Many thanks to Bob Sarratt, who put another awesome river trip together for the group below with the team at Rocky Mountain River Tours and for making the second trip down the Middle Fork Salmon River another wonderful and fun filled outdoor river adventure. The following blog update was prepared and written by both Bob Sarratt and Mary Langford and was taken from their journals that each kept on our weeklong trip down the Middle Fork.

Friday, June 21, 2024

Our amazing group came together at Sawtooth Adventure Center (aka –Rocky Mountain River Tours) to begin our long-planned Middle Fork adventure with a brief trip orientation meeting on Friday evening. After meeting Jared, the owner, having the usual introductions and instructions, we headed back to our motels and cabins to pack up. The 23 in our travel group included Bob & Sandra Sarratt, Dave & Jen Thompson, Jim, Amy, Luke, Lochlan, and James Thompson, Mark & Nancy Peacock, Joe Swaim, Greg Estes, Frank Puryear, Andrew Gregory, Jimmy Freudenberg (Crissy and baby Ava stayed in Stanley while we were on the river), Greg, Molly, and Lee Cashion, Sheryl and Paul Handley, David and Mary Langford. Sleep was somewhat difficult to come by that night due to the annual music festival in Stanley.  

Day 1, Saturday, June 22, 2024

We met at 7:00 AM outside at Perks and Peaks Coffee Trailer, loaded the kayaks and the bus and headed to Boundary Creek put in on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Some of us had the privilege to take a trip down the Middle Fork in 2017 and we were very excited to get to spend time on it again.  The Middle Fork of the Salmon is one of the 8 rivers in the United States originally designated as Wild and Scenic back in 1968. After the usual safety talk, rounding up gear, and meeting our guides, we embarked on the Middle Fork at a level of 3.25 feet. Our guides for the trip were Taylor Wilcox, Fritz Horst, Thomas Batey, Cody Pugil, Rob Dela Cruz, and Chris and Sara Lundy.  Little did we know how fortunate we were to have such an incredible team for our trip.  The riverbanks were quite changed from our previous trip due to the wildfires of 2022. The grass and low plants had returned, but there were still many standing and downed burned trees. We ran the super fun upper part of the river, including Sulfur Slide, Half Mile (a solid Class IV at the top went between two rocks followed by three large holes that you had to navigate), and Velvet Falls, all fun rapids. We scouted Half Mile and Velvet due to landslides and downed trees changing the course of the river. The river this day was full of large punchable holes, big waves, and lots of fun. It was a very different level and more technical than last time at 6.5 feet.  The water was cold and splashy and most of us were happy to have wetsuits.

After about 12 miles, we came to our first campsite named Scout around 4:00 PM. Rocky Mountain River Tours had all the tents and cots set up when we arrived. The campsite was in willow reeds with little paths to the tent areas. The open gathering area was small, but beautiful with large trees encircling it.  Dinner was amazing lasagna cooked in Dutch ovens. We had plenty of food and drink with lemon cake for dessert. In spite of the very active mosquitos, most of the group stayed up and talked until about 10:00 p.m. enjoying a cool clear evening.

Day 2, Sunday, June 23, 2024

We began Day 2 with coffee and a relaxed morning time at Scout campsite. After a great breakfast of egg and sausage casserole and mixed fruit flavored with mint, Fritz unfurled a large map of Idaho and pointed out the 3 major regions and the unique features of each- the lake area in the north, the middle area with the mountains (the Batholith) and the lower Snake River plains. After leaving camp around 10 a.m., we began another fun river day traveling through busy water at the top with a few larger rapids. We soon came to Pistol Creek Rapid, a big S turn that went right and then left into a big hole – big water, big fun. We had all of our kayakers paddling that day-Paul, Sheryl, Dave, David, Jimmy, and Bob.

