Hopeful Creek to Lochsa River

_Hopeful Creek to Brushy Fork at Highway 12; 11 miles_ This segment is the run described in Grant Amaral's guidebook. The first couple miles are class II with lots of wood and a couple sections of braided channel. You can expect about ten portages in this section with a couple of longer ones through the woods. Things begin to pick up with a couple granite slides and class III boulder gardens. About four miles in you reach a couple of class IV gorge sections. You will want to scout these for wood which is in play throughout this upper reach. As you pass the confluence with Boulder Creek, the flow picks up. The river then enters a class V section. You can portage or run sections of this. Below this the river  opens up to II and III boogie water to the take-out. _Brushy Fork at Highway 12 to Lochsa River; 7 miles_ This section of the creek is class III boogie water and a good introductory creeking run. You will encounter a couple technical spots, and lots of moves to keep it interesting, but nothing too hard. Best when the Lochsa is in the 8k to 15k range. Of the two segments, this one is probably the higher quality run even though it is not described in the Amaral guidebook.