Smith, South Fork

We had an excellent trip on the South Smith the day before Christmas Eve. The character was slightly pushy big water with a few important large features to avoid and weird boils but overall just big and fun. The larger rapid had one taker for a huge far right line over two curlers and through the shoulder of a large hole while the rest of us snuck down the left shoulder.

Putting a damper on our float was the theft of all my paddling gear during at Craig's Beach during our shuttle run. Bummer!!

BoatSmith 2025 afternoon run on the SF Smith.

A group of 4 of us – Ted Couch, Tom Brown, Robin Levick, and I – took some low flow laps on this for Boatsmith, a step up for all of us and a first for a few. Boats and paddles were lost, some were found, and glory and reckonings were equally sporadic – but there in enough quantities for all of us to be thirsty to do this again. Thrilling!

.47 of JED gage = 658cfs based on Tuthill's calculation. First trip down from Sand Camp to Craigs Beach and I'm in love with this water, this river, this area. One of the finest watersheds in the west.