MF Day 0, 6/9/2007

First, the drive: it was long. From Couer d'Alene, it took pretty much all of 9 hours of driving to get to Boundary Creek campground and the put in for the Middle Fork.

For those who are concerned with such things as keeping your meat cold for six days, there is a Missoula Safeway that sells dry-ice for 95 cents a pound. On state route 93, it's on your way through town. Remember not to directly touch it (the dry-ice that is) unless you're trying to remove warts.

Second, the permit. You must always have a permit to run the Middle Fork of the Salmon. From May 28th to September 3rd, the permits are allocated through a lottery. To enter this lottery, you apply (info here) between Dec 1st of the previous year and January 31st of the year you want to float. Any other time of the year, the permits are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis by phone.

As far as the lottery goes, I know many people who have done very well with it. However, in the past 15 years, I've entered the lottery thirteen times, and have gotten exactly 0 permits. But I keep sending in my $6.00 anyway.

On the other hand, if someone cancels their permit (at least 21 days notice to the Forest Service or you are banned from the lottery for three years), the permit is re-allocated on a phone-in, first-come, first-serve basis.

You obviously have to be more flexible with your schedule, and there are no guarantees of even getting a permit, but so far, that's the only way I have gotten to boat.

But I digress.

At the put-in at Boundary Creek, there are typically 7 groups launching every day of the summer season. This can become quite a fiasco.

We left Couer d'Alene at 5am (PDT) to make sure we got to Boundary Creek by 3pm (MDT). This is because unlike other rivers that I've rafted, the campsites are assigned by the Forest Service, and this is typically done at the discretion of the Ranger on site beginning at 3pm on the day previous to your assigned launch.

I didn't think I would like assigned camping, but other than a little anxiety about missing our camp (that whole "going back upstream" thing), it was actually much more relaxing this way: no jockeying for campsites, racing downriver, or questions about whether you will be able to find a beach.

So, about 3pm, a representative from each group present meets with the Ranger to work out who will camp where. This is done both by request, and Ranger fiat. Our group was small (5 people), so we were denied pretty much all of the big campsites, as it should be. Each group was allowed to camp one night at a "hot-springs camp," since there are several along the Middle Fork, but no one could do a lay-over day at a hot-springs. Several camps were within easy hiking distance to a hot-springs but due to distance, would not count as a hot-springs camp.

Since none of us had been down the Middle Fork before, we pretty much put ourselves in the fair and just hands of the Ranger and took what she gave us.

While Sparky and Backstroke dealt with the campsite negotiations, the rest of us (myself, Bama, and CB) worked on rigging the boats in the parking lot.


There isn't a very big eddy at Boundary Creek, the parking lot is about 50 vertical feet above the river, and as mentioned, there are typically a "buttload" of people wanting to put their boats in the water. This is where the fiasco comes in. Maybe "fiasco" isn't the right term. Clusterf#%k is probably more apropos.

Launch-site incompetence isn't the exclusive domain of private boaters:


The Forest Service has a rule that no one group can take up more than three boat widths in the eddy: all other boats in the party are supposed to moor to the ends of the beached boats, but that is apparently a rule that isn't enforced. So there wasn't room for our boats in the eddy when we were ready to float them that evening.

So we (and a lot of other people too) just left our boats in the parking lot overnight.
We then just went to the adjacent campground for the night. I recommend not camping in campsite #6. Unless you enjoy people walking from the launch site through your camp that is.

Obligatory picture of a deer butt: