Rafting Murtaugh Canyon of the Snake River
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2007
1
107
158
Trip End
Dec 29, 2009
Murtaugh,
Idaho,
United States
Saturday, April 25, 2009
It was a cold and cloudy day. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the wind. That was another big factor to the frigid temperatures. I'd say without the wind it was about 40 degree Farenheit (about 4 degrees celsius). I have no idea what the water temperature was...it was freezing is all I know. And someone died on this river about a week ago. See here: http://www.kidk.com/news/local/43263022.html?video=YHI&t=a or http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f11/death-on-the-murtaugh-23949-2.html#post137805
I was a passenger on the raft and my dad rowed
Put In
. We ended up flipping in a class IV rapid at the beginning of the trip. I had a wetsuit, a fleece top AND a dry top on yet was still cold before we even put on the river, so you can imagine how cold I was when I actually had to swim in the river. When the raft flipped I became trapped underneath it and couldn't find air for a minute. I finally found an air pocket to breath and just stayed calm and made sure I was breathing. It was hard just to breathe for while because of the shock of the freezing water. I continued to go through the rapid under the raft and when it calmed down a bit I went underneath and came back up next to the raft. My dad was already up there and helped me up onto the raft. We floated another class III upside down before getting into our friend's raft and over an eddy where we could flip my dad's raft back over. After flipping the raft back over and getting into the boat I found that the dry box on the raft leaked and all my clothes I brought were soaked. We went through a couple more rapids before hitting a lateral wave that almost flipped the boat over (again!). It went up completely sideways and I fell out, my dad barely stayed in the raft. I swam over to the side and another raft picked me up. At this point I was probably the coldest I'd ever been in my life. My hands and feet were just totally freezing. The river was yesterday and today my hand is still swollen from the cold. After getting back into my dad's raft I rowed a couple class III and IV rapids and it helped warm me a up a bit.
We had to portage one rapid, it's just too risky to run in a raft. I'm sure a kayaker could run it if they picked the right line but not flipping a raft at this water level would be difficult
Bridge
. After portaging and hitting four more Class IV rapids and also so pretty waterfalls on the way, we made it to the end, which is a lake right above Twin Falls. There is a dam right there at Twin Falls, so now instead of two waterfalls it's just one because the dam blocked one off. Anyway the wind was blowing upwind and was really strong, and with the flat water rowing was so difficult. The other rafts were already quite a bit ahead of us. I rowed, then my dad would row, but we weren't moving anywhere. So I got on one oar and my dad got on the other and we rowed like an hour - we didn't go very far but at least we got somewhere. Finally we were able to flag down a guy driving a wakeboard boat and he towed us in to the takeout. He was such a genuinely nice guy, I appreciate people like that.
First thing I did at the takeout was get in my dad's truck and turn the heat on! I was so cold! After getting everything take apart and loaded up in my the truck we drove back to Utah, me to Salt Lake City and my dad to Saratoga Springs. All I had to wear was shorts, a tank top, and a fleece top because all of my clothes were wet. Brr! I got to apartment at about 1 am and went right to sleep and slept until almost noon today. I'm sure it would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't so cold but I'm still so glad I went on that trip. Craziest times make for the best stories.
