# Marsh Creek (MFS)



## jrice345 (Jan 11, 2011)

Heads up. 

Just read a TR on the Idaho whitewater group that there is a log jam across 100% of Marsh Creek at river mile 5.11.


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## mr143413 (May 9, 2011)

Where the TR at?


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## pearen (Apr 28, 2007)

*From:* "Rob" <****@yahoo.com>
*Date:* May 7, 2011 5:15:16 PM MDT
*To:* idahowhitewater
*Subject:* *[idahowhitewater] May 5th Trip Report*
*Reply-To:* idahowhitewater

​ Preface: Running 9.5 foot Tributary (Aire) round boats. Ran Marsh last year in 15.6 round boat on May 12th MF gauge 2.7.

May 5th

6:30am Arrived Capehorn. Gauge that morning was reading 2.71. Level on Marsh was 30% less than last year.

7:20am Launch Capehorn Creek, walked boats to Marsh. In and out of boats several times.

Mile .90: Same tree that was down last year is still blocking 90% of the creek. Small boats just skirt by.

Fish Trap: No issue at this level. Issue will be clothes-lining the cable across the river in high water.

Just below foot bridge: tree down blocking 75% of creek. No issue.

In between foot bridge and 5 miles: Chunk of Log jammed in small channel. (If my memory serves me correctly, I think this was there last year, but last year there was enough water flowing over that only the 16' Cat got hung up. This year, had to push boats over log and partially through snow bank.

***Mile 5.11: Big Log(s) across 100% of creek with 90% covered in a snow bridge. There was just enough room to lift the small boats over the log.

11:30am Confluence with Bear Valley.

One Tree Down just below Confluence. No issue

Another tree down below that. No issue.

2:00pm Dagger Falls. Scout, said a little prayer and ran.
There was just enough water for us to run the small boats through. The top had three distinct drops. The slots were just wide enough for the 9.5 foot boats. The bottom at the bend had one moderate drop.

Boundary down to Indian: Straight foward. No tree at top of pistol, it is just below pistol. No issue.

8:00pm Indian Creek. Said hello, grabbed permit and jumped back on the river.

9:30pm Marble. Ran by sound. Used Headlamps to make it to Sun Flower.

10:15pm SunFlower. Soak, eat, crash!

May 6th

Water came up 6 inches or so overnight. Water turned from clear to chocolate milk.

8:30am Depart Sunflower.

BIG Tree, I mean Big! down BELOW Stateland right. Only across 50% of river, but will be a serious strainer to avoid as water comes up. Hopefully the peak will not leave it in a worse place.

Everything was straight forward all the way to the confluence.

Note: Did test the flipability of the small boat in Weber. Was able to upright myself while floating down the river and was ready for the holes around the corner. ("note to self: cheat Weber in a 9.5 foot boat!")

Cheated Rubber hard right to stay the heck out of the "green room" in the small boats!

7:20pm Confluence. Threw the boats in the back of the truck and headed home after an absolutely awesome 36 hour trip.

Hope this helps! 





​


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## mr143413 (May 9, 2011)

I just called the MF ranger station at 208 879 4101 ext 7 and they were super helpful. They said the USFS will not cut out the wood. Another group is supposed to get to indian creek today and should have more info on the wood in Marsh. Any word on what a portage of a large boat would be like?


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

Just came off the Middle/Marsh. Put in on the 18th. Marsh was clear of any significant obstacles. There was some wood that will likely be moving. 

Dagger Falls has some very nasty trees in the lower part of the rapid blocking 80-90% of the channel right where all the current is going. I've run Dagger 5 times in my last two trips (Running other peoples boats plus my own each year) - it took about thirty seconds to decide to portage. My entire party made the same decision. This wood will likely move at some point and may even be gone by now. 

I also managed to lose a Panasonic waterproof camera - most likely in the eddy at sunflower while loading - take a look for me if you're headed that way.


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## WyoPadlr1 (May 5, 2005)

raftus said:


> Dagger Falls has some very nasty trees in the lower part of the rapid blocking 80-90% of the channel right where all the current is going. I've run Dagger 5 times in my last two trips (Running other peoples boats plus my own each year) - it took about thirty seconds to decide to portage. My entire party made the same decision. This wood will likely move at some point and may even be gone by now.


How many rafts in your party, and any guess as to how long it took you to de-rig, portage, and re-rig? That's a long walk around Dagger, if I remember right. Sorry to hear about your camera. Hope ya get it back. We launch 6/13, hope we can drive in.


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## Dave Frank (Oct 14, 2003)

Yep, that portage sucks; I've done it twice. unless you are traveling alpine style, plan to camp there and portage in phases. Bringing a collapsable dolly of some sort would be really nice.

This is really where you see who's a helper or a slacker!


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

We had 2 rafts, 2 kayaks and 6 people total. Both rafts were well loaded with normal rafting gear, food and beer. We happily had no slackers. We de-rigged and moved gear in stages - some all the way to the eddy below dagger, some to the last campsites. We re-rigged our boats in the morning and finished carrying our personal and camp gear to the eddy. I would guess about 4 hours if we had gone start to finish. In '07 we portaged the lake creek blowout - 11 people, 1 raft, 1 cat, the rest kayakers and passengers. That took closer to 3 hours start to finish - extra hands and a slightly shorter portage with less gear. 

Not sure about taking a dolly downriver - I remember something about wheels and wilderness areas not going together. But one of those garden carts with mountain bike wheels would be nice for the heavy stuff - our forearms were definitely feeling the burn from the coolers, dry boxes, and rocket boxes. It will take a early start and a favorable run down Marsh to get past Dagger on day one.


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

Dave Frank said:


> This is really where you see who's a helper or a slacker!


hey I was patching my boat......so you could run it all stylie like.


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## Dave Frank (Oct 14, 2003)

carvedog said:


> hey I was patching my boat......so you could run it all stylie like.


I'm sure we had slackers on our trip Jerry, but I was really talking about slackers from a trip in '06. 

I wasn't even counting the '10 trip as a portage since I ran it twice. In retrospect I bet more than half the gear on that trip got portaged, and I know I carried more than my share.

As far as wheels in wilderness, I don't know the specifics, but the portage is not wilderness, and I think you'd be Ok with wheels on board, as long as they were not in use in the wilderness area below.

Can you bring an outboard through the corridor and not use it until the main? I bet the answer to wheels is the same as the answer to the that.


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