Tom Visnius described a Selway Falls run he did in a Sabre in 1988 in an article he wrote for the Western Carolina Paddlers newsletter in 1996. He describes a hole he melted through in his low-volume boat this way: "this side of the hole is very vertical, about fifteen feet high, with a flow of roughly 5000 cfs." Sounds consistent with his characterization of the hole as "putting the ank in spank"! I don't know if he meant the flow on the falls was 5000 cfs, or just the part of the flow through the hole was 5000 cfs, but what is for sure is that his was not a low water run. Tom, incidently, is not one for exaggeration. No need to. If he lives long enough, Tao may someday be remembered as the TV of his much better publicized generation . . .
In the same article Tom describes running the NF Payette, an evening run illuminated by construction floodlights of the falls above Barrel Springs on the Colorado, and Tumwater Canyon, all in his Sabre and all at high water. For those new to the sport, the Sabre was one of the first (if not the first) plastic squirt boats. A longer pointier forerunner, in a sense, to today's rodeo boats.
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At 650cfs it's a squeeze and a scrape. Both the right side and the left weir are runnable and not too pushy. It's almost not worth the effort. At 1350cfs I almost died. There's a spot in the middle where I ran a small slot river left, and then had to turn 90 degrees right, ferry across 30 feet, drifting downstream no more than ten feet in the process. I missed the turn, developed and executed an on-the-spot plan B, and was saved from any one of three sucker sieves by a micro-micro "eddie" and one secure finger-hold. I got out of my boat, couldn't portage downstream, walked upstream as far as I could (which was right above the previously-mentioned small slot) and had no other real options than to try again. This time I made the turn, and the ferry, and ran the rapid down to the weir on the left, ran that drop, the following few smaller drops that finish out the falls, took out next to the road, strapped my boat on my truck, and left it there for the remainder of the weekend. Upon reflection, I have since decided not to run this rapid again.
I think someone that I know has run it at a higher flow, but I'll have to make sure. M And I'm certain others have run it successfully in the past.
Additionally, in the book "Never Turn Back" by Ron Watters,
the author notes that Idaho's favorite son Walt Blackadar had plans to
make a run back in the late '70's. and knowing what little I know of the
man, I imagine that descent would have been at a much higher flow.
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