Nate O Taylor

Food, Fishing, and Outdoor Adventures

The Main

July 8, 2022 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

So quick backstory. We were supposed to jump off the San Juan and head straight to Idaho and catch this early season Middle Fork trip. It rained a lot, and snowed, and then the gauge was pushing 6 feet. People were dying, wood was everywhere and I pulled the plug and bowed out.

A week later I’m looking for cancellations at 10PM. I see a great date for the Main, but I can’t check out, I can only hold it in my cart. I cycle through trying to buy this thing for hours, and give up. Next morning, I check moutainbuzz and a member is dropping a cancellation. I call him, coordinate it, and snag it. Still can’t check out. I call my friend, he grabs, he pays, we’re going. He is pictured below.

The Permit Holder

Corn Creek is a pretty special place, sub-optimal road, but a little oasis once you get back there.

  • Water Levels: Good
  • Crew: Tight
  • Weather: Hot
  • Send: Full
Scientific Measurement
Corn Creek Levels
Ranger Cabins
RIP Frank Church

We befriended the rangers the night before launch. We brought gifts that we traded for their beer and consideration for first orientation on launch the next day. At this point, the Avalanche have apparently just won the Stanley Cup, but we are unaware as we sit at Corn Creek, eating a few chicken tenders from the grocery store we hauled in with us.

Salmonflies
Launch Pad

This river is moving, going 20 miles was nothing. Campsites were a little tough but with a small group, we made do. This was fun, really fun. How fast we talking here? Fast enough you could have done back to back layover days and still cruised into Carey Creek at 10AM.

Speed

Interesting note, the Pacific and Mountain Time Zone delineation in Idaho literally follows this section of river. If you’re confused why your watch and your GPS show different times every 2 hours, well, now you know.

High Water Camps
Games!
Casual 20 Mile Days
A Few Bush Planes

Casual rollers in class I water made boats nearly disappear. The hole in Elkhorn was the size of a bus. You floated past that thing and and saw your life flash before your eyes. You roll through 15 miles and its time for lunch. With daylight until 10PM, you sit around and soak it in. Then we eat the food.

Rolling

Food? We did some food. Shockingly enough, hot lasagna was actually pretty satisfying after it was 100 degrees all day.

Fried Rice
Lasagna
Dinner
Breakfast
Dessert

There are also some great sight seeing excursions, and with the speed record we were setting we had time. Bring money, you’ll want the ice cream sandwich at Buckskin Bills.

Campbell’s Ranch
Traffic Jam
Campbell’s Ferr
The Campbell Kitchen
Buckskin Bills
Water Dropping
People Live Here
Pack Bridge

Scenery here is really A+. With the long summer light of the northern latitudes you spend a few hours every afternoon escaping the death ray, before the sun “sets” for four hours.

8PM
Find Me Someplace Better
Enjoying that Sunset

Few things I learned on this trip.

  1. List of people that can go on a week long trip with two weeks notice.
  2. What a beer can looks like after you drag it through the water for 100 miles.
  3. Reflect and appreciate what legislators like Frank Church dedicated his life to preserve.
It Looks Like This
The Crew

This place was great, 10/10, must do. Will be back.

Filed Under: Summer Tagged With: Food, Multi Day, Rafting, Salmon River, Salmonflies, The Main

The Season of Three Permits: Trip 2, The Middle Fork

July 9, 2021 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

First off. Holy shit. This was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had, and I’m not sure it’s even close. If you are reading this and get to go on this trip then no matter what is happening in your life, go. It is just incredible.

I’m not going to write a lot about this trip, rather I’m going to post the pics as they tell most of the story. Words can’t really describe this place. The answers to the obvious questions are as follows:

What was the flow? 2ft @ Boundary
When did you launch? June 28
How many people?18
How was the weather? It was 100 everyday
What are the best campsites?Honestly, they’re all good
What would you do different? Uh, get new coolers, a permit, and run the main

Launch Stuff

Gotta get the boats in the water. The launch here is as intimidating as it is elegant. You slide that boat down the ramp and you know that you have 100 miles of whitewater in front of you to get back. Sleep well!

Maps of the Middle Fork
  • Boundary Creek Ramp
  • Launching Boats
  • We Ready?
  • Dropping Down the Hill
  • The June 28 Group…

Food

Delish. Not pictured were some other pretty extravagant offerings by the team. Most all our meals were based around using the wok or “discada.” While heavy, it cut down on all the other kitchen stuff and was really efficient.

  • Egg Sandwiches
  • Taco Tuesday
  • Tacos
  • Pulled Pork Sandwiches
  • Chicken & Veggie Stir Fry
  • Pancake…Egg…Bacon
  • Salmon Crepes
  • Carne Asada
  • Breakfast Tacos
  • Drinks
  • Carne Asada & Shrimp

Campsites

Fear not. Your campsites are not a worry. You will not only be happy, but impressed.

  • View from Above Wilson
  • Happy Hour Wilson Creek
  • Busy Boat Slips
  • Flying B
  • Wilson Creek
  • Relaxation
  • Hors d’oeuvres
  • Pungo Creek
  • Last Camp at Otter Bar
  • Whitey Cox Departure
  • 4th of July Party
  • Night at Sheep Creek
  • Downstream Sheep Creek
  • Ghosts of Whitie Cox

Sights & Springs

Hot springs everyday, scenery in every direction.

