8/1-9/2018  7 day Middle Fork of the Salmon Raft Trip with Jean, Bo, Polk, Tim, Vern, Bill and Pete.  Google Photos Slideshow Part 1 Slideshow Part 2

Middle Fork Salmon Raft Trip (Tom's log)

8/1 Wednesday Drive after work to Tim's apartment in Tri-Cities

8/2 Thursday morning Tim and I drive my Subaru Outback 8 hours to Challis, ID. We checked out our flights for the next day at Middle Fork Aviation. We are all set for 7am Friday. Tim and I checked into the Northgate Inn and everyone showed up in the next hour. We brought in all the coolers and cooler food and organized the food into the three coolers we would take on the trip. Dinner at the Village Inn with our group of 8, Jean, Bo, Polk, Vern, Pete, Bill, Tim and Tom. As it cooled off outside we loaded our rafting gear on the tarmac at the airport so it would be ready for the bush pilots to load it early the next morning.

8/3 Friday Up early for 6:15 breakfast of muffins and fruit by Vern then off to the airport to load our gear. We used three flights 2 in a Beaver and one in a Cessna 206. Most of the gear went on the first flight in the Beaver along with Vern. 5 of us went in the Cessna 206 and the last two Tim and Pete went with the second Beaver flight. The flight was about a half hour up to 9,000 feet then down to the Indian Creek at Mile 25 on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. We had to fly in and skip the first 25 miles since the water level was low (below 2 feet) on the gauge. The cost for flying in was $285 per person. Tons of people at Indian Creek going on commercial river trips. The 4,000 foot dirt airstrip was busy all morning with planes coming in to drop off people and gear. We rigged the rafts, got a talk from the river ranger Audra along with our permits and campsite reservations for our 7 day trip. Dianna, a Native American, gave us an interesting talk about what this river meant to her people. Finally got on the river at 1:20pm and then went a mile downstream to the mouth of Indian Creek for lunch. Camped at Mile 33 Sunflower Hot Springs. A perfect place for our first night on the river and a tiring day out in the wilderness, but definitely worth the day's work, Jean made Chinese shrimp dish with egg rolls.

8/4 Saturday Got on the river by 9:30, stopped at Hood Ranch with more hot springs and an old cabin, lunch at Cameron Creek Mile 39.8 with Native American pictographs, camped at Whitie Cox Mile 46 which had hot springs but it made you itch (Swimmer's Itch), Bill make Tomato meatloaf and mashed potatos for dinner.

8/5 Sunday Started at 8:35, stopped at Big Loon and hiked up a mile to Loon Creek hot springs which was very popular, Bill flipped his IK on Tappen Falls and got bruised up on a rock, camped at Mile 62 Broken Oar, Tim made Hungarian Goulash with Great Harvest bread from Pete.

8/6 Monday Same start time 8:35, stopped at Mile 73.7 Rattlesnake Cave with pictographs, got ice cream at Flying B Ranch and camped at Last Chance Mile 77.6 which was very hot and in the sun until 6pm, Polk made sausages, onions and green peppers with couscous.

8/7 Tuesday Layover day with hikes, four of us hiked up Big Creek to a gorge for 4 miles while the other 4 hiked up Waterfall Creek trail, did not see anyone else all day. Good campsite for hikes, Tom made chicken and sweet potato burritos.

8/8 Wednesday Started at 8:40, stopped at Veil Falls hiking up a 1/4 mile very nice spot, Bill flipped his IK again on Porcupine Rapids Mile 80.2, stopped at Tombstone pictographs Mile 83, short hike up from Parrot Cabin Mile 87 to a nice waterfall and grotto, camped at Ouzel Mile 89 for our last night on the river, Bo made chicken BBQ wraps for dinner.

8/9 Thursday Got an early start 7:45 to get to the Take Out, a lot of good rapids the last 9 miles, joined the main Salmon at Mile 95.5 and then hit our biggest rapids of the trip Crammer Creek, Bill flipped for the third time in the IK and he gets our award for best river person of our trip, get to Take Out at 10:45 and it is crowded even though we did not see anybody on the river that morning, derigged rafts and packed things up by 12:30, lunch at North Fork where our other two cars were shuttled at Village Cafe good food and good ice cream, everyone headed out in different directions heading home at 2:30, Tim and I got to Tri-Cities at 8:30, had a quick salad dinner that Janet made and got home at 1am. Great trip and great people.