Salmon

On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, seven of us set out on what might have been the first descent of the Salmon River’s Nordheimer Run since the high-water events of late December 2024 and early January 2025. Flows were a solid medium at 2,700 cfs, and the water had that classic translucent green glow, shimmering under cold, blue skies: the makings of a perfect winter day.

The whole run was great, but this report is only about Freight Train, which is now a completely different rapid than it was before.

As usual, we scouted Freight Train from the road while shuttling up. Right away, we could tell the crux section had changed—it looked tighter and more congested than before. We all agreed to scout from river level and recognized we'd probably portage, which says a lot considering our crew runs Freight Train regularly. From the road, though, it didn’t look nearly as bad as it turned out to be.

The big change is that a huge new rock has shown up right in the crux of the old main line into the Hawaii Five-O/Bomb Shelter curler. It’s impossible to miss, throwing up a big roostertail and closing off what the possibility of running that line without getting smashed at high speed into a pile of rocks with a ton of water. There's a huge hole and then another just downstream. It's just nasty all over, and impressively large and powerful as always.

As soon as we scouted from river level we all knew instantly we weren’t running it.

Faced with the new reality at Freight Train:

    •    Four of us walked it from the top to the pool on the right above Angel Wings.

    •    Three took a sneak line on the far right that served only to eliminate the walk, not give the thrill of running the rapid. Missing the sneak would have meant washing into the nasty rock pile: not to be taken lightly and it wouldn't be hard to mess it up.

We regrouped in the pool above Angel Wings, then floated through its swirling currents, taking a moment to process it all. Rivers always change, and we ride them while we can, but this one stings like a real loss.

Here's the alert posted on 1/21/25 about this change:

ALERT: Freight Train changed significantly in December 2024 and most boaters will now consider it to be a portage. There is no clean line through for rafts or larger boats. Be sure to scout from river level; road scouting does not convey the vertical scale, current speed, and congestion of the rocks, making it look less menacing than it really is. It is now something greater than a Class V rapid.

Since the changes are very new, boaters are still figuring out the situation. At medium flows (~3,000 cfs) there is a high-stakes sneak route on the far right for kayaks only, but not making the sneak could be disastrous. Perhaps at high flows above 4,500-5,000 cfs, the problematic new rocks will be covered and a line will emerge much in the place where it used to be. Quite likely, at flows of 1,200 cfs or less, the technical slot line along the river left cliff wall will still be viable for kayakers. It's unclear whether there will be any level suited for rafts: the outlook isn't good.