During the time I lived in BC, I'd had many friends who'd either been kayaking in Idaho a couple times, or who'd made regular occasions of it. I'd never seen the value too much, especially with so much high quality whitewater in the PNW region all around me.
Since living out East, I'd made trips to the southeast and western parts of the continent, as well as central and south America, but still never seriously considered Idaho..until early spring 2023.
This year I'd been trying to arrange something out west with my buddies from Colorado, from early season California and Arizona non-starts where I was missing an unheard of snowpack year, to some later season ideas, finally it was one of the groups bachelor party coming up, and I got the invite to head out to Idaho with a big crew from southwest Colorado.
I didn't even give it a second thought, the timing was right, levels looked perfect (a rarity this late in the season for the area) and I felt like checking out something new and going somewhere I'd never been. With that I'd booked the vacay and had it circled on the calendar. Our initial plan was to fire up the Jarbridge-Bruneau and then West-Bruneau rivers, but once we arrived, with levels starting to wane, we needed to make an adjustment. It was interesting to note that this was right near Mountain View, Idaho, where I'd played a large part in conducting movements for a reserve military event when I'd been living in BC.
We ended up still firing up the classic Jarbridge-Bruneau first and what a beauty river that was. I love the sensation of putting on a river that I know nothing about, but feel comfortable with the crew that I'm going with, knowing it's going to be a good time. We fired it up over the course of four days, with some long last couple days through some stormy weather, contrasted with beautiful blue skies. Day two brought many of the highlights including Castle Grey Skull, a nice class IV rapid and then Jarbridge Falls, with us all walking the two class V's.
Along the way we encountered some intrepid locals having an epic that is detailed here on the Tales from the Cripps podcast (and I highly recommended listen if you have the time!).
Camping was great, full of beautiful starscapes and amazing scenery, just like the entirety of the run. We saw a decent amount of wildlife, including the biggest Golden Eagle I'd ever seen, some mountain goats and big-horned sheep. The canyons in here can't be beat. Camping on night three a rock did manage to skip off the bluff near my tent (yes, everyone had told me not to put my tent there), fell down and would've nearly killed me, had I been sleeping; instead my tent inner was simply destroyed, leaving me to sleep in the open among the stars. Thankfully there aren't many mosquitos or anything down there.
After a beauty morning spent exploring Cave Draw and completing the last five miles of fairly continuous class III/IV, to the complete elation and simultaneous let-down of finishing the run, a few of us still had a decent amount of vacation left, having originally planned to hit the West Bruneau, which was now too low.
We had a few other options, including the North Fork Payette or Lochsa. Finally, wanting a multi-day, we settled on the South Fork Salmon, five of us set off, not being exactly sure how high the level was (somewhere below 5). A few of the group had run it higher and lower, but not really at this level. Let me tell you, this run was a blast, amazing, somewhat-continuous class V big-water feel whitewater. We did the run in three days, finishing our last day on the main Salmon, with pretty choice weather most of the time.
It was great to see some amazing friends and experience my first bouts with Idaho goods. This is a place I will definitely make it back to, over and over again, likely whenever anyone invites me and I have the time available. On the way home I ever ran into some old BC friends while camping in the Lochsa drainage, which was a good way to finish things off.
Pic dump ensues, enjoy!:
