Middle Fork Salmon River in a Packraft! Bucket List Adventure

The Big 4 : Idle Threats and Dreams

My friend Mike loves paddling adventures in the intermountain west. So, it was only natural that as I was Jonesing for my packraft last winter I may or may not have sent him a few pictures and links. Far from discouraging me, Mike pretty well called my bluff. You might even call it active encouragement! He also explained to me the way the lottery system works on recreation.gov on many of the western rivers. I got the distinct impression that I was at least a little bit under consideration as part of his potential 2021 river rafting crew. Not expecting too much, I cast my lots and picked my dates. I threw in for the Salmon, Snake/Hells Canyon, Middle Fork Salmon, and Selway.

Mike explained the various attributes of the rivers. He talked me into getting on the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks site to put in for the Smith River lottery. I started watching YouTube videos for all five of these rivers. Over time, I learned the big named rapids and followed the adventures of families, couples, and solo paddlers on these beautiful rivers. I was becoming increasingly stoked to hit these rivers. They say ignorance is bliss, and I was blissfully unaware of how hard these rivers are to win. Pro tip: just put in for the Middle Fork of the Salmon. If you win the lottery, they will come. People will join and even help run your trip on this one! More on that later.

Lottery Shot! We Win, We Win!

Sometime around February 1^st, I got a group text from Mike. He’d won a Middle Fork ticket and his daughter had won one as well! I checked my emails and….nothing. It wasn’t long that morning before two more of his friends chimed in with a Hell’s Canyon draw and a coveted Selway ticket! I let the team know I was in for anything and my first choice was Middle Fork. I’m not sure how many people applied, but I think it was in the range of 20 to 30. Of those 100 or so “chances”, that team drew 4. So roughly 4 percent draw odds!

It was looking like I would have a good chance to go on the Middle Fork trip, but less so on the Selway. As I thought it through, I knew I wouldn’t be wise to attempt my first big packrafting trip on the frigid and tricky Selway. The team started grouping off to populate the Selway and Middle Fork trips. They started with big rafts and rescue kayakers. Others (that was me) filled the final remaining slots. This was beginning to feel very real. I was damned sure not backing out.

Middle Fork of the Salmon River

The Middle Fork is one of the most remote and famous wilderness paddling rivers in the world. This is truly a bucket list trip. Just the guided river run starts around $3,000 and moves north quickly from there. An individual on his or her own could take nearly a lifetime to draw a permit. The put-in at Boundary Creek to the takeout on the Main Salmon at Corn Creek yields about 101 miles of on-your-own rivering. Yes, there is one beer stop along the way, but otherwise it is just you and the river (and other paddlers).

This river and its tributaries are part of a world-class west-slope cutthroat trout fishery. The river is home to marquis species like steelhead, chinook sallmon, bull trout, and sturgeon to go along with true rainbow and brook trout. Class IV rapids are included and every single day on this river is chock full of tricky (but exciting!) water. Elk, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, black bear, marten, wolverine, mule deer, and wolves populate this area, just to scratch the surface. We saw bald and golden eagles and the more plentiful osprey and other hawks and falcons. It is absolutely a paradise of wildlife and adventure. A number of wilderness trails cut across and down this river to places unknown. Imagine my elation at the possibility of being part of this adventure.

Middle Fork Salmon Packrafting?

Now, I told Mike from the start that I was planning to packraft this river. He judged that the late July start would result in a low-flow trip and was pretty confident I’d be fine to do this. As trip leader, it really was up to him who and what craft to allow on his trip, so I was grateful to get to do this my way at least in my choice of craft. My magenta and black Alpacka Gnarwhal packraft arrived in April, just as planned and now all I needed to do was figure out how to manage this self-bailing pool toy in big water rapids. Oh, that and also just figure out how to get in and out of it safely. While I don’t have it mastered, I continue to get better.

I knew I had to be able to safely get free of the thigh straps every single time when I found myself upside down in the river. Then I had to learn how to reenter the boat from the water. This was humbling and embarrassing but I persisted.I wrote about my start to packrafting in another article. There was no way I could face a 101-mile wilderness trip in good conscience without at least proving myself in some big class III rapids. The Main Payette fit the bill and I came away from that ready to go. At this point, I had learned how to get into and out of the raft and to stay upright in class III rapids. It was enough of a start to green-light the trip.

Planning

Gear was a big concern. I used my ultralight backpacking experience and itemized every piece of gear I thought I would need. Then I trimmed it down. Then I beefed it up. After all of that, I had to consider what gear would go down the river and which would stay at the truck. I was very worried about splash jacket vs. hydroskin, or exactly what outerwear would be right. In the end the hydroskin bottoms and splash jacket pretty much worked 80 percent of the time. Once I was bitterly cold and another day I found myself in shorts and a T-shirt to be comfortable. I’m embarrassed by my gear list. I had a GoPro, batteries, mattress inflator, Garmin beacon, radio, Iphone, and GPS watch for electronics. Clothing was a complete pain in the ass and I would not take as much next time.

