Raft Trip down Salmon from Pine Bar to Heller Bar

Just got back from a raft trip with my son down the lower Salmon. Went with a group of scouts with North Star Expeditions from Cambridge. The water flows were still high - 18000 cfs on Thursday morning when we launched. They said that 20000 cfs is generally the cut off where they won't take people down. It was a large group of 31 including the guides but everyone handled it well. Two gear rafts, three 8 person paddle rafts and three kayaks. One of the paddle rafts got flipped the first day and I have the honor of being the only one who flipped a kayak.

We saw Rocky Mountain sheep (5 rams right by the river in one place) Mountain goats, River Otters, Beaver, and Deer. One Golden Eagle flew over our raft and then dived onto the opposite bank for its dinner.

The weather was nice - just hot enough to enjoy the cold water later in the days.

Fishing was not real good because of the high flows. Two of us hard core fishermen did catch some small mouth bass in the mornings and evenings along the shore. I caught a 20" white fish on my light rig using a wobble lure. We set up two nights for sturgeon but did not catch any.

The nights were wonderful sleeping under the stars on the pads. NO mosquitoes or other biting bugs!

I did not have a water proof camera so did not have photos, but will see if any of the others do have any to share.