A River for the Running

We stood on a weathered rock slab worn smooth by the river over thousands of years, just a few feet away from the pour-over at Pistol Creek Rapid. Pistol, one of the most challenging rides on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in north-central Idaho, is tucked down in the heart of the second-deepest canyon in North America. It starts at Mile Mark 22, and even the first 20 miles of this river were a blur. The Middle Fork, one of the first rivers protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, is one of the steepest descents I had ever rowed. My arms ached and my legs cramped as we threaded our drift boats through Hell’s Half Mile, Velvet Falls, Murph’s Hole, and a dozen other rapids that had no names. There had been no relief and little time to look around at the breathtaking scenery until we reached Pistol.

Several hundred yards upstream of the rapid, we had pulled to shore, tied off the boats, and walked the dusty dirt path beside the river for a closer look. As we picked our way over rocks and boulders to reach the scouting point, the roar of the rapid increased until we could hardly hear each other talk. Our uphill climb took us to the crest of a little ridge where we looked down and over the source of the noise, a 10' ledge where the river became a waterfall from one bank to the other.

I felt small in the shadows of Pistol. Steep canyon walls rose up on both sides of the river and blocked the midday sun. Remnants of rock slides broken loose and brought down by the power of heavy rains and flash floods littered the river and pinched it down even more in this narrow slot in the canyon. For several minutes, I stood in silent admiration next to the “River of no Return” and let the challenge and vastness of the Middle Fork wash over me.