This is my attempt at giving back some info to a forum I have only lurked on but have gleaned lots of good info out of. Some details will be obscured to protect the innocent. I'll have to break this up into sections because of my ADD
I am a lifelong Idaho resident and hunted as a kid, tagging a doe when I was 12, but that was pretty much the end of big game for me. I usually bought a license and sometime bought a deer tag but I just didn't put much time into hunting and elk felt impossible. I rarely saw them and didn't know where to start. My brother was very generous and got me started with a cow tag and some in field help about 6 years ago. I filled a number of cow tags in consecutive years and drew a decent bull tag last year that I also filled. Being locked out of the draw I decided to take on a very difficult OTC hunt in 2025.
Most of my life has been spent outside. I backpack, rock climb, trail run, bike, hike, ski, raft and kayak. I have done most of those at a fairly high level including kayaking and rafting class V, running 100 mile ultras and generally making a living at being outside. Starting over a year in advance I secured a reiver permit for the middle fork of the salmon that would launch mid September. I grabbed an elk tag in June, thought they don't sell out.
I did all of the usual things. I asked forum questions, grilled friends who had been hunting in the area with outfitters, called the biologist and made 2 scouting trips that were actually just backpacking trips to roughly the right area. I had OnX pins and notes for virtually every mile of the river. I had measured and noted virtually all the trails and elevations within 10 miles of the river. I noted likely water spots for camping as well as wallows. I had polygons on certain high value areas as a reminder. I probably put in 50-75 computer hours.
We had a crew of 9 set up for a 13 day float and hunt in 4 rafts. I float the river most years, sometimes going on the Main Salmon instead but I typically spend a couple weeks on a whitewater river each year. I consider my skill level to be high. I was fortunate enough to run the grand canyon in May so to add another extended trip in a calendar year was a treat.
The river is considered class 4, which is difficult but not deadly. In the fall it isn't a raging torrent but more like a parking lot of rocks. You constantly get stuck, get pinned and otherwise just spend time and energy working hard to get down what feels like not enough water. I have seen many groups including groups that claimed to be 'raft guides' get destroyed on the top 25 miles before more tributaries add to the flow. This is to say don't grab a permit and think you can just give it a go. You really need to have good skills and good equipment to raft the entire thing. The middle miles are more moderate so flying a raft in and out can be an option if you are rolling in money. This is especially true if you are packing light. Most rafters pack like RV campers and bring it all. In the fall you really need to be closer to a backpacker than a car camper. In addition to skills I highly recommend a drysuit, which are expensive.
The challenging thing about hunting from the river is that you have to pre-select all of your camps in advance and are stuck with that choice. If you plan 1 night somewhere and get into elk you have to move on. Conversely if you plan 2 nights somewhere that is a dud you are supposed to stay on schedule. Because the river loses significant elevation as you go down I figured the top miles were the least amount of work to get to the animals at elevation and get the animals back to the boats. I stacked the most days at in the first half of the mileage and then floated a little faster at the bottom. The river takes about 5 days to float so there were really about 6-7 days of hunting available.
The biologist was helpful and not helpful. He confirmed my guesses about likely elevation bands but really didn't have much else to say. They haven't done a population survey or flight in 15 years and he just kept repeating "we really don't know what is going on back there". We talked about wolves and bears but he repeated the line from the statewide elk report that poor nutrition hurts the population more than predators. The biologist also set some realistic expectations for success. He said success, even with a rifle during the rut was 'single digits' for self guided hunters and that realistic outfitter success was in the 20-25% range. The echoed one guy I knew who paid north of $10,000 per trip for 3 trips and brought home 1 bull. He said they aren't silent but people don't usually call them in. A locate is about as good as it gets.
The unit is incredibly rugged and remote. It is as far from civilization as you can get in the lower 48. There are numerous roads that poke into the wilderness but everyone knows this and they are very busy. My brother reported a camper on every corner and RZRs going all over the roads, which were extremely rough. 7mph rough. This is why you can get an OTC rifle tag in September. 95% of the land is inaccessible. When scouting we found trails that were on maps were a long distant memory. Some never existed and fires and blown downs had long since closed down others. Even with horses you have limited access to much of the terrain. The maintenance budgets are dismal and volunteers and outfitters are often the last line of defense for keeping trails open. Which means if you find a good trail you are competing with an outfitter for animals, and they know better than you.
On the drive in we did see about 100 elk at last light in a 2024 burn munching away on the green up. That was promising but it was 40 miles outside the unit and a day before opening. I was worried we would have to climb to 8000-9000 feet to see elk but this herd was well under 7000'.