The Indian Creek Launch site was our lunch spot where we feasted on chicken Caesar salad, fruit, sandwich fixings (including PB and J), Oreos, and Nutter Butters. The river was crystal clear. Andrew caught several cut-throat and rainbow trout – at least three in three casts!  After lunch, the guides brought out two duckies and Mary and Lochlan started down the river. The upper part of the river had a lot of burned areas, but this section was full of Ponderosa pines with no evidence of burning. The waves were awesome, and the skies were cobalt blue.

During the afternoon, we passed Middle Fork Lodge, which was owned by Charlie Harrah of Harrah’s Casinos, but recently sold to some New Yorkers. It was a rustic cabin-looking place that is supposedly very nice inside. Many famous people have stayed there according to guide Rob. We also stopped to jump off some high rocks near Marble Creek Camp. Soon after, we ended the 22-mile day at State Land Left Camp. It is one of the few areas on the Middle Fork that is actually not part of the national wild and scenic river but owned by the state of Idaho and includes a landing strip. The campsite was beautiful – big Ponderosa pines, sandy beach and level camping area, great river view, and no mosquitoes!  After a wonderful dinner of salmon, onion and tomato Dutch oven bake with a salad, we were all sitting in the chair circle when Bob created a treasure hunt with the booty being a bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon. He was hoping it would redeem him from the folly at the Grand Canyon in 2019. The clues started with Rob reading the written hints with a pirate accent while covering one eye and balancing on one leg. His creativity set a precedence! Everyone read the clues in his style. The booty bottle was eventually found and passed around the circle, but you had to toot the bottle before taking a swig. That night Joe Swaim taught the guides and Lee Cashion how to remove a cork out of a wine bottle using only a bandana. Now, that was a great evening!

 

Day 3, Monday, June 24, 2024

We got up early and had a great breakfast of pancakes (with Vermont maple syrup courtesy of Fritz’ family), bacon, and scrambled eggs followed by a lengthy talk by Cody about the life of the sockeye salmon in the Idaho and Washington river system. We learned about their life cycle, how dams have blocked their passage up the rivers, and the efforts of Idaho congressman to remove some of the dams. The thing is the main four are on the Snake River in Oregon and Washington, not in Idaho. Fritz encouraged us to write to our representative in Congress since the dams are controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers.

We got on the river about 10 a.m. Bob floated on the raft and let Andrew paddle his kayak. He had a great time on the boat with Taylor who let him row through some of the easier stretches. He had a lot of fun pushing the oars and Taylor was great teaching the small strokes that maneuver the raft and how to check the bubbles for your speed. Between straight downstream and 30 degrees, the raft tracks in that direction, with a very little push it kind of auto ferries the direction it is pointed in. Anything greater than 30 degrees, you have to really push. Perpendicular paddling will stop downstream speed. In the afternoon, David jumped on a raft and Bob paddled his Scorch. During our lunch break, we took a short hike up the hill to view some pictographs likely drawn by the Sheepeater tribe. Later, we stopped for a short break and visited Whitie Cox’s gravestone. He was a World War 2 veteran who was killed in a mining accident.

After traveling close to 14 miles, we arrived at Shelf Camp around 4:00 p.m. Our tents were set up in 2 long rows under the trees with a walkway in between.  Many of us put our cots outside instead of in the tents. This night found us enjoying margaritas and a Mexican dinner and celebrating Joe Swaim’s 65^th birthday.  Molly and Rob treated the group to guitar music and Greg E. especially enjoyed an exciting back adjustment by Thomas.  As they parted ways to head to bed, Greg’s voice rang out clearly with the simple words to Thomas “Call me…” much to the amusement of those still sitting around the fire.

Day 4, Tuesday, June 25, 2024

After an amazing night sleeping outside under the stars, breakfast was especially good with custom-made omelets and cinnamon rolls. We cleaned up quickly, struck camp and went on a hike to Loon Creek Hot Springs through the Idaho forest. Along the way, were beautiful flowers including yellow Arrowleaf Balsamroot and white Syringa, the state flower of Idaho. Taylor pointed out that their smell is like the scent of orange blossoms. We so enjoyed walking along Loon Creek, a beautiful tributary at approximately halfway (mile marker 50) down the Middle Fork that it seemed that we arrived at the Hot Springs pretty quickly. The hot springs had recently been improved with a wooden tub with a stone floor. After soaking in it and enjoying the view, we then got into the refreshing cool Loon Creek to cool off and relax. Next, we headed back down the trail and across the creek to the Loon Creek horse camp (a former Chinse mining camp in the 1800s) where some of us indulged in their delicious ice cream.

