We took the time to hike this precarious, sketchy, steep trail on July 31, 2012. As a former whitewater kayaker who has used many informal access points, I would have to say this is one of the worst of the genre. Only a few very fit individuals would attempt to carry their boat and gear up the steep, slippery, rubble-strewn trails. I might be able to imagine a couple of buff 20-something people carrying an inflatable kayak up that trail but, frankly, even that's a stretch of the imagination. We do know that some kayakers use this informal access but to give it the same status as a RAP as the other major river access points is very misleading.
It is worth noting that the SRNA river brochure makes note of this kayakers' access point. We would strongly recommend taking a first hand look at this so-called access point before deciding whether to mention it in this project's narrative.
Robinson Bar itself is strictly off limits and is some of the most restricted parcels of private property on The Salmon River. Once a boater has floated past the Lower O'Brien area there is no relatively easy egress from the river until reaching The River Company's licensed and permitted lunch spot.
As you may know, during salmon spawning season, the SNRA requires licensed outfitters and the general public to actually portage a 1.5 mile stretch of The Salmon River encompassing Indian Riffles. The egress back into the river after this portage is just above the Robinson Bar private property boundary.
The river takes a sharp left turn to enter The Narrow and the whitewater action begins almost immediately. We ran this stretch twice in June and July 2012 to better acquaint our self with its features. We also talked with various river guides and the nomenclature for features within this area.
The Narrows is a very busy piece of water and the named features appear very quickly one after another. Due to the nature of Idaho Hwy 75 above, it is not practical to attempt to scout The Narrows from the road. One may use two very small pullouts to attempt to see various aspects of The Narrows. This area deserves every bit of its Class III rating here. A swim through The Narrows could easily become very problematic.
We think this portion of the river should receive a thorough discussion on this particular map page (as opposed to the preceding page). If photos can be obtained from one of the commercial outfitters they would be useful in helping describe the section. We took various still and video cameras with us on both our trips but the water was far too busy to attempt to deploy and use a camera. This stretch deserves your full attention as a paddler and there is minimal margin for error.
The history of Robinson Bar itself may well be worth discussing here. Likewise, there is a great old photo of the early highway through The Narrow back from the 1920's or 1930's. If we have correctly understood the various legends about Robinson Bar, it was a very popular place back in the gold mining era. We have heard that the famous late Sen. Frank Church and his wife, Bethine, was actually married outdoors in 1947 at Robinson Bar. His visits to his wife's Family Place may have had a great deal to do with his passion for his historic efforts to create the SNRA. We'd recommend against noting anything about Robinson Bar's current ownership.
Warms Springs Creek might be worth a mention, as may be the largest tributary between the Yankee Fork and the East Fork. (Neither Slate Creek nor Thompson Creek appear to come close to Warm Creek's volume.)
After exiting The Narrows there are numerous small, user-friendly riffles. Boaters will pass by a string of various lunch stop spots used by special permit from the SNRA in conjunction with the operation of licensed commercial whitewater rafting outfitters.
After passing the last of these small, informal lunch stop spots, boaters will see the relatively new Snyder Springs RAP. This is an extremely steep, engineered boat ramp. From what we have been able to learn, the ramp was put in place as an egress location for commercial outfitters so to avoid salmon spawning restrictions at and near Torrey's Hole. During our visits in the summer of 2012 we did not observe anyone using the unusual boat ramp. Likewise, we received various information as it the purpose of the unusual ramp.
We strongly recommend extensive consultation with SNRA Staff to determine the purpose of the Snyder Springs RAP and whether it is intended to at-large public usage.
The river is very mellow between Snyder Springs and Torrey's Hole.
Torrey's Hole will need some possible extensive description as it is one of the busiest RAPs and there are some strict parking regulations in place. We improperly parked vehicles ticketed in July 2012.
Comments will also be necessary about the change in the river's characteristics below Torrey's Torrey's is generally where drift boaters often begin to use The Salmon River.
As the river approaches Slate Creek, the Canyon of The Salmon undergoes extensive structural, geologic and topographic change. Slate Creek marks the approximate boundary of the down river end of the Salmon River Canyon. These changes will be the perfect place for some extensive geologic commentary by Falma Moye.
The Slate Creek drainage off of Railroad Ridge is also definitely worth mentioning. It is quite likely that glaciers in the Boulder White Cloud Mountains drained both into Sawtooth Valley as well as Slate, Holman, French Creeks and the East Fork to give the Salmon River huge boost in water volume. The entire general characteristic of the river's ancestral channel changes beginning at Slate Creek and continuing down river beyond the East Fork.
Below Slate Creek the Salmon goes under the new Slate Creek bridge and passes the SNRA Whiskey Flat Campground. There is no developed river access at Whiskey Flat but small inflatable boats could be put in or taken out there.
There is a BLM road that intersects ID Hwy 75 at the up river end of the Slate Creek bridge. This road leads down river on river left to some official SNRA dispersed camp sites near Holman Hole.
After leaving Whiskey Flat, the river bends far away from the highway and then rejoins the road before carving one of the river's most geometrically extreme hairpin turns under some picturesque geology.
Afterwards the river reaches the bedrock rampart of Holman Hole. This is an area that could deserve extensive geologic interpretation. It is also across from Holman Campground. Although the actual SNRA boundary is situated more than a mile down river, the SNRA's gateway information sign boards are located on the backside of Holman Hole.
The river flow at Holman Hole is definitely worth a mention as high water. When we paddled this stretch June 19, 2012, there were two large and treacherous boils spinning at Holman Hole. The unwary could easily capsize a boat here.
The next point of interpretation is Thompson Creek and Thompson Creek bridge. This is the river's first encounter with extensive riverside residential development. Likewise, the Thompson Creek bridge has a habit in high water of catching large trees in the mid-channel pier. On June 19 there was scant passage around three full length trees lodged here.
There is an informal river access point on private property up river from the Thompson Creek bridge. We doubt this access should be mentioned in the guide. Thompson Creek is a USGS gauged side stream.
This summer we did extensive research on the precise geographic center of the state of Idaho. it might be worth mentioning the point on the Salmon River where one passes closest to this point. It is only a few miles north of the river in the Torrey's Hole vicinity. The long/lats of this spot have been thoroughly vetted by various Idaho GIS professionals.
Since this marks the end of The Salmon River through the SNRA it is worth noting a few things here. Back in 2010 when we were signed on to help the BLM create a mimle-by-mile river guide, we were told the SNRA did not want to be a part of the project. Hence, we started our field work at the first formal public RAP below the SNRA--Squaw Creek.
When we were signed back on May 8th as BLM Volunteers, we were told that the SNRA wanted "in" on the mile-by-mile river guide project. We made numerous inquiries into "who" at the SNRA would be the contact person for this project. We were told that the Ranger Barbara Garcia would be the only person to talk to. We were unable to establish contact with her. Frankly, we have no idea if indeed the SNRA wishes to be involved in this project. It would behoove the BLM Staff to make the proper official inquiries as to whether the SNRA indeed wishes to be involved. We spent considerable time and effort doing field work in the SNRA for possible inclusion in this guide project. The SNRA does have their only, very simply brochure describing the river with their administrative boundaries.
While we personally believe their section of river should be included in this project, it's definitely worth checking out on the part of BLM Staff. We did not believe it was appropriate for us as volunteers to go beyond a fwe informal inquiries as to what is the status of the SNRA's interest in this project.
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