Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Middle Fork of the Salmon

This may sound like a stupid question and it's not exactly about building a boat but I have no experience on this so I'm going to ask. It is a wooden boat forum and wooden boats belong on rivers.

Have any of you out there run the Middle Fork of the Salmon in a wooden dory? A friend has a trip in late August. I would like to go but don't have a raft. I have never seen this river but have heard of it's beauty. I am a reasonably skilled person at the oars of a dory but, since I don't know this river I am asking people here for their comments. While I love a challenge on the water I am not a thrill seeker. If it's runnable I can give it a shot but if it's above my ability I have no problem admitting so. I thought I would through the question out here since so many posters are from the area. I don't mind smacking the boat around but safety first for those in the boat.

One day I will do this river but it may not be in a wooden boat. Would any of you do this trip in August?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Dearing on August 17, 2009 at 11:09pm

David,

No way would I ever run the Illy in a drift boat, it was all I wanted in my Cataraft thanks. When we ran it last year in November it was on the very low end of the boatable scale 700cfs when we started and dropping. You hit rocks in every rapid, clean runs did not exist at these flows, not doable in a driftboat IMO. I have heard of others running it when the river is higher, there is a sweet spot I could almost imagine running it at around 1000cfs in a DB, but much higher and it gets way munchy. This river is one that just gets bigger with more flow, it doesn't lay down much. If you want to see video of me running Green Wall send me a friend request on facebook I've posted it there.

Sounds like you ran Prelude and then pulled out in the last chance eddy right above the big drop at the Wall. That's where we always try and scout from if the eddy is there. When we ran it at the low flow that eddy did not exist. We ended up having to walk all of prelude just to see what the wall was like.

Anyways, yeah I have never been down the Middle fork and would love to. I've put in for the lotto the last five years with zero success. We have always applied for days we felt would be low demand, but it doesnt seem to matter. Last year we had 14 people apply in our group in hopes of drawing something, and once again DENIED!

Mike

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Permalink Reply by David Jensen on August 17, 2009 at 8:50pm

Mike, I replied to your post 7/21. I am interested in your reply today about trading a Middle Fork trip with an Illinois or Rogue trip. Did you do the Illinois in a wood boat? We did, about 25 years ago, and ran everything except the very last of the Green Wall. We pulled in on the left, just before the drop. Then took the gear, seats, line decks out of the boats to portage them 100' over huge rocks, and put them back together and floated out. The portage took about 5 hours for 4 boats. I assumed no one else was stupid enough to do this in a drift boat! It was a great trip, all boats made it, but we never returned. If you did the Illinois in a drift boat, tell me more.