Went and scoured FITW today, looked a little high for me, but it had me wondering what's to be found downstream. Has anyone been down there?

Sorry, no cupdate, I've no idea where the cuprock is to be found.

There "used" to be a "run" down there. Put in at the base of Franklin Falls, take-out above the 20 ftr that lands on a rock. No portages. Those were the days when the drop below Root Ball got run as well. We called it Little Frankie because the drugs we took as youths fried our brains & prevented us from calling something more clever. There were a few close calls with Franklin itself so tread wisely and set safety. Hells bells, there's more below that 20 ftr onto rocks. There was a day were we did the 90/90...I-90 bridge to I-90 bridge. Not beatin chest, just sayin. Go get em.

"Cool stuff! What about downstream of that? It must lose some elevation by the time it gets down near North Bend..?"

Frat-water from Denny Cr exit until Corn-Dog Falls, then things go nuts for a bit then back to Frat-Parties. Also some stuff to run from the upper Alpy lot till yer skeerd. Tends to be high-water stuff up there, but all runnable down to FITW proper.

I think Frat Party=flat water

Hee hee...oops. Frat-Water = Asian Ebonics for "Flat-Water". No association with the fraternal brotherhood. There is some fun lower-gradient stuff just below Twin Falls State Park but between Denny Cr exit and Corn Dog Falls it looks so-so to midland.

On a side note, I think our own JDunderscoreG gets credit for the 1st D of Little Franklin, correct? Maybe he's got a better name. Regardless, an exciting drop.

Seems like some unfortunate wood issues the past several years in some of those less often run canyons. I do miss living close to The SF Sno.

 

Excellent info and stories, thanks!

Joe Forschler was the first person I know to run the slide above Franklin.  He did it one evening he and I were up there doing a few FITW laps, shortly before he was to take a couple-year hiatus from boating.  He figured it might be “now or never”.  We scouted for a bit, and he made the decision to give it a go.  And a good go it was – one of the few truly clean L to R lines I’ve seen, getting far enough R to miss that middle flake.  Of course, it could have been run before Joe.  I know Jeff Trauba mentioned he explored in there a bit.  But I think Jeff was exploring the Franklin stretch below FITW.

I guess what I'm wondering is...Would there be a worthwhile adventure between FITW and Twin Falls? I'm placing class IV at the top end of my game so I'd be plenty happy even if it were a bunch of class II and III. It just looks intriguing..

**sorry if I'm misunderstanding the above descriptions, I'm just not very familiar. Some people put class II and III into the flatwater/not exciting category which is why I ask.

Edited by BrianP - 04 Jul 2012 at 12:50pm

 Root ball from JD's seat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g8UYbyDPGA&feature=plcp

The "Denny Creek" stretch (down to NF 55) is a bit Jekyll and Hyde, but a good run all things considered.  There are quite a few fun drops, a couple of big drops (that I personally carry), and the "in between" stuff where you wish for more water.  That drop under the bridge has a pretty good undercut on RL.  We used to run it (at some levels), but we stayed as RR as as possible.  I've seen it run further L near the wall.  They made it, that's all I'll say...  It was more appealing when the bedrock section down under the DCCG bridge was clean / sans wood.  Our normal routine was to put in above there, starting the trip with the last drop leading out of the Franklin gorge.  Then down through the Denny Creek CG section, and on down to the NF 55 bridge by the Hwy.  JD might have been the last in there, and could give a wood report.  Not sure he's been in there this year, but last year he mentioned some unfortunate changes to a couple of the bigger drops down near the take-out.       

For what it is worth, a few weeks ago, Damon, Phil and I went in and checked out the Seattle Gorge.  What we found at around 650 cfs was margninally runnable and had lots of wood.  We ended up paddling flatwater up to the gorge, portaged up and around the gorge (about 30 minutes)  and boated flatwater to the take out. 

Edited by jondufay - 06 Jun 2013 at 10:18pm

Taco Bob's?!  Since we're naming drops, we used to call the undercut bridge drop "Brenda and Smiling Jake's" - named after a, uh, calescent hippy gal and her dog that lived in one of the RR cabins just below...  Always worth catching that eddy!