Toiletries, sunscreen, a few dehydrated meals for the first few days, electrolyte packets, candy bars made their way into my packs with way too many clothes. Then I had a mattress, bag, and tent to really bulk things up. I knew I needed a jacket and at least two kinds of shoes (flipflops, trail runners, and paddling shoes is what I chose…in hindsight I’d ditch the paddling shoes and use the trail runners). About 40 pounds of gear that did not include my paddle, paddling clothes, packraft, helmet, PFD, and knife brought the whole mess up to between 60 and 70 pounds including my packraft.

Getting To the Middle Fork

Our team planned to minimize vehicles to keep shuttle costs low. We packed everyone in tight into all vehicles and rallied in Stanley, Idaho at the airport. There we pulled out all gear and food not needed for the first two days for it to fly in to meet us at Indian Creek. We had to launch light, as the river was gaging about 1.5 to 1.6 feet and it would be trouble getting over and through rocks for the first two days. Strangers quickly became teammates in Stanley and I could see that everyone was pretty amped for this trip.

From Stanley we bounced our dusty way to Dagger Falls and the Boundary Creek campground. We put the boats into the water after getting our permits in order. Everyone was confused that my packraft wouldn’t be left at the beach. What they didn’t realize is that most of my gear is stowed in the tubes, so wherever my camp is, so goes my packraft. There was some interest in the packraft but the team was really focused on getting boats outfitted and safely in the river. Pro tip: if you want to be helpful, ask first. Boat captains are responsible for the boat and do welcome the help, but just ask. Don’t start helping if you don’t know what you are doing and are too dumb to ask!!

Getting to Know You!

We all scrambled back to the campsites after the chores were done. The team leader had assigned our camps and we all wiggled into our respective slots and began pitching tents and setting up gear. Once that was done, the bourbon and other libations came out and we all just basically started wandering from camp to camp getting to know each other. This was a ton of fun and quickly made me comfortable with this team. Nobody on this trip knew everyone. Most of us didn’t know more than a few of the others, but we all started limbering up our chatty and had a great evening.

Pro tip: Carry your flashlight or headlamp with you always. As I went to retire to my tent, the lack of moon and a little bit of cloud made for a pitch-black walk back to camp. Since all of my gear was sort of scattered around camp in a rush to start socializing, this made for some pretty high anxiety for a while. My buddy Greg came to my rescue with a spare light which allowed me to find my headlamp and finish getting ready for bed. With much excitement and anticipation, I rolled into bed and quickly fell asleep.

The First Night and Morning

About 45 minutes later I woke up to a mild pain in my hip. As I wiggled around, I realized my backpacking air mattress was deflated. With a pit in my stomach, I quickly blew it back up and went back to sleep only to awaken about an hour later lying on the ground. Well, this was a little alarming, but I blew the mattress back up and tried to clear the cap of any insulation fibers and went back to sleep. I repeated this whole messy exercise about every 30 to 60 minutes for the remainder of that night (and the next). Despite this, I got a reasonable amount of sleep as I was able to conk out pretty fast.

One thing I learned fast on this trip: no matter how slow I got all my gear together and ready in the mornings, there were always a few people far slower. So that particular anxiety abated rather quickly. I took the extra time after breakfast to help some of my teammates break down their tents and get gear stowed in trucks. Then, off to the beaver slide and beach to get this party started! I didn’t realize it then, but my self-deflating air mattress was a mental weight on me for the first two days, but that’s a story for later.

The Middle Fork Put-In!

The Boundary Creek put in is a festive place buzzing with excited rafters and kayakers. Like any boat ramp, courtesy is appreciated and being well prepared is the best way to be courteous. Also, the outfitters will run your ass over if you take too long. This ain’t their first rodeo and rather than get angry, they just merrily go on about their business of getting their boats in the water. The best time for putting boats down the beaver slide and into the water is the afternoon before you launch. That way all of your stuff is ready for launch when your team arrives and the USFS puts you through river school.

As I pushed off and assumed my slot near the rear of the procession, the confidence I picked up on the Payette River quickly came into play. I went into First Bend rapid immediately and splashed my way through with no confusion. As I exited, I really felt like I needed to pinch myself. This was really happening. It was a beautiful morning in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and I was doing this! So many times in the past, my hare-brained schemes don’t come to fruition. This hare-brained scheme was most certainly on!! Check out Part 2 here!