Idaho • May 24-31 June 23-30, 2010
(Rescheduled due to weather – still slots available!)

TRIP DESCRIPTION:
The trip is an inflatable kayak float and hiking exploration of the East Fork of the Owyhee canyons in the newly designated Owyhee River Wilderness.  This 70-mile river float features long stretches of scenic flat water (90% of the river length) punctuated by 12 classified rapids.  Four of the rapids will be portaged.  The trip is suitable for novice to expert boaters.   Hikes are up narrow side canyons or steep canyon walls to the rim.  Trip fitness level – strenuous.   Trip starts and ends at Sun Valley, Idaho.

COST & LIMITATIONS:
Limited to a minimum of 4, maximum of 8 participants.  Reserve your place with the Trip Leader and a non-refundable $125 deposit by May 15, 2010.  This is a group share trip.  Cost is $250 - $450/person depending upon group size.  Participants are responsible for their own travel to Sun Valley, equipment and breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks.  Dinners will be planned communally.  Communal expense includes a share of travel expenses to and from Sun Valley to the trip trailheads, the group dinners, trip fuel and miscellaneous expense like satellite phone rent.   Inflatable kayaks can be rented in Sun Valley.

ITINERARY:
Group Pre-Trip Teleconference:  To discuss itinerary, gear, safety, menu, et. al.  A general question and answer session with trip leader, Bob Jonas.   Date and time arranged prior to trip through email communication.

Monday, June 21:  Ketchum, Idaho.  At Bob’s house, final trip preparation including shakedown of dry bags and gear.  Plan on arriving in Sun Valley the night before or early in the day.   Evening potluck dinner at Bob’s plus relevant video(s) and reading material.  

June 22:  Depart 6 AM from Ketchum.  Seven hour drive to put-in camp on Deep Creek.  Most of the drive is on the Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway Road through a juniper forest country.  The drive presents and excellent panorama of the Owyhee Plateau and surrounding mountains.  Float four miles to camp one (No rated rapids).  Put-in elevation 5,000 feet.

June 23:  Float Deep Creek to its confluence with the East Fork of the Owyhee, camp two.  A nine-mile, shallow water float through sage benches and around oxbows overhung by towering vertical walls (No rated rapids).  Rim hike from camp two.

June 24:  Deep Creek to Owyhee Falls through the beautiful Lambert Gorge.  Depending upon time may portage Owyhee Falls (two hours) and camp at Juniper Bend. Nine miles (2 rated rapids).

June 25:  Juniper Bend through lower Lambert Canyon to Crutchers Landing or East Fork/South Fork confluence Camp.  Two-hour portage of Thread the Needle Rapid. Twelve miles (4 rated rapids).  Rim hike at confluence camp.  Full moon tonight.

June 26:  East Fork/South Fork confluence to Bald Mountain Camp.  Much of the canyon from here to the take-out at Three Forks has the feel of a mini Grand Canyon of the Colorado.  Hike Leaping Lamp canyon en route.  Four miles (2 rated rapids). 

June 27:  Bald Mountain to Indian Cave camp.  A short portage at Cabin rapid.  Eight miles (3 rated rapids) .

June 28: Indian Cave to Totem Wall.   One-hour portage of Cable Rapid.  Hoodoos and totems, like seen at Bryce Canyon, Utah are common along the canyon walls at this point.   Nine miles (1 rated rapid).

June 29:  Totem Wall to Owyhee Hot Springs.  Stop at the historic Five Bar ranch (abandoned).  The hot springs is a nice soak, but this is the Memorial Day weekend and the springs are accessible by a primitive road.  It may be occupied.  If that’s the case, we may paddle the one-mile to the take-out and camp there.  Twelve miles (No rated rapids).

June 30:  One mile to take-out at Three Forks.  Return to Ketchum via the Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway Road.   About an 8-hour return drive to Ketchum.

FLOAT NOTES:
The Bureau of Land Management in their Boating Guide for the Owyhee and Bruneau River Systems, our ‘on-boat’ guide, rates the 12 rapids that we’ll experience.  Eight of the rapids are rated Class 3.  Four – Owyhee Falls, Thread the Needle, Cabin and Cable – are rated Class 4-6.  We’ll portage those with the exception of Cabin whereof we’ll line or boat some sections.  High water occurs in March and April, the flow much diminished by late May.  We may be dragging our boats over ankle deep riffles in Deep Creek.   Class 3 rapids become Class 2.   Paddling against upstream winds in the flat water that prevails will be our toughest paddling challenge.   

