Our New Favorite River

After regrouping for showers, laundry, and more importantly, internet access in Grants Pass at the Rogue Overnighters RV Park, we headed down to the Cal Salmon. What a great river! Multiple runs to be had from Class II to Class IV+/V and almost nobody else on the river. Beautiful canyons, beautiful water, great rapids, and there we were at a prime level with almost no one else around. We ended up doing the Methodist Creek run (Class II+/III) on the South Fork Salmon and two runs on the Butler Creek section (Class IV) on the main river below the forks. Check out our trip reports page for more. We didn’t tackle Nordheimer as we were by ourselves (safety first) and because Freight Train just looked too pushy. The Butler Creek run is a short section with multiple Class III/III+ rapids and a couple of Class IV rapids, one of which borders on IV+ (Gaping Maw). I think at the 2000 cfs or so when we ran it, it would be comparable in difficulty to the upper part of the main Tuolumne run (through Clavey Falls) at around 4000 cfs. The Nordheimer run would be another level higher, very big and very pushy. Maybe next time at lower water. This one is a must do in 2012!