
while. Read below It's fun at any level. Click
Here for a chart to compare USGS cfs readings in cfs to bridge heights.
Lochsa fun at 2'-3'
4-9-02 Mike and I got on Beartrap Canyon last weekend. It was the first
time on the water since November for me. My boat remembered just what to
do. I just got back from the Lochsa last night. We had 10 boats on Saturday
and 5 on Sunday. The water rose from 2' to almost 3' overnight so we had
two very different runs. Both friendly and fun. Those Spokane guys in their
tiny boats (11-12') flipped three times...all while surfing. THE SEASON
HAS BEGUN!!
Janice
I had a chance to spend a day on the Lochsa at 2' from mile post
120 to 110 on June 25, 2001. I really didn't expect much at that low flow
and my only other experiences have been in excess of 5 and 6 feet. Boy
was I surprised! There were these wonderful surfing waves everywhere. I'll
be back at low water. It's great fun!
Vince
Owyhee Rivers
The Owyhee's didn't have much of a season this year. Some low water
IKer's are making the most of it though!
Check out my Owyhee
trip report with photos on the Three Forks to Rome section from March
9, 2001 at around 2000 cfs.
Check out a "typical" 3 forks to Rome trip report
submitted from April 4th, 1999.
Jarbidge/Bruneau
The Bruneau actually had some boatable water for about three weekends.
We managed to do it at 900 cfs.
Bill Tuthill's Jarbidge/Bruneau
page.
Other Rivers
THINGS
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