Our big raft trip for the year was a 7 day rafting trip floating over 80 miles on the main salmon river through the Idaho Frank church roadless wilderness in late August. To get a permit you need to submit a request into a lottery in January. This is a popular rafting river with about a 3% chance of drawing a permit. I got lucky and drew a permit so we planned to go with 2 other families and 17 people. 6 adults and 11 kids.
Here is the location of the river:
The total trip length was actually 10 days. It took 2 days to get to the put-in on the eastern side of Idaho near Salmon Idaho and then a day back from the western side of Idaho near Riggins Idaho. Our permit put-in day was Monday so we left our house about 6 am Saturday.
Day 1
By late afternoon Saturday we were north of Stanley Idaho. There was a gold dredge and ghost town a few miles off the main road so we decided to check it out to take a break from driving. It’s at an area called Yankee fork
It was getting towards evening so we got back on the road and started looking for a camp site along the highway. We found a place around 7:30 just south of Challis Idaho and pulled in, and got dinner going.
Day 2
Sunday we got going early and our goal was to get to the Carey creek put-in by mid day to grab one of the campsites at the put in, get the boats set up and rigged and go through the permit process (request campsites, informational talk etc). It was a hairy bumpy drive the last 36 miles along a narrow dusty road to the put-in where the road literally ended. It felt like you were driving to the edge of the known lands. The weather was hot so we slept outside with no tents to make it easier to get going in the morning.
Day 3/River Day 1 (Monday)
Launch day!
Along the way we stopped at some native rock paintings
Our camp site for day 1. Small but nice the only downside was that just upriver from our camp was a dead horse in the river (with a bridle on) and it couldn’t have been more than a few days old but it was starting to smell a little if the wind was blowing down river
Day 4 / River Day 2 (Tuesday)
Today was to be a long river day. Our goal was to push down river 20 miles but then take tomorrow as a layover day. We got on the river around 9:45 and hit our target camp - Upper Allison around 5 pm. We stopped at a natural hot spring for lunch which was fun. The day had 1 class 4 and a few class 3’s. Interestingly Kelly, PJ, and Jasper all fell in as we went through a hole on an un-named class 2. A lurker! Our campsite at upper Allison was beautiful sand beach with shade. Perfect for a layover.
Day 5/ River Day 3 (Wednesday)
Today is our layover day at Upper Alison. Hiking, swimming, ultimate frisbee, good food and good friends. Kelly and I had leisurely coffee by the river. 5 deer grazed by the campsite.
Day 6 / River Day 4 (Thursday)
Back on the river for another decent push of 17 miles. Hit the river by 9:15 AM. Cool in the morning but would climb into the 90’s by the afternoon. This would be our biggest rapid day with the most technical being “Big Mallard” - a class 4 rapid with a very specific line you had to hit as to avoid some bad holes.
The day started off interesting with a black bear along the river. The Harris family had a family member and a duffle bag go in the river in the first set of rapids but other than that a successful day and everyone got through the big rapid ok. Our camp for the evening was a medium sized sand beach called Boise Bar. Cooler is complete out of ice.
Day 7 / River Day 5 (Friday)
Leisurely morning drinking coffee. Also a nice view from the groover this morning. Today is a 10 mile day to a reserved site called Hungry Bar, so there is no real rush. Plus we got to stop at Buckskin Bill’s store a couple miles down the river from our camp. What an amazing place full of history. Plus after a hot week and being out of ice, cold soda, ice cream etc was a welcome treat.
Another warm day on the river with a huge sand beach at Hungry bar so we needed shade, but a fun beach camp.
Day 8 / River Day 6 (Saturday)
Got going early today on the river not because of a long day but as we close in on the end of the trip more and more boaters are trying to go after fewer and fewer sites. We got going about 9:30, targeting a site called whiskey Bob. We hit the Whiskey Bob site around 2 pm and snagged it making today a 9 mile day and our last river day tomorrow a 11 mile day. Whiskey Bob is a smaller site so a little tight for our group size but it was still very nice. Today is a little more smokey and overcast making for a melancholy day - weather and the trip winding down. We went cliff jumping on the rocks across the river which was fun! Also some fishing but no luck there.
Day 9 / River Day 7 (Sunday)
Last day. Drinking coffee on the river this morning. Cooler today and a little smokier. We aren’t sure where the smoke was coming from being on the river for 6 days and no outside contact.
After getting off the river we headed in to Riggins Idaho for pizza/dinner. Turned out the fire was near Riggins. We had a great dinner and decided to try and drive all the way home. The Lovejoys, and the Harrises stopped to camp about halfway home. We drove all the way through and arrived home at 4 am. What an amazing trip.
