This Memorial Day weekend road trip started early Thursday afternoon with a brief stop at Starbucks then I pointed Bart east towards Lowell, ID with a full load of cat boats on the trailer. 
Nate & I met up with Kevin & Evan at the Burger King in Otello, WA where some old fat lady ecstatically informed us that the new ribs at Burger King were "to die for"...so I had a Whopper. After grabbing dinner and some gas we made our way to Lewiston, ID for a late night grocery stop which included food, beer, sippy cups and a stuffed fish we lovingly named Stanley (the plan for Stanley was that he was to be presented to the person that spent the most time underwater this weekend and held until next year...congrats Evan!). In Lewiston we stopped to top off the gas tanks in the trucks and while we were there a guy pulled in driving a wicked-cool ambulance pulling a raft on a trailer. 
I asked him where he was heading and apparently he was coming from Walla Walla and going to the same place we were going to. I asked him who he was meeting out there and said he was invited by Mike, the same Mike we were meeting tomorrow morning...small world! We then made for the South Fork of the Clearwater and looked for a spot of dirt on the side of the road to park the trucks, have a drink and crash for the night in Kev's camper. And believe it or not all 4 of us fit in Kev's camper quite comfortably with out needing to get obscenely cozy.
In the morning we took a few minutes to scout some of the river and find a good place to put-in. Once we had a plan we ran our shuttle and set up our gear and met up with the others. The run down the S.F. Clearwater was a good one it's a narrow Class IV with some good drop style rapids and a long continuous whitewater section that runs about 1.5 to 2 miles long. Only once did I go flying out of my seat as I punched a large hole, but as I was going out of the front of the boat I was thinking "I should grab that foot bar I'm flying over" so I reached down, grabbed on and managed to stay mostly in the boat...nice save V!
With our Friday run under our belts we headed up the road to Three Rivers to meet up with the rest of the gang for the weekend. At Three Rivers we met up with the others from Seattle, grabbed the keys to our cabins, snagged a couple beers and proceeded straight to the hot tub where we lounged around until we decided to go up to the bar for dinner - now that's rafting!
8am Saturday morning we jumped in Bart and headed up the Lochsa to the White Pine put-in 42 miles up river. The "girls" ran the shuttle for us and dropped Bart and the other truck at the Knife Edge takeout which was pretty sweet since it saved us two hours at the end of the day (fyi, Bart logged over 200 shuttle miles this weekend and over 900 to get us there and back - I like that guy!). The river was significantly lower than what we ran it at last year but since only four of us had run it before it still made for a fairly exciting day. We had a few flips over the 31 mile "Dirty Thirty" stretch we ran but nothing that was too bad. Once we made it to the take out we loaded the trucks & trailers and promptly drove back to the resort for beers in the hot tub, showers, dinner at the bar followed by a campfire next to the river and more beer (I think Kev & I still have blindspots in our eyes from lighting the campfire with a roadflare - it's not really recommened!).
Sunday a after a quick look at the water level gauge at Thee Rivers we discussed a possible change of plans for the day. I ran over to the lodge where the resort recently installed wifi (woohoo!) and checked the current levels for the Lochsa and the S.F. Clearwater. Our suspicion was correct, the Lochsa dropped and the S.F. Clearwater grew a bit...time for a quick chat about today's plans. I laid out the info I pulled up and the call was unanimous. We're heading back to the S.F. Clearwater.
On our way to the put-in we decided to scout a rapid a little further up the road than we had ran on Friday and also find another put-in. By using the new put-in we were able to add a nice big technical Class IV rapid to our run. I'm glad we were able to run this stretch because it was the most entertaining part of the day to watch. We all picked our lines & made our plans but in the words of the great Mike Tyson "Every man has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth!" By the time we made it through this top section one boat had a beautiful flip and two others probably should have suffered a similar fate but managed to eek one out! The rest of the run was fun and for the most part everyone did a good job making their way down the river. By the time we hit the take out I was happily working on my drysuit tan. The clouds had cleared, the sun was blazing and it was nice and hot. You know it was a good day on the river when the last thing you hear from Mike before leaving the take out is "Damn, the inside of my drysuit's wet but I don't know if it leaked, if I was sweating or if I pee-d myself a little bit?" 
....back to the hot tub!
Sunday night we had a few drinks in the bar to celebrate the weekend and toast to the shuttle drivers, the trailer pullers, the photographers, the reservation maker and most of all the "on river entertainment." And plans were made to do it all over again next Memorial Day weekend.
Here is the post from my 2009 Lochsa trip: http://blastshelter.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-0509-lochsa-river-idaho.html
Stats:
Friday: S.F. Clearwater, Class IV
Miles Logged: 13, "Mickey Mouse" section
Flow Data: 2100cfs
Saturday: Lochsa, Class IV
Miles Logged: 31, The "Dirty Thirty" section
Flow Data: 7950cfs
Sunday: S.F. Clearwater, Class IV
Miles Logged: 13, "Mickey Mouse" section
Flow Data: 2250cfs
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