Salmon, North Fork

Date: 5/18/2024

Boats: 2 Alpacka Wolverines, 1 Gnarwhal

Total hike-in miles: 6 (Mule Bridge to put-in at Right Hand Fork, in 3 hours)

Hike-out miles: Diana hiked-out the last 1.5 miles

Total paddled miles: 6 (Right Hand Fork to Mule Bridge, in 3 hours)

Flow: 3850 on Somes Bar gage

GoPro Video: NF Salmon Wilderness GoPro Video

Last year Lynn and I attempted this hike-in section of the NF Salmon. We did a lot of scouting and portaging, and ended up hiking out after only paddling a couple miles. We learned a lot (see previous trip report), and I really wanted to come back with a bigger crew and a little more water. This year, when flows looked like they were going to be in a good range, Scott and Diana rallied for another attempt. See Scott’s trip report for details about flows and wood conditions. Flows ended up being the same as last year’s trip, but it was just enough! And with all the wood we encountered, I was glad it was on the low side.

We started hiking from Mule Bridge at 9:15 am. The hike was pretty straightforward. Some poison oak dodging, a few downed trees, and a couple creek crossings that were lower than last year. We didn’t spend much time scouting the river besides a couple rapids that are obvious from the trail. We noted when we crossed the upper bridge that there was a log in the micro gorge downstream of the bridge, but it was a different log than last year and it was propped high enough on the right side to sneak under it. We arrived at Right-Hand Fork after hiking for 3 hours. We spent about an hour eating lunch and transitioning to boating.

We put on the river at Right-Hand Fork at 1:30 pm. Not long after, we did our first wood portage. There was a lot of wood in play throughout the run that required ducking, dodging, or carefully sneaking around. We had 6 wood portages in total. We didn’t portage any rapids besides one that had an unavoidable wood hazard. The first couple miles had a couple notable rapids. I was excited to finally paddle the rapid just upstream of the bridge that drops into the micro gorge. I’ve had a photo of it on the background of my phone for the last year, but I didn’t get to run it last time. I didn’t get as far left on the entrance as I should have, but all three of us made it through the rapid without incident. About 0.3 miles downstream of the bridge, Diana flipped in the folding seam rapid. It was a short drop and not much of a swim. She flipped again in another chunky rapid downstream, but again not much of a swim.

The middle of the run gets pretty continuous. At the flows we did it, there were plenty of eddies and short pools between rapids, but there was enough continuous whitewater to make it a very active paddle. Scott led because he was the strongest paddler, and had done this run a couple times before. As a drop approached, I saw Scott make a quick, hard left. There was a shallow rock in front of me, so I couldn’t immediately make that move, nor did I know yet why he had. Then I saw the pine branches sticking out of the hole in the bottom of the drop, where the flow was taking me. I frantically tried to paddle left, but it was too late. I was sideways at this point and I thought I was going to skewer my boat on wood or flip and get caught in the branches. Fortunately I just gently slid over it, and easily escaped the hole. Definitely not a situation I wanted to be in, but I got lucky this time. I breathed a sigh of relief as I eddied out, but I looked over my shoulder and saw Diana’s boat upside down at the bottom of the drop on the right. She had gone right trying to avoid the wood hazard she saw me approaching, but the right side was a bigger drop and bigger hole. I saw her being swept downstream on river right, and yelled “swimmer!” to Scott, who eddied out behind a rock. Then Diana rolled into a swimming position, ditched her paddle, and swam as hard as she could towards river left. That’s when I realized there was a log spanning 3/4th’s of the river from the right side, lurking below a small drop. Fortunately Diana saw it in time and took action to swim away from it, and was able to get to an eddy on river left. I chased after her paddle a short way, but didn’t want to get too far from the group. Scott was retrieving Diana’s boat. I had packed a spare paddle, so I got that out of my cargo fly. It was an old, janky, not whitewater paddle, but better than nothing (I thought). I gave Diana the spare paddle, and once she was reunited with her boat we continued on.

We eddied out to scout a rapid with wood in it. I checked in with Diana, knowing full well that after several swims, including the last long and scary one, she must be getting tired. She confirmed that she was feeling pretty spent, and said she was considering hiking out. We just so happened to be at the exact spot that I had decided I was “over it” last time, and I had found out the hard way that it was NOT a good spot to hike out. I told her that if we went a little further, the trail would come back down to river terrace level, and be better for hiking out if that’s what she wanted to do. After portaging the rapid with wood, we continued on.

Partway through a riffle I heard Diana shout to me. I looked back and saw that the paddle blade was bent at a 45 degree angle to the shaft, and she was yelling that it was breaking. I tried yelling ahead to Scott, who didn’t hear me. I eddied out and whistled, and just as I got Scott’s attention, Diana’s paddle blade fell off. There was some wood blocking the left half of the river, and in the chaos of losing the paddle and trying to avoid the wood she swam again. Scott was able to assist her, but now she was on the opposite side of the river from the trail, without a paddle. We were still in the riffle, but there was a calm pool downstream. Scott gave her his paddle and volunteered to hand-paddle to the bottom of the riffle. We all eddied out on river left once in calm water. Scott did a quick map check, and confirmed that we were about 1.5 miles from Mule Bridge. Since we were so close to finishing, I asked if they were ok with Diana hiking out and me and Scott continuing to paddle. They both agreed to that plan. Scott and I continued down river, paddling a couple drops that we saw from the hike-in. I took the left sneak line on the wide, chunkiest rapid of the river, and Scott made it down the middle. We had one last wood portage. Then we victoriously paddled final boulder garden before the bridge, which I *almost* flipped in the very last drop but saved it. We were only on the water for about 20 more minutes after parting with Diana, taking out at Mule Bridge around 4:40 pm. Diana hiked over the bridge a little after 5 pm. It felt glorious to get to paddle all 6 miles, and I’m happy the lessons I learned from last time really paid off.