Lower Salmon River, Idaho.

Wet Planet White water recently sent myself and Heather Herbeck on a reconnaissance mission to scout the lower salmon in Idaho, our mission which we willingly accepted was to calculate if the river is suitable for over night raft supported kayak classes.

We joined a trip put together by Winding waters a rafting company base in Joseph -- eastern Oregon.

After a 5 hour drive from the Columbia river gorge in Washington State, we arrive in Asotin near Lewiston Idaho.

We joined the Winding waters team and drove to the put in.

After unloading mounds and mounds of gear.

One of the guides noticed a bright light coming from a short way behind our pile of gear and tied off rafts, at first it was thought to be a large camp fire or strong headlights but Morgan [ the guide ] went to double check and came running back with news of a small but growing wild fire !

We immediately filled buckets of river water but are efforts to put the fire out were futile against the rapidly growing fire, so we had to row all are rafts gear and kayaks across the salmon river to the protection of the other shore.

Fortunately we had a satellite phone and so were able to call the sheriff for help.

After a interesting night watching the amazing advance of this fire [ which was successfully put out by fire fighters a few hours later] we started our river journey from Pine bar to Hammer springs on the Snake river. A journey of 3 1/2 days, and 53 miles.

The first day to a great camp spot at cliff rapids is fairly flat with some fun class 2 rapids, surf waves and good eddy lines, we had around 6000 cfs for our trip which is quite low but makes for good definition in the rapids and is a good level for teaching kayaking.

The Photo at the top is looking upstream from cliff rapids camp.

Day 2 has much more action with some big class 3 rapids and some awesome play spots, including lower bunghole a great surf wave which gives up spins and aerial moves on surfers left and right.

Snow hole rapid is probably the biggest on the river at this flow with a class 3 main line and a river left class 4 line.

After this day Heather and I decided this river would be fantastic for teaching both beginner and intermediate kayak classes as well as more advanced playboating clinics.

Its also a very beautiful place with incredible camping and warm deep water.

These 4 shots show the Lower bunghole waves, with me surfing on the second wave.

Heather in the middle of the main line on snow hole rapid, and a shot looking down the river left class 4 line with more holes and some undercut boulders

Our next night on the river was spent on a huge beach at Meloney creek where we learnt of the fascinating native American history on this river and the snake river [ Nez pearce tribe ] there is evidence of them collecting bark from the ponderosa pine at this camp which they would eat and perhaps use as a form of dental floss?

There is also a lot of history here from there war against the US army and there flight across this very barren land when they attempted to flee to Canada, they had the skill to cross the Snake and lower salmon in flood without losing any people or domestic animals more impressive when we were told that the US army were incapable of doing the same thing!

There is also evidence of Chinese houses on the lower salmon, Chinese immigrants having been shunned by the local community came to the wilderness in search of peace and gold, they built small stone houses close to the river utilising large boulders by building dry stone walls on and around them to create small rooms with a fire place next to the door way, which is a Chinese tradition, 4 people would have lived in a tiny house no more than 15 feet by about 10 feet.

The Chinese house and fire place.

The 3rd day on the river was also fun with good play in the first part of the day including one mystery move spot where I was able to get some down time over head height in a necky vibe.

There was one more class 3 rapid here China rapids. after which we floated out of snow hole canyon which we had been in for all of day 2, here there is a fairly long stretch of flat water but with some class 2 rapids which contain violent eddy's and whirlpools great to play in for fairly advanced kayakers but also strong enough to be a bad place to swim.

Shortly we entered Blue hole canyon a steep stunning canyon with really fun big wave trains and lots of big horn sheep the last rapids are named sluice box and Eye of the needle, after this the Salmon joins the snake river below hells canyon.

We camped at the confluence of these 2 rivers sleeping in Idaho with a view of Oregon across the snake.

The point of land which separates the two rivers before there waters mingle was a place the Nez Pearce used for there Vision quests, a time when young men would stay here for long periods of time with no food, often staying to the point of starvation, which would allow them to see visions [ or hallucinate perhaps ] possible a form of meditation ? All I know is it was a great place to be.

From here to are take out on the Snake is mostly flat with just a few swirly class 2 rapids so we strapped all the rafts together and motored out turning an all day paddle into a 2 hour motorised float.

These photos show the confluence of the Salmon and Snake rivers and the Vision quest point, as well as looking downstream on the Snake river.

Wet Planet are now planning to run 4 to 7 day beginner to advanced over night kayak clinics on the lower salmon with raft support, check the Wet planet link on this blog for there contact information.