While we were hiking, the guides floated all the rafts and kayaks down to the Loon Creek confluence where we joined them. The MF this morning was class 2/3 busy water. Soon we came to Tappan Falls, a great rapid with a 3-to-4-foot drop with a lot of water pushing through. As we navigated the river, Frank caught 2 trout and Andrew caught 4.  A short while later, we stopped for lunch at Daisy Tappan’s old homestead cabin, now used as a hunting camp. After a lunch of chicken salad with fresh pineapple, we sang happy birthday to a raft guide from another company who was a friend of our crew & then got back on the river. The river opened up into high plains after coming through a canyon section that had great water. The high plain area included Flying B Ranch where we remembered stopping in 2017. This year we floated on past to get down to our campsite at Driftwood after a 23-mile day. Prior to Driftwood we had about 2 to 3 miles of really fun canyon busy water-great waves, lots of surfing and straightforward drops. Lee Cashion and Lochland Thompson paddled the duckies. Bob spent some time working with them on how to read the river. Just before camp, some of the rafters saw bighorn ewes and their babies on the riverbank. Driftwood Camp had a wide sandy beach with lots of room for the chair circle overlooking the river. It was a perfect spot for Taylor’s pre-dinner talk about the Lewis and Clark western exploration complete with his US map constructed of natural materials.  After a delicious dinner of grilled pork chops, asparagus, salad, sweet potatoes and blueberry pear cobbler, we engaged in a game of Mind Meld and then were privileged to have more guitar music by Molly and Rob.

Day 5, Wednesday, June 26, 2024

After another clear night under the stars, we had a leisurely breakfast of egg casserole and coffee cake. We soon got on the river in the canyon section and had a great morning paddling through continuous fine big wave white water. There were wildlife sitings galore this morning – big horn sheep with ewes, one raft saw a bear cub, and others saw a bald eagle in a burned tree. Weber Rapid was a big drop with huge holes but very straightforward.

At midday, we stopped and took a short steep hike up to Veil Waterfall where we ate our picnic lunches.  It was a beautiful thin line veil waterfall with a lot of greenery around it and provided fantastic views of the river below. We got back in the boats and headed down through the canyon encountering more busy water with nice big waves, but nothing too difficult. Later, we stopped at Parrot Falls, which was the home site of a hermit named Earl Parrot. We hiked up to the grotto waterfall above and as we started hiking down, it began raining on us (first rain of the trip!). We soon headed downriver through more of the canyon which was absolutely beautiful in the rain.

In another mile or so, and after a total of approximately 18 miles for the day, we came to Stoddard Campsite in Impassable Canyon.  It was on a flat shelf above the river with lots of grass, Arrowleaf Balsam root and grasshoppers! After the rain, the sun came out and it was very hot for an hour or so until the sun went behind the canyon walls. Our guides brought out champagne and we all toasted to a great week! Once again, we had lots of laughs playing Mind Meld and our last dinner of steak, chicken, potatoes, brussels sprouts and chocolate cake was fantastic! Andrew and Molly played some guitar music, and several people stayed up until the fire pit went out and watched the stars.

Day 6, Thursday, June 27, 2024

River level- finished at 2.7 feet

Bob and several others slept outside on cots under the stars, which were magnificent. There were a few clouds while he was falling asleep. Bob woke up at 5:15 AM with a raindrop hitting him right on his eyelid- one single raindrop. Then he heard thunder in the distance, so he jumped up and quickly put his sleeping bag into the drybag and cleared the sand mat and chairs from the camp area. He helped the guides get things out of the rain in the early morning light. The thunderstorm came as he got into the tent. It rained very hard for 20 minutes and then started hailing and Bob questioned whether or not the tent would hold up. The hail stopped after a bit and then it was just rain. He slept for about another hour till 6:30.

