Advice for Travelling the Salmon River: One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

    
I would like to offer up a suggestion to the canoeists, jet boaters, tubers or whoever, to get a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and take it to the 600 forest service road on the Salmon River. 

Please put a sign on that board which reads "You are about to hit a log jam on the Salmon River which will take you about 4 or 5 hours to get over if you're in really good shape, or if you have a canoe left from hitting the sweepers."

I can count more than a dozen times over the years, that I have had to go up the Salmon River to rescue some boater who felt they could run the upper reaches of the Salmon.

The insurance companies have paid plenty on that stretch of the river and every year, in spite of being told, someone decides that the slow moving Salmon River would be ideal for Moose hunting, bear hunting or just recreational canoeing.

I’m not even sure if it would be all that easy to blow the log jam out of there. I’ve walked it a few times and found even walking it to be very difficult never mind trying to get a canoe over the thing.

There are spots in this country that people should be warned not to travel. The Salmon River, below the 600, or 18 kilometers above highway 97 north, is one of them. I have been surprised that more people haven’t drowned on that section, very likely because the river is not too large or flowing too fast.

But for those who know, the moment you slip under a log jam it really doesn’t matter how fast the current is and trust me, it all takes place in the blink of an eye.

Now you see the canoe...and now... you don’t.

So some advice from an old timer on the rivers in this region, put a sign on the 600 road that says you don’t go down it on a canoe or boat.

You’ll save the Search and Rescue folks a whole lot of headaches and at the same time, you may also save your own life.

I’m Meisner and that is one man's opinion.

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