Around 30 years ago I floated that stretch of the Lochsa at higher water in a flat ended, 14 foot long Hypalon raft that had a "non self bailing floor" glued to the bottom of the cross thwarts. I loaded up the front section with water then headed into the Beast! No problem! the raft just pushed on through. I learned this from a very scary high water run through West Water Canyon of the Colorado River in the spring (May or June) of 1974. The raft loaded it's self up with water by the time I got through Funnel Falls. We headed into Skull with a big load of water. One 2 X 6 inch frame board broke and 2 D rings were pull off but we made it up the wave hitting the rock cliff separating the river from the Room of Doom and off to the left! Some of that old equipment was pretty bullet proof.
It blows me away how easy you make this look. I been white water rafting for 25 years. Been to the lochsa river madness 3 times have a 17 foot Aire cougar cataraft. I been in a hard shell kayak one time on the Salmon River. I almost drown 3 feet from shore in calm water with the owner of kayak right beside me. One more thing is a helmet came does no justice in videos to the size of the waves in person. Their twice as big if not more in person. In a kayak these waves on the lochsa at this flow are like a two story house! I know kayaks will go threw unbelievable shit but only if the kayaker has unbelievable skill.
That is a good point, we call that the Go Pro effect! It is twice as big in real life compared to the video that used to happen to me all the time, watching a video then go try to kayak a river and realizing it's way bigger than it looked, thanks for the comment!!
One day I hope to get up there from Southern Idaho. The Lochsa, Clearwater, Middle Fork Salmon, North Fork Payette, Owyhee and Bruneau-Jarbridge are definitely on my bucket list.
That guy in the front of of the first raft 😂. Dude just hit a wall! I would love to get up there from Southern Idaho just as a spectator! But I guess we have the North Fork Payette for that here. Someday, Iwould love to raft or kayak the Lochsa, Clearwater, Middle Fork Salmon, North Fork Payette, Owyhee, Snake and Bruneau-Jarbridge. But almost all of those take serious skill. I was able to keep us straight down the Deschutes while I'll requested to be in back steering, but the Deschutes is tame compared to Idaho.
