I departed my home strip and then on to KTTD 4/24 to pick up my passenger and his gear. With a full load of gear and fuel we headed for Reds Horse Ranch, a late start got us there just before dark. We depart Reds around 8:30am for Joseph to fuel up before continuing on to Indian Creek on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Our plan is to float the river from Indian Creek to Lower Loon, a 26 river mile stretch with a few class 3 rapids. We have my airplane and a Cessna 180 and decide that the 180 is best left at Indian Creek. After ferrying my airplane down to Lower Loon to be used as the truck for returnning the gear and people back to Indian Creek we return to Indian Creek in the Cessna 180. By now the big raft is inflated and the gear is already been packed down to the river, being the pilots have perks sometimes!

I had already decided to do this whole trip in my Alpacka raft and with the big raft I have the luxury of having them haul all my gear. The weather is perfect but as you would guess the water is killer cold so we all have dry suits. We float 11 miles the first day, 10 miles the second and 5 on the last. I don't want to brag up this trip to much as we had the whole river to ourselves and if I make to much out of the great trip we might find ourselves on the river with 10 other groups next year. I will say I caught trout everyplace I stopped and fly fished. I saw more wildlife in the 4 days then I think I have seen in the entire 15 years I have been flying to Idaho. The outfitters that say the wolves are killing all the elk might be exaggerating a little. We only saw one person and that was a women at the Middle Fork Lodge waving us down, hoping we would visit for lunch but we waved and passed on by... It was an o.k. trip I guess

I took some video but this time of year I can hardly stay up on my lawn care so it might be awhile before I do anything with it.

Greg

That sounds like an awesome trip! I'd love to do something similar some day. Don't you have to have a permit to float the river? Or is that only during the summer months?

Sounds like an awesome trip! My friends I raft with had planned on doing a April trip like they had the past couple years but it just didn't come together like we had hoped. Would love to see some pics.

robw56 wrote:That sounds like an awesome trip! I'd love to do something similar some day. Don't you have to have a permit to float the river? Or is that only during the summer months?

A permit is required anytime you float the middle fork. This time of year they are easy to get.

Yeah we had a permit

Greg,
Glad you had a good trip. We must of just missed you at Reds. My Daughter and I only made it to Chukar Wednesday night before it got dark on our way to Moose Creek. We stopped into Reds Thursday morning to look around and when we flew over Joseph, I texted Wup to say hello. He mentioned you had just been there, and were headed for Indian Creek. I was wondering what you were going to do at Indian Creek, but figured it may have to do with running the river.

Were you able to pack the big raft in the back of the Maule and/or 180?

Good to hear about the fish and Elk. Sounds like a great trip!

Brent

I could not believe all the gear we had between the four of us, one guy had been a professional river guide with all the required gear and then real food to boot, we ate good. I had the big raft in my airplane, it was a 150+ pounds not including all the barney bags and center tubes. It goes into a Maule much easier then it would a Cessna 180, I have to say I would never take a Cessna 180 over a 0-540 or IO-540 Maule but that is just based on personal experience I have had with each.

Sounds like a great trip! Hopefully you can get some pictures and videos up soon, I'm excited to see how the area and wildlife looked!

Been there, done that many, MANY years ago, I'm recalling something like in 76 or 77, but on the main Salmon, in September. Floated down for something like 3 1/2 days, took a jetboat back up in as many hours. Also learned how to keep a kayak upright one of the days. Super memories.

Cary