Fall Trip on the Middle Fork Salmon

We enjoyed a 6 night and 7 day trip on the Middle Fork Salmon the first week of October. Discharge at Middle Fork Lodge USGS gage was 620 cfs and slowly dropping to 580 cfs (1.64 to 1.58 on the staff gage). We launched at Boundary with very lightly loaded rafts and kayakers carrying personal gear in their boats. We picked up coolers and additional supplies on day 2 at Indian Creek that we had flown in. The lightly loaded 16' raft did very well and we had few issues. The fishing was very good.

We had good weather with pleasant fall days and cool nights. We had frozen water bottles at Boundary when we woke up but night-time temperatures stayed above freezing as we made our way downstream.

Camps were as follows:

9/28 Boundary Launch, mile 0
9/29 Sheepeater Hot Spring, mile 13.3 (13 mile day)
9/30 arrived at Indian Creek for gear pick up at 3pm; Pungo Creek, mile 28.0 (15 mile day)
10/1 Whitie Cox, mile 46.4 (18 mile day)
10/2 Pool, mile 61.4 (15 mile day)
10/3 Driftwood Flat, mile 71.3 (10 mile day)
10/4 Cradle Creek, mile 87.8 (17 mile day)
10/5 take-out and drive home, mile 98.3 (11 mile day)