Fish Creek, Idaho - V (V+)

Fish Creek is well known...at least from the trailhead down. Right at the put in for the ultra classic Lower Lochsa, Fish Creek gets lots of playboat traffic since many boaters use it as an alternative/more exciting put in for the Lochsa.

However, just a short 2 mile hike above the trailhead lies the most accessible class V Lochsa tributary - upper Fish.

With rapids composed of a mix of bedrock and large boulders from cliff walls, Fish Creek has drastically different character at low and high flows. At low flows, it features steep, technical, manky, and sometimes sieved out boulder drops. Medium and high flows bring out stomping, continuous, pushy and classic Idaho class V.

Hike two miles up, and when the trail meets the river, put on and be ready for action right around the corner.

Here is a series of Ira Vasgaard in first major rapid. This is it for action shots, but rest assured, the whole section has high quality, well defined bouldery action. Don't miss it if you are the Lochsa with your creekboat and need some adrenaline.










Oh...I almost forgot. 1/4 mile above the trailhead is a STOMPIN' rapid that is always V+. Good luck with this one.

Bear Creek, Bitterroot Mountains - V

Falling out of the eastern front of the Bitterroots just north of Hamilton, Bear Creek is the best and highest quality class V creek that can be run after work by Missoula boaters.

However, despite the high quality of this section, three factors combine to make Bear a rather infrequently run creek. First, a fairly long hike in and out makes every run something of a mission. Second, the rapids are stacked and the back to back nature with lots of wood consequences means Bear has a high intimidation factor. Third, no good correlations with any online gauges means that you have to drive to the trailhead to check the level...and with the flashy nature of this creek, it can be difficult to find ideal flows.

Just over a mile above the trailhead, you come to the last commonly run rapid on the creek: Brave Bear. Take a look from here, realizing that you can scout much better from creek level on the other side when you get down there, and continue up the trail for a little over a mile. If you get to a point where you can see snowy peaks upstream and the valley floor below you, you have gone too far.

The first rapid, which some have been calling The Big Easy, and others just "The Put In" is a long, multi-tiered slide that is guaranteed to leave you grinning. Watch out of the undercut boulder at the bottom on the left...and if the move here looks too intimidating, the level might be too high.

Jason Schroeder, visiting from Hood River, two strokes into his first time paddling in Montana.



And wishing he was a little further right at the bottom. The logs on the right are sticking in the undercut boulder, and are actually helping the situation right now.



Below here is a quick portage of a river wide old growth log that could be there for years, then a sweet bouldery, wood filled barfight called, simply, the Gnar. It runs better than it looks, and leads into Airplane, a sweet banking slide that is a lot bigger than it looks here.



Catch the eddy immediately below Airplane and see if Log Drop is clean. Currently, it is not (see behind Ben), and this necessitates a seal launch into the slide in the second half of this cool and unique rapid (you kind of have to see it to understand).



Bottom of Log Drop.



Some bouldery drops lead to the Tijuana Crack Whore, one of the signature Bear rapids. Here, a technical boulder drop dumps onto a low angle banking slide, which turns left and drops down into a very narrow crack. Elbow pads recommended. Here is Nic Cole in the entry.



And Schroeder, droppin' in to the filthy part.



EJ Etherington getting kinky in the crack (photo Ben Litz)



And Ben Litz showing how it's done at low water. You can clearly see the crack on his left. (Photo EJ Etherington)




Ben Litz in the runout.



Random slide.



Another random slide above Hotel California...with Ben going one round with a hole.



Below the sticky hole backed up with wood known as Hotel California (you can check in anytime you like...etc), an easy portage on river left brings you to the brink of the granddaddy of Bitterroot rapids: Brave Bear. The Brave one is a combo of ledge to slide to pillow to slide to ledge to...well, you get the idea. It's big and awesome.

Here are Ben and Nick, checking out the pillow move and the top part of the rapid.



Author demonstrating poor form "It's GOOD!" on the entry.



Pillow rides...not just for the bedroom anymore.



(courtesy EJ Etherington, thisriverlife.blogspot.com)

Ben trying to get left below the pillow. This may be the crux move...a boof into a big seam.



