{"id":36793,"date":"2025-08-26T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/?p=36793"},"modified":"2025-08-19T13:28:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T20:28:24","slug":"the-middle-fork-is-for-the-dogs-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2025\/08\/26\/the-middle-fork-is-for-the-dogs-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"The Middle Fork is For the Dogs (Or Not)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s start with a story problem: Two rafts and one cataraft launch from Boundary Creek with five people and three dogs. The Middle Fork is at four ft. and flowing at roughly six mph. The group has 180 river miles to travel. Assuming that everyone makes it to the end, what are the chances that anybody would bring their dog again?<\/span><\/p>\n

We launched from Boundary Creek on June 5th. We got the permit because of a last-minute cancellation, and the presence of dogs was due to the \u201clast minute\u201d nature of the trip and because no one said, \u201cNo dogs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The people were\u2026 well, people. Two couples, including my wife and I, and a guy from Salt Lake City. The canine crew was more interesting. It consisted of our year-and-a-half-old, black German shorthaired pointer who was rescued from an animal shelter on Black Friday and had been subsequently named Friday. A similarly young Portuguese water dog named Kevin who was more like a Portuguese (please no) water dog. And, finally, a 16-week-old Irish setter puppy named Ash.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, the dogs were a hit at the boat ramp. People fawned over them and took pictures. Many of them missed their own dogs who were back at home (safely back at home, I will add).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t really apprehensive about bringing Friday for our 11-day Middle\/Main trip. My wife and I had taken our late dog Rusty on a number of river trips. He was essential on the Rogue, where he kept black bears out of our camp. And despite the earliness of the launch date, the river level was at a \u201cfriendly\u201d 4 ft.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Kevin, he seemed solid and capable. Perhaps all of us had some concerns about the puppy, but the puppy\u2019s owner was the permit holder and he hadn\u2019t been able to find anyone to watch the dog. We reasoned, aloud and in our heads, that Ash would stay on his owner\u2019s cataraft and everything would be fine… <\/span><\/p>\n

You can probably see where this is going.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trouble started within the first few miles. The upper Middle Fork is fast, shallow, and continuous. I had rowed it five times previously, and I had a rock chewed oar blade hung up in my garage to remind me of the dangers of not minding the downstream oar. Ash\u2019s owner had no such experience and, despite the warnings, he snapped an oar shaft. Shortly thereafter, the other couple, Kevin\u2019s owners, got hung up on a rock above a rapid. I barely had time to say, \u201cI told you so,\u201d before I planted an oar blade into a downstream rock and snapped my brass oarlock\u2014a far worse situation.<\/span><\/p>\n