Feather, Middle Fork

A high clearance 4x4 trail comes down the South canyon wall to a riverside camp. Possible low water putin or emergency access/egress.

Pacific Crest Trail Footbridge crosses river, foot path access to canyon rim North and South. Possible emergency access/egress.

Franklin Falls is a 10 foot waterfall with a shallow rock cluster just down stream and a mean looking hole. There is an eddy river left some distance upstream that should be caught to scout this drop, class IV water continues to the lip and a small eddy right just above can be caught but is not a good scouting or portage option. The drop can be portaged left with a seal launch of a high bed rock shelf.

A prominent river feature, Stag Point is a sharp right hand bend in the river with large beach with bedrock and pebbles right and cascading creek entering river left. Topo's show 4x4 access river left downstream of the creek here though this has not been visually confirmed from the river. Possible emergency access/egress?

What Dreams Are Made Of is located as the river bends sharply left then right entering a short but fierce looking gorge with tall vertical walls river left. Initial bolder garden moves allow an eddy and beach to be attained river right at the apex of the first bend and the next larger drops can be scouted from here. Having run these drops, eddy left to scout the remaining right turn rapid. At high water this sequence is very pushy with large holes and scouting becomes harder. At lower water the beach on the top right makes for adequate camping.

Small cliff faces loom right and left and the river make a sharp right hand then immediate left hand turn. A small rocky island close to the left shore divides the current at the entrance to the rapid and can be negotiated either side depending on flow. A large hole can lurk in the main drop and again the line is dependent on flow. At higher flows this rapid has a more radical appearance pillowing dramatically on the cliff at the outside of the left hand turn.

A footbridge crosses the river at Hartman Bar and there is well developed camping here. The trail is not well used and becoming overgrown Emergency access/egress possible both North and South.

Eat The Meat is a short punchy double drop with vertical cliff right and flat bedrock area left which offers an easy portage and good spectating.

Somewhere river left at the end of a long green water stretch and approaching a right turn and rapid lie's Hanson Bar trail. This trail taken heading downstream goes to the canyon rim and heading upstream countours somewhere above but close to the river until the former site of  Kennedy cabin, some 0.7 miles upstream of Eat The Meat from where it again ascends to the canyon rim. This is a possible emergency access/egress point. See this website for more details.

The Portage starts immediately after a large rapid. A large still pool and huge river left cliffs announce its arrival and a well trodden trail commences on the right at the top end of the pool, traversing up through the forest.  Resist the temptation to descend too early as the trail becomes less defined, and finally scramble down granite ledges to a perch over looking the last drop of the portage. The Portage rapid has been run at low water but is a very serious proposition.

Helicopter is a boisterous must run rapid where the river channel constricts, dropping steeply between a large vertical cliff on the left and a field of sieved out boulders on the right. Giant 500 foot granite slabs to the left, sometimes with a cascading waterfall appear just before it. A small beach and scramble above on the left affords a scouting opportunity. Three rowdy holes must be punched before a right turning airplane turn finale.

Grand Finale, the last large rapid has a committing long class IV lead in via small pools on the left followed by a powerful move to ferry out into the outwash of a hole to avoid being pushed into the cliff on the left. It can be portaged easily on the right but only if you stop before entering it. Those who run the left entry moves will have to run the main drop.