Floating Fathers

It was the first nice day in March last year when John Bales and I leaned up against his deck railing and hatched the low water Selway trip over a couple of Hamms. Idaho’s Selway River has proven to be one of the most difficult permits to obtain. It has a short season and permits are required May 14th through July 31st. Early season runs are difficult to coordinate as the pass is usually covered with snow and the road to the put-in is not plowed. Late season runs are possible, but the water is usually only a trickle and you need to fly your gear in. After my last trip with John in a small airplane flying into yet another wilderness river, he was quick to perceive I was not too keen on the flying part. To be fair, the flying part didn’t bother me, it was the “full-flap drop into a nonexistent hole with the hope that we’d clear the fog before we hit the ground” part that made me a bit queasy.

John was quick to direct my attention to four glorious days of sunshine, 16” trout and absolute solitude on an incredibly beautiful river. After another beer, I was convinced and we set the date for a mid-September launch.

We invited two other folks on our trip- Mike Beiser and Travis Fulton. Mike is the director of the Outdoor Program at the University of Idaho and is as comfortable in the backcountry as a bear. I don’t think you could find a more experienced outdoorsman in our area making him a man of 1000 stories - great around a campfire. And of course my good friend Travis of many, many years: a self-proclaimed novice to whitewater whose only previous experience was a trip down the White Salmon in which he claims to this date, that “I tried to kill him”. He had a nice hike out of the Gorge as I recall.

A week before the trip we gathered gear and checked the weather. It had been raining ‘bout every day for the past two weeks. We watched the river gauge climb each day and then recede just a fraction at night. We started to send e-mails about the rising river and excluded Travis so he wouldn’t have to think about me trying to kill him. We knew if we got him on the plane, he would do just fine. As the rain continued the Selway was approaching 3000cfs (July flows), we realized the fishing was going to suck and the whitewater was actually going to be pretty good. We definitely were not going to tell Travis about this. As the launch date approached, we checked the forecast one last time to see what the next four days would bring: rain, rain rain, and more rain. Great.

We hit the airport in Moscow and talked to Doug at Interstate Aviation, who had flown John and company in several times. As it turns out, it was forecasted to rain and a front was currently moving in.

We loaded the Cessna 206 as we discussed the possibilities of actually getting into Moose Creek. Once the plane was loaded and the sky was turning darker, we somehow decided it was a nice day for a backcountry flight. Surprisingly enough, the flight was gorgeous and the landing uneventful.

*** Important note - the Moose Creek landing strip is not close to the river. Plan on hauling your gear down a long trail before getting to the water.

As we watched the plane bank out of sight it dawned on me we were about to take 4 brand new untested prototype urethane inflatable kayaks and an inexperienced paddler on a wilderness river with no road access that was approaching a 70-year high for September. Cool. Something was going to happen, it was just a matter of when and what.

John mentioned at the take out 4 days later that several “firsts” had taken place on this trip. 1) He swam on the Selway. 2) He broke his fishing pole. 3) While scouting a rapid, we watched his boat slip away and run solo with his really nice camera and more importantly for the rest of us, our food on board. 4) We woke up one morning as we checked the water level, realized that it was high enough to be touching 3 of our boats which we had pulled way up on the beach and Travis’ boat was gone. 5) He had never portaged a rapid on this “low water” stretch before.

To be continued!!

Todd Benson
NRS Buyer