  • Scout Hot Springs
  • Upstream Look at Loon
  • Early Morning Soak View
  • View from Veil
  • Veil Falls
  • Mid-Day Hot Springs
  • Bath with a View
  • Pictographs
  • 104 Degrees
  • Moose
  • Hot Shower
  • Loon
  • Whitie Cox
  • Hidden Beneath an Overhang
  • Hike to a Hot Springs

Water & Other Awesomeness

Incredible amount of whitewater over 100 miles. You’ll be doing things the entire time, albeit at 2ft it was more technical than anything. There is a lifetime of exploration here, you can’t even begin to conquer all the hiking and scenery this place has to offer.

  • Scouting Pistol Rapid
    Pistol
  • Jumping into river on Middle Fork
    Laying Out
  • Exit of Pistol Rapid
    Bottom of Pistol
  • Tappan Falls Rapid
    Tappan Falls
  • Sign at Flying B Ranch
    The Flying B
  • Rapids below Flying B Ranch
    Working Towards Wilson Creek
  • Rapid Middle Fork Salmon
    Rapids Below Otter Bar
  • Upstream view from Main Salmon to Middle Fork
    End of the Middle Fork
  • Cramer Creek rapid Main Salmon
    Flip!
  • Take out at Cache Bar for Middle Fork
    Cache Bar

Filed Under: Summer Tagged With: Discada, Food, Hot Springs, Idaho, Middle Fork, Multi Day, Rafting

River of Sorrows

June 18, 2019 by n.taylor 1 Comment

El Rio de Nuestra Señora de Dolores, River of Our Lady of Sorrows, now commonly referred to simply as “The Dolores”.

 Map of Dolores River
Dolores River

The history of this river is as extensive and depressing as the name(s) would suggest. Explored in 1765 it has been the lifeblood of humans for thousands of years in the area. Today we grow lots of alfalfa and divert nearly the entire river basin for that purpose. With the construction of McPhee Dam in the late 1980’s the river and it’s history were written yet again. Today, when water managers allow, you can put in at Bradfield Bridge. An area that seems dilapidated, only because of the lack of use in the last twenty or so years.

Originally one of the west’s great multi-day trips, it is now a trip that occurs only during particularly wet weather cycles in the basin. You may only have the opportunity to run this river once or twice in a decade. If you do get the opportunity it will be on incredibly short notice (sometimes just days or a week) as the reservoir must legally fill, and then “spill” the excess inflows in order to make boatable flows.

2019 was not supposed to be one of those years. Particularly wet spring conditions dramatically altered the runoff projections. Water managers scrambled to adjust their calculations as unprecedented weather patterns took hold in Southern Colorado. For those not living here, we had two feet of snow fall on Rabbit Ear’s Pass on the summer solstice…

Evening on the Dolores

While we put on the river with flows approaching 1200 CFS, typically the flows range from 40-75 CFS. Fishing and recreation are all but a memory below McPhee, as such the facilities reflect the sterility of the water itself.

Launch at Bradfield

Campsites were hard to find, all of them having seen infrequent use since the late 1980’s. Most of them were overgrown and unrecognizable.

Looking for Camp
Trees Weren’t Small
Kitchen
Finished Lasagna

The most famous stretch of this river is Snaggletooth Rapid. When the river would run free, Snaggletooth was a name that would give even the most experienced boaters pause. It was a barometer, a test of ones skill. At one point the Dolores was the most heavily used whitewater run in the state of Colorado. Check out this footage from Rig to Flip. Amazing stuff.

High Water- Snaggletooth 1983- Dolores River

Think you've run all the Big #WhiteWater out West? Not Likely… Rare footage of the Dolores raging 1983. This footage was all shot alongside Snaggletooth Rapid by an unknown camera outfit who made the edit your seeing here. It survived to us by the hands of long time boaters who love the Dolores and knew it well before the dam. The footage is nearly a full 30 minutes, over 26 different runs of the highest water ever recorded on film of Snaggletooth Rapid. You won't find this anywhere else. #rigtoflipColorado American Whitewater Patagonia Dolores River Boating Advocates Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office History Colorado NRS Astral Osprey Packs Bureau of Reclamation Bureau of Land Management – Colorado Bill Dvorak Jack's Plastic Welding Patagonia Telluride Upper Colorado River Private Boaters Assoc. Colorado Whitewater Association Stitches 'N Stuff Down River Equipment

Posted by Rig To Flip on Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Scouting Snaggle

The opportunity was one that I would not let pass. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I will go again when the chance occurs. Rafting down the Dolores was being surrounded by immense beauty, and at the same time, immense sadness. I hope that someday my children will be able to run this river, with far greater frequency that we are afforded today.

  • Desert Varnish
  • Scenery
  • Lower Dolores
  • Evenings
  • Lasagna
  • Chicken & Peanut Sauce

Filed Under: Summer Tagged With: Camping, Dolores, Floating, Overnight

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