For groups of 6-10 people we highly recommend Sunflower camp for the great riverside hotspring/shower. Great for second day sore muscles. Bring the Advil just in case.
The rest of the week involved increasingly higher flows as the late spring storms roared through the mountains. Tappen was large along with Redside. Strong wind bursts near Big Loon Creek shredded a few tarps and nearly took a our larger tents.
On the final day Rubber rapid was huge. Most rafters were sneaking it to the left including a paddle raft in which one boater broke her ankle when her foot was caught between the tube and self bailing floor. We later came to find the river was hovering around five feet at the end of last week. It made for great waves and pledge to come back soon.
The weather was psycho. Rain, wind, sun, rain, more rain... Used every piece of clothing from dry suits to t-shirts. If in doubt, bring it.
Had a great trip down the Bruneau this weekend. After the usual harrowing Class V shuttle in Friday afternoon, we had a fine supper of elk burgers, cooked and eaten under the river tarp, light rain, not too bad. Several showers Friday night, river seemed to be up a little Sat. morning. There were two other groups at the put in, and we saw at least one go downstream, so we got up early to make a run for one of the two decent campsites downstream.
Logjam was a piece of cake at this flow, the left side was doable, and the garage on the right side above the logjam was not so huge that it grabbed you and kept you in. The race to the East Fork campground was on, the river was moving fast, and the drop-offs were great. About noon, our leader took off at a sprint for the camp, just beating a huge group of kayakers and rafters from Canada. They pulled in anyway, and we graciously consented to share the large camp at East Fork. After the tents were thrown up, the tarp became the next order of business, as the rain from last night was back, is this really the Idaho desert? We spent Sat. evening under the river tarp again, enjoying a fine meal of chicken Teriyaki and zucchini casserole. The driftwood campfire in the firepan was most welcome.
Sunday dawned grey and damp again, had to stuff a wet tent one more time. This is the desert, right? My sage branch river gauge showed about a foot rise in the river overnight, so we had high hopes for Five Mile.
Stopped at the sandbar above Five Mile to tighten up life jackets and straps, and put on helmets. Then took off. It was a great level, not bony at all, and the pourovers weren’t quite big enough to grab my Wildcat and suck me back in. About halfway through someone’s Carlisle oar was sticking straight up out of the water, about five feet from the right bank. I thought about pulling over and attempting a retrieval, but I was running sweep, and didn’t want to get too far behind the group. Anyway, it’s probably still there if anyone is looking for it. All five of our boats had great runs.
Pulled over and scouted Wild Burro, the left looked runnable in a small cat, but no one chose that side. The right side had a nice pillow going off the cliff, with plenty of room to the left to get set up.
Except for the nearly nonstop drizzle, (desert, right), a great weekend on the river at a great flow.
See you on the river,
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since June 5, 1997
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