Every April the little mountain town of Riggins, ID puts on
Jet Boat Race Weekend. What a
party! If you have never had the chance
to experience river marathon boats, I suggest you clear your calendar for next
April. The town is great, the bars are
hopin' and the people watching is better then NASCAR. But
this particular blog is not about racing boat up and down the Main Salmon
River at 100 mph, it’s not even about a bright orange boat called Tuff n’ Nuff
winning and taking the Idaho cup trophy.
The true hero if this blog is the Tributary 9.5 SB.
After a little finagling at work, I was able to get a new 9.5 SB in the employee demo room. I was going up to the Salmon Rive to watch the race and thought it was would a perfect opportunity to test out the 9.5’s R2ing and creek boating ability. The Little Salmon was at about 800 cfs and the sun was going to shin all weekend long.
You need to have a very good boating relationship with your R2ing partner, especially if that partner is your spouse. Fortunately for us, my husband and I have no problem being pinned on a rock together. We started with an easy run Friday evening with the dogs on the Main Salmon River up past the closed race coarse section. The 9.5 SB took on the waves of the class III water just fine and was easy to keep straight and maneuver around. My R2ing buddy and I worked off the winter rust and determined that he should call the moves so we were working together to hit the same line.
The Little Salmon has just about everything you could possibly want for good spring water. From some gnarly waterfall drops to constant class III - V water. It is nice and steep and has it all, except for space to get a raft down. So, on Saturday evening we met up with some kayaker friends and ran the lower section. The 9.5 handled like a champ! Casey and I were running all over that river punching through holes, building up our confidence in the boat and channeling our mechanical bull riding skills to stay in the boat.
On Sunday, we were ready to run the upper section just below the water falls. It was the first time either of us had seen this section of water. We had a few sick lines and some good moves. The water was intense and but not pushy scary intense. We got hung up on a rock or two (or thee, maybe four) but missed all the floor rippers and I had the third best high side of my life.
I’ll admit it, I have a hard shell kayak, but with the Tributary 9.5 SB and a new found thrill for R2ing creeky rivers, I might just keep the kayak hung up in the garage this summer.
Peace,
Sheena
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