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Whitewater timing varies with scouting, portages, and group pace. Use as a planning baseline.
Description
Scott England mentioned that this run is class II and III. With one brief rapid with a class IV move that is easily portaged at 400 cfs.
The float is aound 34 miles from the hwy 191 bridge to Swasey's take-out. You can cut off around 12.5 miles of meanders by driving down the canyon on the access road and put it where it crosses the river. This makes a daily trip easier and avoids almost all of the flat sections of the river. The road is well maintained and any high clearance vehicle can travel down it.
It can be run in a long day with 400 CFS. At 400 cfs the river is almost always chest deep or less with steep cut banks. Be carefull when getting out and choose your stops wisely.
In May 2019 Graham Abrams shared: \[at 500 cfs, about class 3+ but\] 'there are lots of quick moves and blind corners and not lots of eddies. It’s about a 30 mile section. You can do it in a long day but I did it in 3 days so I could hike/camp.' Minimum good around 250 cfs for packrafts.
The two major rapids are Long Canyon and Little Big Drop. You can tell your at LC when you see the giant cobble rocks stacked on the right bank. It is a great fun read and run. Little Big Drop should be run on the left and gets easier as the flows get higher. The rocks in this are easy to recognize and there are nice places to pull off right before the rapid. Portaging this rapid is easy and short.