And for scale...in the runout, with the lower half of Brave Bear visible above.



Below here, it sort of looks good. But it is manky, wood filled, and hauling ass. Many teams have attempted to continue below here, few have gotten far.



Flows: Picture of the gauge rock, coming soon.

Big Timber Creek, Montana - V

Every day on the river is a good day. Some are better than others, and some just simply blow your mind. Big Timber blew my mind.

It is a classic in every respect. Phenomenal scenery, enormous rapids, and some of the biggest slides you'll ever see. Here are some pictures that cover maybe 20% of the good rapids.

First, a tree had to be cut. What a shitty view. That's Conical Peak, right in the heart of the Crazy Mountains.


Then, we had to hike some more. Boats are heavy.



Alan makes his first paddle stroke of the day on the douple drop put in rapid.




The above leads directly into O's Woes, a fast constricted slide that sends you deep into the bottom hole at high speed.




Below, Chad digging for the boof then riding out slide in Fine Line.






Triple Dipple, which Shiloh is boofing large, leads directly into the fabled and truly epic Pinch.




Here is AJ and then Alan in the Pinch. You can see Triple Dipple above, and then the Pinch slide which constricts to about 6 feet wide.





And then the big scare. Chad hit a bouncer, turned sideways, and went flying headfirst down the slide, where he began to come out of his boat.





He was fine. His boat was recovered, he was stopped from flushing into the next huge slide by a diving leap from AJ, and the paddle was found a few rapids down.

Alan boofs a ledge immediately below the Pinch.



This boof leads directly into this, where Shiloh is approaching terminal velocity in a huge banking slide.



This drop doesn't have a name. I guess it's just "class IV boogie." There are lots and lots of slides and ledges like this, and none of them have names.



Parting shit: Blasting through the Pinch.

Flows
High by some standards, but most in our group called it perfect. However, no one ran the Gambler or the Falls, so what do I know?

Big Sands Creek, Idaho - V (V+)

Big Sands is the most remote run I have done in the US. Combining a long, strenous hike in and an extremely deep canyon, Big Sands is one of the most committing single day missions in Idaho. That said, all the drops are scoutable and portageable at or near river level on the talus fields that create most of the whitewater.

As a high elevation tributary to the legendary Lochsa, the day starts with a long drive in on a slow going, narrow road. I was excited to do this run because it shares a divide with creeks that come down the east side of the Bitterroots right near my house. As the crow flies, the put in is probably only 15 miles from where I am sitting right now.

After the shuttle, the mission begins with a 4 mile hike. It starts innocently enough.



But soon, it turns into a rather desperate thrash through countless blown down trees.




After sweating it out for a couple hours, we arrived at the put in. The calm water here gives no indication of what awaits just downstream. At this point, Ira was claiming it was the lowest he'd ever done it.



I had kind of an epic day. I swam in the first drop, ran some bad lines soon afterwards, and ended up portaging a lot. In fact, everyone portaged quite a bit because by the second rapid, Ira decided it was in fact the HIGHEST he had ever run it. Of our group of 7, only two had done the run before, and one of those had run it 8 years ago....so tension was a little on the high side.

There is no way out but downstream. After a few warmup boulder gardens and a ten foot waterfall, the first of the really tough, threatening drops appeared.





Portaging the gnar. Pushy, technical, extremely complex....with a sieve ending. This photo utterly fails to capture the steepness.



Tyler coasting towards a sweet boof.



James finishing it.



Ira on the first drop of a rapid I found truly disgusting.



And going for the rock slide to pin combo...he was fine.



Resurfacing after the biggest hole of the day.



Tyler ponders the immensity of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness and impossibilty of escape. Did I mention it was about 45 degrees and lightly raining all day?



Around here, I put the camera away and focused on making it to the takeout.

Afterwards, I did my duty to appease the river gods with a bootie (actually ripped the sole of my booty yesterday, so I was paddling in some running shoes, thank god.



Parting shot.

Flows

The Lochsa was at ~3900 cfs when we did Big Sands. I would call this a pretty high flow that makes much of the crux section extremely pushy and threatening for most.