Our mode of travel is inflatable kayak, open boats that a neophyte paddler in good physical condition can handle.  Especially suitable in the low, flat-water conditions that we’ll experience.  Think of inflatable kayak exploration as ‘backpack floating’.  You will be carrying the gear, food and clothing typical of a weeklong backpack trip.  Instead of a backpack, 95% of your stuff is packed in a large dry bag strapped into the stern of your boat.  A small dry bag, strapped to the bow, is for day items.

DAY HIKES:
The 3-4 day hikes planned, which are optional, are from the canyon floor up very steep sidewalls to the rim.  Steep is the key word here, so bring telescoping trekking poles.
 
WEATHER:
Could be overcast, windy and blustery.  Cool and rainy.  If it’s clear, it will be hot.  Prepare for these extremes of weather relative to clothing.  Bring sturdy cross train shoes for day hikes and a water shoe for floating.   See also the Wild Gift Boating Checklist.

CRITTERS:
The charismatic fauna includes geese, peregrine falcon and golden eagles.  Antelope on the rims and bighorn sheep on the canyon walls.   If it’s warm, we’re likely to see some rattlesnakes.  In the water, redband trout and bass.   The noisome critter is ticks, which we can count-on experiencing this time of year.  The Owyhee Canyonlands are a juniper/sage high desert ecosystem.

DISCUSSION/READING:
Topics for discussion will include the Wild Gift Leader Program and the projects of current program recipients.  We’ll discuss the Owyhee Initiative, a collaborative effort between the ranching, hunting, motorized and non-motorized recreation and the environmental community that resulted in the Owyhee River Wilderness designation this past March, the first wilderness designation for Idaho in over 20 years and the first wilderness designation by President Obama anywhere in the nation.  See Wilderness Net for more information on the ‘Owyhee River Wilderness’ and a Google Map.  The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is another link and has maps of the new wilderness.   We’ll talk about Wilderness and Wildlands Linkage in North America.  Certainly, the nature of the Owyhee River Canyonlands - its terrain and ecosystem.  Wikipedia provides an overview, both description and history, of the Owyhee River country and Google maps.  You can order from Outdoor Idaho Video your very own DVD copy of the ‘Owyhee River Canyonlands’ (we’ll watch the video the night before leaving on the trip).   To chart the river miles, you can order your own waterproof river guide (‘Owyhee and Bruneau River Systems Boating Guide’) from the Owyhee Field office of the BLM in Boise (208-384-3300).  Reading the book “Outlaw” by Jeff Long, 1985, provides an insight into the people who inhabit this wild country.  It tells the story of Claude Dallas, a trapper, who gunned down two Idaho Fish and Game wardens on the South Fork in 1981 and then disappeared into the country.  It’s a modern tale reflecting upon the character of the Owyhee country, its people and ranching history.

TRIP LEADER:

Bob Jonas, Wild Gift Founder and Executive Director

Bob is a resident and native of the Wood River Valley in central Idaho.  He has degrees in wildlife biology and education.  He has worked as a fishery biologist in Alaska and Greenland; as a wilderness ranger and middle school teacher in Idaho.  At 68, Bob has explored a lot of wild Idaho and Alaska, his favorite country.  He’s shared many trails with new and old friends as an outfitter and guide who founded Sun Valley Trekking Company and Wild Gift.   His trip leader qualifications include alpine, nordic and backcountry ski and avalanche certifications plus Wilderness First Responder.  To explore remote, off-trail wild country in all seasons he has become a competent trekker comfortable on all land terrains, snow/glaciers, river systems and oceans as a backcountry skier, backpacker, rafter and kayaker.   Bob has explored, by inflatable kayak or raft, the length of the South and East forks of the Owyhee River, its main stem to the Owyhee Reservoir and the Deep Creek drainage.   Hiked its side canyons and rims.  Hunted in the high country.  Has done over a dozen spring and autumn trips from a week to three weeks duration in all weather conditions from snow to heat.  Wild Gift Board President Ted Angle, wilderness explorer and cross-country track skier extraordinaire, assists bob on the trip.