Owyhee River 2010

April 30-May 4: Rome to Birch Creek

We had a couple days of cold weather to start the trip.  This pic is our lunch spot just a few miles downstream from the put-in at about 3,400ft of elevation.

Luckily there wasn't much precipitation just cold and clear.

The night skies were spectacular and the full moon was like daylight when it crept over the canyon walls at about 4AM.

Sunrise the next morning brought some welcome warmth but then suddenly changed into swirling snowflakes and some fierce winds.  The crew pushed back and we made it to a great camp for the 2nd night.  The sun broke through just as the wine was uncorked and the fire was lit in time to warm us for dinner.

Our time on the Owyhee swung wildly between cold and windy to calm and sunny.  Day 3, we had a cool morning but as we moved out of the canyon and into the wide open Chalk Basin the heat turned up.

This is a pic of us floating downstream, descending into the Lambert Rocks formation of Chalk Basin.

Day 3, our pre-lunch hike was set amongst the castles of Chalk Basin.

Clients are pulled into the shadowy unknown.

Inside the volcanic tuff hoodoos, sculpted rooms emerge.

...Wandering through light and shadows.

...Wish we could explore here for days.

...Working our way back into the daylight.

More hoodoos as we ascend the trail.

Camp 3.

We had a huge Salmon dinner.  The Silvers were so big I thought they were Kings.  Lonnie brought them back from AK last year.

So far we had seen too many birds to list, otters, big horn, and a few mysterious fish rises.

We put on the river at about 1600cfs and by the time we got to Montgomery Rapid the river had fallen to 1000cfs.  Montgomery wasn't too bad but Nuisance was challenging.  We also had nuclear winds at Nuisance and watched a group take horrible runs which didn't help the nerves any bit.   

Luckily we had Minister John to bless our boats and we all made it through.

We all made the pull in to our last night's camp and had fun sipping fine wine from McMinville while hunkered down against brutal wind gusts.  The clients pulled off an amazing tent raising spree post cocktails and managed to get everyone's tent put up without any of them taking flight in the winds.

On the last day, with a blessing from John, we set afloat toward the take out at Birch creek, elevation 2,600ft.  The water was down to 920cfs but we made it through the rock maze and to a sunny and quiet take out.