Salmon

Great high water run on the Jeremy/Salmon with Matt H. 6.05 feet (2,800 cfs) on the Salmon River gauge at East Hampton. We put in at the CPL on Route 149 in Westchester (off Route 2, exit 16). We pretty much bombed the run in under an hour (5 miles in 50 minutes).Very few rocks showing. Fast current, many wave trains, no problematic strainers. Just a fast and sassy first mile to the site of the former dam near the Route 149 bridge over the river. The lead in drop was a fast chute, straight down the middle. The approach Route was open on the right side, normally too shallow at lower levels. The 'Old Dam' rapid had a larger wave hole wave train than at 4 feet and even 5 feet. Also the river left side ledge was underwater. It looked runnable at first, but runs directly into an undercut ledge just below. So we choose the middle main tongue for a line. The right side was simpler, and smaller, but dropped into a very squirrelly, chaotic eddy. The rest of the run had some holes to avoid, especially about 3/4 mile downstream of the Old Dam drop. Most rocks covered, few eddies, multiple wave trains with surfing possibilities. The Broken Dam rapid had a massive , deep hole in the middle. Definitely stay away. The far left side also looked to have some nasty holes. The normal right chute line about 15 feet off the right bank became more of a rooster tail. The far right ledge which is often a sticky pour over was underwater, and had a steep 4-5 foot drop but a clean outrun with no holes but a couple big standing breaking wave holes. The several river left playspots were fairly long and glassy 3-4 foot waves and waveholes. With a couple nasty holes far left above them.

With the water level at bank full, it was definitely on nearly the highest side of a high level. And overall a Class 3 run, with the two big drops both 3+, with the broken dam pushing easy Class 4.  I'd judge the water level could be maybe a half foot higher, before it becomes a low flood level run. So I wouldn't recommend a level over 6.5 feet, even if some people have run it higher. My opinion.

(6/25/06) Because of small stream size and strainers putting in on the Jeremy at Old Rt. 2 (Old Hartford Rd) is not much fun. None of the strainers are particularly dangerous, there are just a lot of them and they are difficult getting around. A far easier put-in with only one easy strainer to deal with, is to put in on the Jeremy downstream of the unrunnable dam in North Westchester. At that point, the Rt. 149 bridge crosses the river and there is easy access to the water on river left. There is also easy parking at the abandoned paper mill across the road. A good level for this river is 675 cfs or 4.3 on the online gage for the Salmon near East Hampton. It is my estimate that the river is running just slightly higher than medium at this level.