Breakfast on our last day was simple- overnight oats and fruit.  After striking the tents and getting organized, we took a brief hike to see some unique pictographs near our campsite. We put on the river about 9 a.m. heading through Impassible Canyon on the river with great big waves. It was a chilly windy morning.  We soon met the confluence of the main Salmon where Bob did one last surf on the Middle. We made it through Cramer Rapid which was the biggest drop wave of the week. It was too much fun! After 6 days and dropping close to 3000 feet in one hundred miles, we exited the river at Cache Bar/Corn Creek take out. After changing into dry clothes, bidding our guides goodbye, and picnicking under the trees, we loaded the bus and headed to North Fork Village. Soon after, we picked up Millie, (David and Mary’s golden retriever) from the dog kennel down the road, and headed back to Stanley on the bus.  After a long slow drive, we arrived back at Mountain Village Resort around 7:00 P.M.  Andrew Gregory packed up his car quickly and headed to the airport to fly home.  

Day 7 – BONUS- Friday, June 28, 2024

After breakfast, we told Jen and the Jim Thompson family goodbye, did some cleaning up and then some of us decided to go to Redfish Lake. The Redfish Lodge is about 10 minutes from Stanley, and an amazing little resort on the lake with boat rentals, cabins and a lodge. Some of us took a pontoon boat ferry to the far side of the lake to an area called The Gates of Heaven. It was an absolutely beautiful view from the lake. From there, we hiked up 3 1/2 miles to Bench Lakes-a series of five lakes on a mountain bench. Along the way we saw many wildflowers, like the White Mariposa Lily, Western Chokeberry, and Arrowleaf Balsamroot, with amazing views of the Sawtooth Mountains and Redfish Lake. We hiked back down to the boat dock and caught the 5 o’clock return ferry back to Redfish Lodge, came back to Stanley for a quick dip in the hot springs, and joined the rest of the crew for dinner at Brunee’s Pizza in Stanely. The Cashions left today to go to Bozeman. Molly recently moved there, and we are planning to introduce her to the Inafukus and Lane Lyle to bring everything full circle.

Day 8 – BONUS-Saturday, June 29, 2024

Play day in Stanley number 2! Last night at dinner, some of the decided to hike to Sawtooth Lake -a 10-mile round-trip hike from Iron Creek Trailhead. Paul, Sheryl, Bob, Mark and Dave got up early and enjoyed coffee and bagels at Peaks and Perks next to MVR. They arrived at the trailhead about 8:40 a.m. Frank and Greg headed to main Salmon for a day of guided fly fishing and the rest of the group stayed around Stanley having breakfast at The Stanley Baking Company and Café, shopping, and enjoying the sunshine on the back deck looking over the Salmon at River 1.

The hikers had an amazing walk up through the forest and then into an alpine environment. The first lake they came to was Alpine Lake that took 15 switchbacks once starting up. After that, they hiked up 26 more switchbacks to Sawtooth Lake which was one of the most beautiful lakes Bob had ever seen, and he is certain it rivaled the Tetons in its alpine beauty. They climbed up to a great place to have lunch above Sawtooth Lake and enjoyed views of the lake, mountains and cobalt blue sky. They lost most of the crowd getting up to Sawtooth Lake where there were multiple snow fields and melting snow creeks. After the hike they returned to Stanley, took a quick dip in the Hot Springs at the MVR. Sandra had made reservations for dinner at 5:30 at Redfish Lodge and they barely made it. They had an amazing dinner of halibut and trout and had a great time at their last dinner together. Jimmy, Crissy, Ava, David and Mary had an amazing dinner at the Supper Club in Stanley. The Freudenberg’s then headed out to Boise and the rest of the group came back to the resort, told David and Mary goodbye and packed up their bags to be ready for an early departure the next morning. Having a couple of days around Stanley to relax and explore was a wonderful way to end our Middle Fork adventure!