Salmon, S. Fork

We put on the morning of July 8th, running the final mile and a half of the Secesh River down to the confluence, before starting down the South Fork Salmon.  We had 2 packrafts and 2 kayaks in our group.  The Krassel Gauge was at 3.2 when we launched, falling to 3.1 over the trip.  We spent 2 nights on the river, and our 3rd day was spend paddling the Main Salmon out to Carey Creek Boat Ramp.

The level was a good level for our mixed group.  Still plenty of water for the kayakers to be happy, but not so pushy the packrafts couldn't hit their lines.  We saw 3 other groups on our trip, 2 groups of Catarafts, and another group of kayakers, plus one solo kayaker that we saw come through during our scout of Elk Creek Rapid.

I ran this at 1.65 ft a month ago. I went by the info on here that it is in down to 1 ft and was expecting class 3+ as indicated on here. Not the case. I would really recommend updating this info, as I could see it getting people in over their heads or on a portage fest they weren't expecting. Lots of scraping over rocks and one portage due to more sieves than water in the rapid. Lots of sieves in general. Still fun as always, but I wish there was more accurate info on here. 2 ft is probably my personal low end cut off.

Recently ran this in packrafts at about 2'and flew back to Krassel from Wilson Bar. Several short portages due to low water complications. Got a pretty severe scolding for walking thru Mackey Bar Ranch on the exit to Wilson Bar - there is apparently a hard-to-see fork in the legal FS trail 108 that stays on the hill above the ranch.

The South Fork Salmon River with Morgan Giddings, whose father Cal Giddings pioneered the run in 1971. Flows were 3.4' dropping to 3.2' over a trip that was 4 days and 3 nights. Due to a landslide on Highway 95 that prevented the shuttle from getting through, we used a plane to fly back to McCall from the confluence of the South Fork with the Main Salmon.

The exit of Fall Creek Rapid, 7-1-2018, 2.83' on the Krassel Gage

Scout Fall Creek #3 at mid 3' level

Class IV Heaven

This is a typical view of the South Fork Salmon. It is like a little Middle Fork with more challenging rapids and no other paddlers.

The South Fork was a wonderful fall trip. 1.65 feet was low, but still runnable and enjoyable.

Looking upstream at the bottom of Greyhound Rapid in the distance.

Around 2 feet