Late Fall 2005 News
 
We are starting to get interest in our 06 trips, and, especially for anyone considering a charter trip, it is time to start thinking about next summer. Dates for the Main and Middle Fork will be the same for next year. Rates will be adjusted for inflation, including gas prices, but trips deposited by the first of the year will lock in 05 rates. The State of Idaho has discontinued collecting sales tax on river trips, so that will offset the inflation adjustment. Space is available on most trips, with some of the popular early July space reserved.

We had a warm, dry, beautiful fall. We were behind in precipitation, but a storm in early November bumped our snow pack to around 190% for the basin. These early storms produce a spike in the percentage, and then the average declines until the next storm, then another spike, but it is encouraging to see that high figure even if it only lasts a few days. Later in the winter, when the snowpack is more fully developed, an individual storm does not affect the percentage as much.Sometimes people want to select a trip date based on snowpack, to estimate river flow. Snowpack really isn't much of an issue on the Main or Lower Salmon, but can be for the Middle Fork. A high snowpack can mean river levels too high for safety in early June, but better levels later in the summer. A low snowpack allows trips throughout June, but means that we start flying our trips into Indian Creek earlier. The fall precipitation is very important to the total snow accumulation, more than might be expected. By late fall/early winter, we can begin to make guesses about snowpack and water levels for the following summer, but sometimes space is no longer available on the popular early summer Middle Fork trips by that time.

Steelhead fishing has been good this fall, with fish arriving in the Salmon area in good numbers the week of the 16th of October. The warm weather kept river temperatures in the high 40s into early November, which kept fish moving up the river. We will have more fish in the Salmon area throughout the winter due to these warmer temperatures. Total number of steelhead returning to Idaho is strong, according to the downstream counts. We have seen a number of 30-inch fish, possibly 20-25%, with the rest the one-year, 24-25 inch fish. As we approach the middle of November, the possibility of ice increases, but we can have ice-free days which allow fishing well into, or throughout, December. Chukar numbers were good this year, too, so it was a good fall for the combination steelhead/chukar/smallmouth bass trips on the Lower Salmon.

We had a couple of trips on the Lower Salmon in September. Small mouth bass fishing was pretty good. These trips are especially attractive for people within a few hours drive of the Lewiston area, since they are scheduled around weekends. You can drive to the area after work on Thursday, float Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday, and return home in time for work on Tuesday. September is the best time to be on that section of river, after the summer heat has moderated in that low-elevation country. September is still summer there, and more pleasant than July or August.

Among the variety of trips we offer is a trip on the Main Salmon using lodges instead of camping, either in the summer or during fall steelhead season. A couple of lodges that are essential to this trip are on Forest
Service special use permits. In 2000 a lawsuit was filed against the Forest Service for allowing these structures within a wilderness area, and the lodges were court-ordered to be removed. Legislation clarifying the intent of the wilderness legislation for this area, which was to allow the lodges to remain, was passed last fall, so we will be able to continue to offer this trip. Sometimes instead of a complete lodge trip, people will choose to spend one or two nights of a trip at a lodge to break up the camping.We can also do a couple of nights at lodges on the Middle Fork. We have always had access to the Flying B, but now the facility at Loon Creek has begun accepting overnight stays, too. We arrange the horse-back/float combinations with these people.

Over the last few years, after the fires, there have been several changes to the rapids of the Middle Fork. The Lake Creek rapid just above Pistol Creek has slid two or three times, though it is not a major concern.
The Orelano rapid near Pungo has slid about three times, but has washed out enough to not be a big deal. Just above Loon Creek a blow-out a couple of years ago created a new, minor, rapid. Year before last Bernard Creek blew out at the bottom of Haystack Rapid, flooding most of it. The lower end of the rapid is still flooded this season, with the new material creating a moderate rapid. It seems to be eroding, though, and with a good high water, the rapid will probably regain its origional form. The Cramer Creek rapid just above the Middle Fork take out, which became a major rapid last summer after a blow-out in August 03, was easier this summer--still a good rapid, but not as severe as last summer.

New books on the Salmon River country for ‘05 are:

• “Salmon River Map” by Eric Newell, salmonrivermap@msn.com, a map of the Main Salmon with some history and stories, and “Salmon River Country” by Stuebner and Lisk, 208-342-3773, a coffee-table photo and essay book by well-known local writer and photographer Steven Stuebner and Mark Lisk. 
  
  
• Another is “Murder on the Middle Fork” by Don Smith, www.bridgehousebooks.com , a local writer who has done a number of other books. This one is  based on the 1917 murder of Reberg at Sheep Creek on the Middle Fork. Don used the various local versions of the story to create a novel about how the event might have occurred. It’s not quite history, but pretty close. To quote a note in the book, “Due to the passage of time and many conflicting stories about the people and what actually happened, the specific actions and personalities have been fabricated.”
   

 
Books new in ‘04 were peripheral to the river itself. They include:

• “Cougar Dave-mountain man of Idaho” by Pat Peek, Ninebark Publications, 2004, a biography of Dave Lewis. Lewis came into the Big Creek country with the Cavalry during the Sheepeater Indian War in 1879, and lived there until 1936. He was a well-known personality of the back country, with a particular reputation for hunting mountain lions.
  
  
• Another is “For Better or Worse--the legacy of William Deadshot Reed”,  Kathy Deinhardt Hill, 2003, Big Mallard Books, McCall, Id. Reed lived in the South Fork country in the early part of the century, with not too much direct contact with the Middle Fork or Main Salmon, but he was one of the recognized figures of the back country. He had been involved over the years in several gunfights, was the local version of the Old West rough customer.
  
  
• A recent book which we don’t carry in our book box, but one that I enjoyed very much, is “Idaho Mountains Our Home--the life story of Lafe and Emma Cox”, Emma Cox, 1997, VO Ranch Books, Yellow Pine, Id. They were born in the teens and lived their lives in the southwest edge of the wilderness area, guiding, packing equipment, doing everything a person had to do to live in the back country at that time, and earning the respect of back-country residents over the years. They had a home along Big Creek that I wish I had seen, but it was only ashes by the time I got to the place. The book is a good description of back-country life, though again it has little direct connection with the river.

Give us a call at 208-756-4167 day, evening, or weekend to discuss any details about our trips.  If you get our recorder, be sure to leave a message, and we will return the call as soon as we can.