I got an short e-mail from Ted on Monday: “The Owyhee is starting to POP!” Great I’m thinking. It’s been over 6 months since some whitewater action so I check out the USGS gauge: 325 cfs up from 250 cfs all winter. I’m wondering what Ted can see that I can’t. It dawns on me it’s the forecast for 60 degree days all week long. I e-mail back I’m ready to go at the drop of a hat. Unemployment does have it’s advantages. On Thursday the flows finally did POP! up to 2000 cfs and the trip was on! Friday’s weather turned nasty but the flow climbed to 2400cfs. We doubted flows would climb any from there but it was enough water to make the trip.

Meeting in Eagle at 6pm we began throwing gear and boats on Dave Nissen’s Dodge 4dr, 4x4 truck. Dave drove in from the Tri cities with his new rig and volunteered to shuttle in to three forks. (hmmm, funny how the Owyhee vets manage to find reasons not to take their rigs.) Ted, Jerry, Ronnie, Dave and I made up the boating crew along with our shuttle driver Greg. We dropped one rig off at Rome, Or. and headed to the 3 forks road.  Five boaters in the cab and Greg in the camper shell.

After about 500 yards we realized we were in for a long trip. It had rained or snowed ½” in the desert that morning and the road was a slick, muddy mess. Dave settled in and adjusted to 15 mph sliding from side to side on the road. His only goal was to keep the truck moving and on the road bed which was solid some 3-5” below the muddy surface. About a half hour later we came across a sign: 29 miles to 3 forks. We had only traveled 5 miles!  We came to 3 or 4 small streams crossing the road which we had to drive through and a few tense moments climbing hills.  We finally made it to the river around midnight.

    

We started blowing up boats so we could get Greg and our rig out early in the morning while the ground was still frozen.

We launched at 9:30 on Saturday. We learned later the flow was about 2,200 on Saturday. I layered up with poly pro, then  fleece under my dry suit. It proved to be just right and I stayed warm all day. One and one half miles in we encountered our first major drop: The class IV Ledge drop. The river bends right around a rockslide and then plunges over a steep pour over then churns down a long rock garden. There was plenty of water and the drop wasn’t too bone-y. The last drop had a nice surf wave and on a warm May afternoon would have been quite inviting. But it was early and the temperature was hovering just above freezing so when the wave grabbed me for a surf I gently pushed forward and out of the hole.

We found our first river booty a couple miles below the ledge. A sawyer oar up on the rocks. The shaft had seen better days but Ronnie needed a bolt for his Oar Right and was able to extract the oar right and bolt for his own. A little farther down river we encountered a deer settled in below a small rock face on river right. Ted and Jerry stopped and found a hot springs! Two pools actually. An upper and lower. The upper was filled with blown in sagebrush and over growth, the lower was less restricted. It was a great place to warm up the feet although none of us got out of our dry suits. Just a quick thaw! On a longer trip it would be a great spot to hot tub or even camp. The upper tub would hold 1 maybe 2 and the lower would easily hold 2.

The next major rapid was Half Mile rapid located at mile 10.5. It is another class IV rapid but longer than the ledge. More of an S-turn through a gnarly rock garden. It was a lot of fun dodging in and around the boulders. There were a couple of holes in there to avoid. Also the rocks on the bottom right are to be avoided. Exit left. The rapid was huge fun!

We stopped at the bottom of the rapid on River right and hiked up a 100 yards or so Ron could show us the Indian petroglyphs. It was a very long carving into a rock at river’s edge. Several Indians doing something. We figured it may be a Salmon hunt.  Ron says high water has really scoured the rock and obliterated the carvings since he first stumbled upon them in the early 70’s (now there’s an Owyhee veteran!)

Below Half mile we found more river booty. It was a blue Carlisle oar shaft with a 90 degree bend in the middle. It was broken and beat up too badly to be of any use.

