Campsites on the River

Danielle reminded me there is a great web page shows pics and descriptions of the campsites on the middle fork.

Enjoy

http://www.whitewatercampsites.com/Middle%20Fork%20Salmon/photos/index.php?album=00-0%20Boundary%20Creek

Karen/Brian/Dano can you confirm?

I think these were the names of our sites
Rapid River
SunFlower (with hot showers!!)
Upper Grouse
Grassy Flat 1
Otter Bar

this time we have 6 nights on the river. When we put in I'm going to see if we can concentrate the shorter float days towards the start of the trip. This will give us more time to "warm up" with our river/camping and more chance of hot springs encounters. The last two days are somewhat less exciting. I definately want to hit the hike-in hot springs that are before Upper Grouse.

Timelines and Preferences - More Travel and Times Discussion

Okay so there has been some talk about vehicles. Lou has provided some info and an email to me about the drive, how long and routes. Lou's rig will be going through Boise to pickup those that are flying in. The rest will probably go directly to the put in. Arriving late is fine but the final stretch of road to the put in sounds desolate and dark and we want to get on the water early on Saturday. Hopefully 8ish. Here is what I know about the routes.

Going via Boise:This route according to Google Maps is a little under 10 hours. According to Lou is about 12 hours.

Return Via Boise [15 hours]:This is the route Lou will be taking in Big Red since he'll have peeps to drop a the air port. All the routes look pretty similar in time so I guess the big question is preference. I suppose each car load could make up their own minds.

Return Via Spokane [13 hours]: This is a long road home but it's what Google Maps provides. The route is through Missoula MT and then Spokane. Probably get on the road same day as the take out and camp/hotel in Spokane.

Return via blue highways through Walla Walla [14 hours]: This route seems to cut a little distance and time off of the Spokane route above but who knows. Smaller, twistier roads vs Freeway. Looks nice though.

Another item that has come up is departure times. I think most people will have Friday off due to the holiday. If not... uh that sucks! I've put together a little survey to get an idea of how many people are leaving at given times. Lou is leaving early on Friday because he has to pickup rafters at the air port in Boise at particular times. Other vehicles can depart whenever within reason, though it'd be nice to convoy. Ideally we'd like to keep the number of vehicles down to three. Three vehicles should be plenty of seating for this group. The tough part is managing schedules, routes etc. That's what I'm trying to do here but adding another vehicle adds more to fuel, shuttling etc.

Also it would be nice to know what the need for tents is rather than end up with ten tents!!! According to Lou sleeping under the stars is an option though the first couple nights it's probably gonna be pretty cold at the starting elevations. If we could bring a few larger tents and bunk up that would probably be best and minimize load.

I'll be sending out a questionnaire to everyone on the list to get an idea about all this. Please fill it out and submit. All the info will go into a spreadsheet and will be easier to deal with than 20 emails with 100 followup joke emails!!!

UPDATE: Additional notes from Lou...

I’m going through Boise (as we all have to) but will be picking up the boise overnight people (arrive in boise on Thurs evening). There is later group arriving in Boise at 6:45 roughly that need to be picked up also … (this corresponds to about a 11am departure from Portland).

12 hours was leaving at noon, loss of 1 hour time change, Dan re-entering the highway back to Portland after fill of gas (lost 20 minutes there) and stop for food and gas again in Boise.

There is a small town before the turnoff I think it was about 10pm when we drove through. There is info somewhere on which mile marker to turn at it just looked like a dirt road to the north … I think the drive down the turnoff was about 20 minutes but it was late [and] I don’t remember exactly. All I remember was we were driving down a road at about 50mph I think there was a cliff to the left and we almost hit about 10 deer.

Pick Your Ride!!!

BIG RED (aka Bankrupt RED) seen here being... uh... pushed/pulled by her owner. Seating for 6 plus gear and main load hauler.

Or secure a seat aboard GROßES ROT (German Big Red, shown here fully equipped for weekend fun) Seating for 7 plus gear. Optionally could bring the trailer too. (Note the two middle seats are rear facing. Those with motion issues need not apply.)

As far as I know we still need a volunteer vehicle that can hold 5 or so plus gear for departure from Portland. Unless Lou wants to correct me on that.

Supercomputer cost estimates

I started up a new supercomputer spreadsheet with some estimated expenses based on prior trips:

Rough estimates:

Permits etc:	$27
Vehicle shuttle:	$44
Food:	$60	$900 buys a lot of food at Costco
Beverage:	$20	less if you don’t drink alcohol
Fuel:	$53
Ice:	$7
Misc Group:	$10	paper plates, toilet paper, any other group items

Rough totals per person:
$220, plus whatever other items you have spent on outfitting yourself.    This is based on 3 vehicles. … I estimated high in some cases will give us some slack in other areas.

These numbers may go up or down.  I would appreciate, to show your commitment, if you could mail me a check for $200 for each person so I don’t have to front all this.  If you have a hard time scrapping together the cash but are still committed just give me a heads up I can float you for awhile …

I will keep track of the costs and refunds etc, and should then be able to cover all the expenses to prepare for the trip.  At the end of the trip I can email a detailed reckoning of how the money was spent.  Keep in mind, an outfitted trip like this on this river usually goes for $1600 per person not including travel …

The food is likely going to be chicken/pork most nights with perhaps steak one night. Does anyone think we should go more gourmet or stay within the confines of this estimate (it will cost more to “go gourmet”)  like for example Gourmet could include King Crab if you are into that sort of thing.  Anyone who knows how to cook any of this crap please sign up for chef duty (Brian you did a great job on the steak dinner last time).  Let me know.

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This will be a collection point for dissemination of plans, information, tips etc. Also we'll keep an eye on things so any questions posted in the comments will get answered. Or you can email kenconvery@gmail.com or slamkal@gmail.com and we'll find a way to get back to you. If we get a question via email that seems valuable to the group we'll post it to this blog but we'll delete any personal info (names, phone numbers, email address etc).

Note on comments: If you have an OpenID tied account (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Yahoo, etc) I'm pretty sure you can just use those accounts to post. I'll test that later and confirm. If you don't know what any of those things are we'll send you a post card! (not really). I'll leave anonymous posting available too though if we start to get to much spam posting we'll kill it. If you post a question anonymously and you want someone to contact you put your name in there so we can look you up. DON'T PUT YOUR PHONE NUMBER ON THE INTERNET!!! You've been warned. If you want help with any of this shoot me an email. I help people, it's what I do.

I'll leave this up after so we can post stories, pictures whatever after that sad day comes when the trip has ended.