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 Just got off the MF yesterday.... New
- Forum: RaftZone
Re:  Big changes in the Middle Fork of the Salmon Gordo New
Date: Jul 31 2008, 18:28 GMT
From: EricS
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We put in on Wed the day after all the blowouts. The upper blowouts are pretty easily run, both coming in from the right. The channels are left side and narrow, pushing slightly up into the trees and along the left bank but both runs were easily done. There is some wood but nothing that came into play. Lake Cr has turned into a realy fun rapid with a nice hole that can be run or easily skirted to the left and once again no wood that comes into play. Tappen 2 is burried but will emerge again after high water next year. Tappen 3 is indeed a big drop. There are 3 lines through it and I'm sure that will change as things shift and settle. The few days before we came down people were running left or right but I think as the water dropped back down those lines tightened up. Left has a tree along the bank and a rock that was forming a hole but the rock was pretty close to the surface. Right had a huge rock that forms a pillow right on the bank so you hit the slot, let your bow ride up on the pillow and then drop to the left into the center. There is a large burried tree that is sticking out of the right bank that didn't come into play buy I'm guessing it will very soon as the water drops. The center slot was the cleanest when we got there but its a tight squeeze and you need to run a few holes. There are two fairly big rocks that need to be split running diagonally from left of center to right of center. In a 7' wide boat I had about a foot on either side of me. If you hit the slot is easy, the drop has enough speed to it you blow through all the holes. I hit the slot and pretty much shipped my oars till I hit the bottom. If you miss the slot you may get screwed very quickly. We had 7 boats, all cleaned it and then we watched two outfitters run a good 10 boats down through it pretty cleanly. There is a rock lower left on the bank that I have heard a few talk about having to make a hard pull away from but I think they were running left. The center slot put you in a possition to make an easy pull away from it. We did watch a sweep come through and he ran far left, but I still think center is going to become the standard run. I was originally going to run right but a boat was parked in the eddy right where i wanted to set up then I figured left till I got out into the middle and saw that I liked the center better.
It'll be interesting to see what it looks like at high water, it has enough drop and rock in it to make for a very exciting drop.
it'll alos be interesting to hear accounts as to how it shapes up as the water drops.
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