At mile 15 there were a couple of nice class III drops called Subtle and Bombshelter. Our evening shelter was fast approaching. The huge Bombshelter Cave. Ted had previously shared the story of Ronnie flipping his boat in Bombshelter rapid a couple years earlier on a high water run and they missed camping in the cave as Ronnie floated past it on an upside down boat. Ted said if any of us flipped today and missed the cave they would be on their own to camp downstream. He was staying in the cave. We were all successful. We stopped at a rock outcropping on river right about 200 yards above Bombshelter cave and gathered firewood from the log jam left on the bank by high water a few years earlier. The river had peaked at 53,000 cfs! Whoa.

We awoke to clearer skies on Sunday. That was a good omen, we thought. We packed camp and were on the water at about 9:30. From our water mark we could see the river had dropped 4-6” over night but we still thought it was flowing at around 2,000 cfs which proved to be accurate.  Our first rapid of the day was Sharks Tooth, a straight forward class III drop. At mile 19 we passed Soldier creek dumping in and the last campsites before entering the canyon.

About a half mile below we found the entire frame of a “FolBot” in the rocks along the shore on river right. It was a small aluminum frame of a folding kayak. This is a picture of one from their website. Click on kodiak to see it with the skin on.

All we saw was the blue, aluminum metal frame. The skin was gone!
The folbot was crushed beyond repair. Ronnie eddied up on river left and found the kayak paddle floating.  I forgot to mention he also had found a round water jug in an eddy above Half mile rapid. He was getting quite a collection strapped to his boat.

The Widowmaker:

We came onto The class V Widowmaker about noon. Jerry and I eddied out above the first drop and climbed up to scout and watch Ted and Dave. They headed through the first drop and were going to see if there was room for 5 boats in the eddy at mid rapid. They stopped high in the center and signaled us to come on down. Ronnie and I parked in a neat alcove that held two boats. Jerry pulled up on the rocks above it. We grabbed a throw rope and went to scout. There was only one line and that was as far left as you could get. The problem was the water threw you right into a nasty pour over and a very ugly sharp rock in river center-left. Ronnie had flipped there last time down on a 1000 cfs run. (haven’t we heard that before).

Dave was the first one through. He went center around the pyramid rock and then left. Got a little sideways but made it through the slot ok. Ted went next. He went left around the pyramid rock, caught the slack water below it and slowly moved out toward center. He made several forward strokes toward the slot and had a very clean run through. Ronnie and I headed up to our boats. His heart was racing pretty good due to his last experience. I went left of the pyramid rock then toward center, a few front strokes and, well, I was a little too far left and hit a lateral that pushed me out towards the nasty rock in the center. But not too far. I made it through…mostly sideways but successful, which is my only criteria on class V water. Ronnie had a good run. Jerry, who had the biggest boat on the trip, a 15.5’ cat, also got pushed out into the center rock. We heard a couple of clunks as metal hit rock and he was through. The rear of his frame was scratched and slightly bent from that center rock.  Jerry is famous for this.

It was noon and the wind wasn’t blowing too badly so we decided to keep on going while the getting was good. Stopped for lunch at noon. Then the fun began. The river is fairly flat below Widowmaker at 2000 cfs. There are a few class II riffles and a little current in places but there are MILES of FLATWATER. We began a brutal, marathon rowing exercise which went non stop from 1:30 to 5:30. If you stopped paddling you went up river. In the breeze we figured it was 3 feet per stroke, 1700 strokes per mile. Then the big winds came. The flat water began to have waves, going up river. Then came whitecaps. They were big, yes big enough to surf. Our goal was down river though and we kept on a stroking.
 

Looking back at the flow chart the river dropped from 2000 cfs at noon when we ran Widowmaker to 1750 by the time we took out. It was a great trip and now I can say “been there, done that”. Next time I’ll wait for 4,000-6000 + cfs in April or May.

SYOTR,

Vince

 Vince's Idaho Whitewater.net

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