Malad 1,600 CFS Lets rally up Saturday run a bunch of laps.

The Malad River in Tuttle, Idaho is running at 1,600 cfs the last I heard. This is a solid Class IV run, and without Class IV experience it will be a hard day. With that being said it is super fun, and there is an upper section that is supposed to be a lot easier. Here is a video of that run at 1,200 cfs I believe https://vimeo.com/35867992

That's a long drive to be disapointed.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/uv/?site_no=13152500&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,00010

I'll call my friend Jim who lives in Hagerman and fishes the Snake there at the dam about every night. That's where the run is, right? The bridge in the vid looks like route 30.

He's a sturgeon addict, moved up there a few years ago just to fish for them.

http://www.idahopower.com/OurEnvironment/WaterInformation/StreamFlow/maps/streamFlowsDataTable.cfm?id=970896#Link2

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/574/#tab-map
I need to work on this map some more; that putin is for the upper mile above the dam, and the takeout is the takeout for below the dam.

Such conflict in guages, huh. I tend to believe the Idaho Power guage is the relevent one, it's just upstream from the old bridge ruins. The USGS is above the park.

I'll be in class till 10:30, then I'll call some boots on the ground up there to get the skinney. If he's in town he'll drive up there for me, I'm sure.

That part of Idaho is where I renewed my thirst for whitewater. I was up fishing with Jim and went down from the dam to the Bliss grade bridge. I'm planning to take my scout troop there this comming spring to raft and fish.

The run in the video reminds me of the Indian River back home, non stop class 3/4 with nowhere to hide if you get in trouble. The Indian is the lead in to the Hudson River run. They had a death there this fall, end of September a woman fell out of a raft and drown.

If any of you fish, I have caught Sturgeon up to 6' just below the dam and Jim has caught them to 9' with estimated weight of 300lbs. If you've never caught a really big fish, that is one place to get it done.

I might be interested. Looks like its dropping though.

Jim said it looks like a lot of whitewater to him. More than he would want to mess with.

Jim was a jet boat pioneer and is an amazing oarsman in his drift boat, so I tend to believe him.

Well I am sure that it is not to much whitewater to handle. Anyway it is off. Deep Creek is the default now. Who wants to run it? Maybe tomorrow maybe sunday.

If I was headed up there I would look at the Malad; the upper mile is doable with much less water; should still be good. Scout the obvious crux above the dam, above the bridge.
FSM what have you heard is a minimum flow on the Idaho power gauge for the run below the dam?
Deep creek is running?

Deep Creek is running. 2.35 ft. I will postpone my trip to Sunday if you want to carpool up. I would love to boat with you before the season is done.

I have an Idaho Falls buddy thats paddling deep creek tomorrow. He said he'd call me and let me know if it was worth the drive. He thought it would be the last weekend it'd be running.

Yeah it seems like that is the case. I will be heading up sunday most likely. Hit me up if you want to go.