Fall on the Middle Fork October 6th - October 12th.

Hello again, Jerry and Betsy made it down the Middle Fork for the first time in seven years. Woo hoo. Randy Barnack joined us driving over from Boise with his 14 foot raft, to add to our one boat float in our 17' Maravia. They had only reopened the river to floating a week before we went and we were warned about lots of wood in the river ( they weren't wrong), one place was still burning.

Never done it so late, or have I ever seen the river so beautiful. These are sights to make you wonder a bit as you drive to the putin.







Launching late on Saturday we only made it Gardell's hole the first night. This was the first time I had ever camped here and other than the heavy frost the next morning it was awesome. This was probably Malcolm's last trip on the river. He is almost 15 and has been down the MF at least three times, but his hips are giving out and he had a lot of trouble getting around the boat this time. Old and stiff like his dad.




We only made it to Sheepeater the next night, due to a little slowdown at Ramshorn. Never seen anyone rap there, so that was exciting and not too hard to get off of. FYI it wasn't me. This is fall foliage at Sheepeater looking back upstream at the burned hills behind. Bets cooking breakfast.











And then we came to the tree section. From Sheepeater down to Lake Creek, Pistol Creek area, trees were visible down in the river almost the entire time. Sometimes several together and often at least half way across. These were some that were more than halfway.