Deep Creek

Deep Creek

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Dave and I planned to drive and launch on April 25, 2025. This would be less than 24 hours after I had landed back from a 16-day trip to New Zealand. The quick turnaround had me a bit spun and that night back, and just barely prior to our trip, I wasn’t very sharp. Dave had talked about the weather moving in and we both were considering the gooey desert roads after rain. I pushed that night and said we go. At 7am the next day and the weather had not improved but inched up in rain quantity, I called Dave and asked to reschedule. I was worried he would not have the time off but was wrong, so we set a new drive and launch date of Monday the 28th of April. Our plan was to leave Donnelly, Idaho at 6am, drive to the takeout at Crutcher crossing, leave my truck, then drive back to the put in and hopefully float a few miles that night. Little , so little did I know!

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A timeline will help, so would a map!

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We left Donnelly, Idaho at 6:15 am. A few stops in Boise and Mtn Home for lug nut wrenches. Passed Bruneau at 10am ish… Made it to Owyhee (photo right) and headed west on roads that very quickly turned to mud maybe around 1130 am. As we start down the road, my notes say , “ very questionable choice!” It was muddy.

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From Owyhee to Crutcher crossing canyon rim was 5 hours including a wrong turn I made and a Prius tow! We towed the Prius, not the other way. We made it, canyon rim, back to Owyhee in 3 hrs. It had rained .38” the day before our trip. At Owyhee we found nothing open and the sun setting with many hours left to go. We made it to Deep Creek crossing at the Mud Flat rd at 1030 pm. That amounted to a 16-hour drive! Slept well. The photo left is Deep Creek at Mud Flat rd.

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Started down Deep Creek at 9:30 am. And the willow bashing began. We had a small portage at watermelon seed. (Photo right) I went over the top of it while Dave went around the right side of it. We also encountered 1 other larger boulder that Dave ran right of and I missed and had to lift the boat over. Willows were VERY challenging . I would guess we were out of the ik at least 100 times over the first 20 miles. That 100 could easily be 200, but who knows. Somewhere around mile 12 a willow hit Dave in the eye and caused a laceration to his eye lid and cornea as well. We stopped and quickly decided to keep moving as there was little to do about the injury. His vision didn’t seem affected, and he didn’t complain of any pain. It has since healed after antibiotics, 2 rounds. Do not underestimate the willows! Solid class 4 flat water. Willows alone would have been ok but the beaver activity leaving sharp spears everywhere was problematic and dangerous. I remember thinking someone has been through here with a machete as 1” diameter willows sheared off cleanly were very frequent. At some point one got my Ik and I had to patch it.

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We made our first camp around 21 miles down from Mud Flat. It took about 9 hours to make that mileage. (That 21 was from gps tracking. With so many goose necks it could be + or -). We were both pretty spent by then. We had stopped just a half mile up stream and considered camping there, but the lure of morning sun early pushed us on and thankfully it rewarded our decision. That was a very long day on top of 16 hours of driving . Dave’s drysuit was leaking some and drying time was appreciated.

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Whew, that first 2 days of our trip were kind of wild. We made it and now had a pretty good plan for the rest of the trip including the weather that was threatening our exit strategy. We hoped to make it to Crutcher before the road down from the rim got wet.

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We left camp 1 at 11:15 and arrived at the confluence at 7:30pm. Sun set was fast to follow but not before we had a dehy dinner and a bit of a rest in chairs. On our second day we stopped at Dick Shooter Creek (photo left) for some water and lunch then another stop at a slot canyon for a bit of exploring. In the narrow canyon the frogs were very loud until they heard us, then, not a sound. Pretty cool!

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We camped that night at the confluence of the east fork and deep creek. In the morning, I repaired the leak in my ik and we packed up leaving camp close to 11:45 am.

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The East fork moved right along, and the willow bashing was over! We passed Rickard crossing before I recognized it. Funny what 20 years can do to the memories. I would want a pin and gps if I needed to take out there. Ran Bolder Jam rapid (photo right), down the right side. We stopped once looking for the portage trail to Owyhee Falls before bumping down a bit further and taking out at gravel bar on the left. The portage, right, over the big rocks looked doable to, we chose the trail. The trail was easily visible in many places but not all. It didn’t show any recent sign of use. Dave spotted otters in the pool below the falls and that lifted spirits in between portage laps. The portage took 2.5 hours, de rigging to paddling again. Definitely kicked my butt. I have heard it is a quarter mile and 400 feet of elevation and that seems reasonable to me. I weighed all my gear when I got home and think I had to portage at the falls, 130lbs. That includes the ik, 35lbs, paddle, life vest, 1.5 gallons water, drysuit, and all the rest. We did pack chairs but not much else for luxury. We camped a bit further down the river, on river rt maybe a mile up stream of Thread the Needle, my best guess. I didn’t record our arrival time, but we did have a bit more camp time than the past two nights.

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I am not sure when we left camp but photo info says we made it to Thread the Needle by 11am. We portaged on river rt carrying our gear across a ramp cut into the cliff and lined the empty Ik’s down close to the big boulders. The flow at Crutcher crossing was 600 cfs and with more water, sneaking between the boulders might go too. While scouting the portage we saw a goose swim the right side of the sieve and floated out the other side, face down. A good reminder to stay away from the sieves. The portage went well and was less work than the first. I think it was around 2 hours. The photo left is looking down river at the right side showing the ramp we used to portage. The giant boulders are just out of the frame to the left.

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The photo to the right is taken from the ramp looking down river, showing the lining of the iks. We saw otters in the pool above the sieve, always fun to see. With the day slipping away it was time to make some miles, if we had any intention to make it home that day. We still took the time to enjoy the very impressive Lambert Gorge. Words and pictures just don’t do it justice. (photo below)

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We landed at Cruther Crossing between 3:30 and 4. By 4:15 I left Dave to de rig the boats and started the hike to the canyon rim to retrieve the truck. I hit the rim just after 5 and made it back down to load up the boats pretty quick. There was a bit of a wash out at the first switchback but it wasn’t too hard, thankfully it was dry.

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Once we hit the rim, we sped off hoping for cold Coke and gas station food. I believe we made it from Crutcher to Owyhee in 2 hours, which I would consider very fast time. Owyhee was locked up tight and we just pushed on to go retrieve Dave’s truck back at the put in. The photo is sunset on the Shoe fly cut off rd before the hour plus drive down the Mud Flat road. The time was 8:40. We made it to his truck and began the road home leaving Deep Creek a bit before 10. Dave made it home to McCall by 2:30 am and I stopped in Boise midnight or so.

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It was a epic trip and will be well remembered. I will do it again but might have to avoid the top 20 miles of willows. The incredible canyon of those first 20 miles might not be worth fighting the willows again. I don’t regret doing it, but it was daunting and clearly, dangerous. Much of what made this trip so special is the sheer remoteness and difficulty getting there. Going to places like this requires we control and manage the risks whenever possible, down to a level to be considered reasonably safe. Thinking back, I don’t know how we could have prevented the injury Dave received or how we weren’t further injured. It’s that difficulty in managing the risk that gives me pause as to doing the top 20 miles again. Dave has said googles are a must for anyone coming off the top. Even with googles I would still be worried. All that said, I did love this trip and I owe a lot to Dave for doing the research, showing up, mapping, and bringing a great attitude. I learned a lot paddling with him.

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Other mentionable notes, I would strongly not recommend any kind of pack raft for the top. They simply would not take the constant beaver punji stick strikes. I had a brand-new Aire ik and still put a hole in it. (An excellent patch kit is advisable). I would also not recommend a hard shell just for the sheer need to get out of the boat so often. A paddle board would be a hard no, due to the many “willow tunnels” 3 feet tall at best. A few of them I laid on my back as I drifted through. All of the above would likely be fine if launching from Brace crossing, but you will still see willows, just not as bad. We believe we hit the flow just right as much more and the willows would come at you that much faster. We covered a lot of water, 58-60 miles or so, in just 4 days. I believe the mileage from Mud Flat to the East Fork Owyhee to be 38-40 miles. It’s difficult to be precise with so many meanders. That was pushing pretty hard. I would try to spend 6 days in the future or 5 days skipping the top. Maybe even 6 skipping the top too. There is just so much that we didn’t do or better said, so much that I wanted to stop and look at. We only chose to come off the top as the access to Brace crossing is across private property. I have asked the landowner for the past 3 years for permission to cross and he has said no. I have heard that last year a group was told no and went anyway. The landowner was rightly upset and simply won’t give access. I believe his primary concern is the damage that will likely occur if people drive in when the roads are wet. These are not gravel roads but just dirt. Before calling him in the future I would call and ask the BLM about his current position. Unfortunately, when there is good water the roads are likely wet too.

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Aaron Sety

May 19, 2025

edit: photos are in reverse order. Maybe the admin could easily reverse them.