{"id":31284,"date":"2023-12-13T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=31284"},"modified":"2023-12-18T11:48:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T19:48:54","slug":"the-wild-scenic-lottery-an-envious-season-on-the-owyhee-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2023\/12\/13\/the-wild-scenic-lottery-an-envious-season-on-the-owyhee-river\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild & Scenic Lottery: An Envious Season on the Owyhee River"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDue to sporadic precipitation and a lackluster snowpack in recent years, water levels have dwindled and rafting seasons have been abbreviated. [The Owyhee is] a river as unpredictable as it is beautiful.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>– Charles Gearing, Salem Statesman Journal, April 20, 2023<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the bottom of a towering river labyrinth on the Lower Owyhee River, I braced in anticipation for the crux challenge: Montgomery Rapid. At 9,000 CFS, all the lead-up topographic markers I\u2019d previously noted at bony flows (between 800-1,200 CFS) were drowned like the fixtures of a ghost town in the backflow of a dam. In the farthest reaches of my psyche, I hoped I wouldn\u2019t meet the same fate. This was my third trip down Iron Point Canyon since my first launch of the season at the end of March 2023. Including two previous private trips in 2017 and 2019, this was far and away the highest water I had seen on the run.<\/p>\n

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It was arguably the best season to guide the 67-mile stretch from Rome to Leslie Gulch in two decades or more. The snow cache at this point, according to SNOTEL<\/a>, was still over 100% in the Nevada hinterlands which feed the Owyhee headwaters.<\/p>\n

On April 12, the river spiked to 18,000 CFS. The outfitter I worked for had to cancel the commercial trip I was slated to gear boat. With my schedule unexpectedly free, I quickly pivoted and made the eight-hour roundtrip home to nab my boat. When I returned for a piece of the spike, side tributaries had flushed, the sun hid behind the clouds and the flow had halved to 9,000\u2014still high. I launched and puckered for the meat.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few days. I faced Montgomery, and she was juicy. Spitting fire like a dragon, the tongue along the left wall had a gravitational pull stronger than anything I had ever dropped a blade into. From the entrance pool, the left funneled rafts into a chute between two house-sized boulders which spit boaters out like a gushing fire hydrant.<\/p>\n

It all went well until the dragon recoiled its tongue, slurping my upstream oar out of its oar right and into the drink. I reloaded the spare and managed a quick pull to catch the collateral damage. This would be the greatest carnage I saw all season. Shuttles notwithstanding.<\/p>\n