The night before launch we arrived after dark and in the rain. We set up a tarp and called it good. My goal for the trip was to sleep in elk bugles. It did not happen the first night. I didn't have delusions of grandeur or minimum score requirements. The unit requires brow tined bulls, and that was good enough for me. I probably would have taken a spike or cow, if legal. Some of the guys were talking about a 6x6 minimum but even though anywhere in Idaho can grow big elk this unit is less likely than most and “low animal density”.
I’ll skip most of the rafting details but on day 1 it took 7 hours to go less than 10 miles. The river is 100 miles long. If we had to do 70 hours of floating there wouldn’t be much hunting. We arrived at a camp with 2 nights to burn but it was already 5pm.
I grabbed my gear that was already in a pack, strapped on my gun and headed up the nearest promising ridge. Unfortunately the basin I had to cross was full of deadfall and avalanche debris. It was very slow going, with intermittent rain the logs were slick and there were long periods where I was just log hopping and not touching the ground. With a pack carrying 3 days of gear including a gallon of water it was dangerous work.
I finally got to a decent saddle but dark was about to fall and I had only climbed half way to my goal. I glassed the last 30 minutes of light and saw zero animals of any kind. I set up in a saddle in the dark and decided to try to fulfill my goal of sleeping in bugles by letting gone out and seeing if anything would respond so I could know if I needed to move or not. Throwing out a location bugle from a sleeping bag in the dark is probably not the pro move. I sat there reading for a while when I heard hooves outside my tarp tent. Then I heard breathing. Then I heard chewing.
There was nothing I could do, so I just went to sleep hoping for the best in the morning. In the morning there were fresh prints and pellets just outside the tent and the area smelled like urine. There were a few beds in the area, but not particularly fresh. I glassed for a while, unsuccessfully, and decided to push higher. My target was a high basin above that had some open terrain, some water and the nearest road seemed just far enough away that road hunters might push elk to me. I had already used over half my water in the first half day but the water in the basin was still several miles off.
Half way up the climb the sun came out and I set most of my gear out to dry. The condensation has been brutal after the rain and I swear my tent had urine on it. While taking inventory I realized my stove was still on the raft in my kitchen box. I did have a bag of freeze-dried chicken salad that could be eaten cold and a handful of bars so I figured I would be OK.
I am a lifelong Idaho resident and hunted as a kid, tagging a doe when I was 12, but that was pretty much the end of big game for me. I usually bought a license and sometime bought a deer tag but I just didn't put much time into hunting and elk felt impossible. I rarely saw them and didn't know where to start. My brother was very generous and got me started with a cow tag and some in field help about 6 years ago. I filled a number of cow tags in consecutive years and drew a decent bull tag last year that I also filled. Being locked out of the draw I decided to take on a very difficult OTC hunt in 2025.
Most of my life has been spent outside. I backpack, rock climb, trail run, bike, hike, ski, raft and kayak. I have done most of those at a fairly high level including kayaking and rafting class V, running 100 mile ultras and generally making a living at being outside. Starting over a year in advance I secured a reiver permit for the middle fork of the salmon that would launch mid September. I grabbed an elk tag in June, thought they don't sell out.
I did all of the usual things. I asked forum questions, grilled friends who had been hunting in the area with outfitters, called the biologist and made 2 scouting trips that were actually just backpacking trips to roughly the right area. I had OnX pins and notes for virtually every mile of the river. I had measured and noted virtually all the trails and elevations within 10 miles of the river. I noted likely water spots for camping as well as wallows. I had polygons on certain high value areas as a reminder. I probably put in 50-75 computer hours.
We had a crew of 9 set up for a 13 day float and hunt in 4 rafts. I float the river most years, sometimes going on the Main Salmon instead but I typically spend a couple weeks on a whitewater river each year. I consider my skill level to be high. I was fortunate enough to run the grand canyon in May so to add another extended trip in a calendar year was a treat.
The river is considered class 4, which is difficult but not deadly. In the fall it isn't a raging torrent but more like a parking lot of rocks. You constantly get stuck, get pinned and otherwise just spend time and energy working hard to get down what feels like not enough water. I have seen many groups including groups that claimed to be 'raft guides' get destroyed on the top 25 miles before more tributaries add to the flow. This is to say don't grab a permit and think you can just give it a go. You really need to have good skills and good equipment to raft the entire thing. The middle miles are more moderate so flying a raft in and out can be an option if you are rolling in money. This is especially true if you are packing light. Most rafters pack like RV campers and bring it all. In the fall you really need to be closer to a backpacker than a car camper. In addition to skills I highly recommend a drysuit, which are expensive.
The challenging thing about hunting from the river is that you have to pre-select all of your camps in advance and are stuck with that choice. If you plan 1 night somewhere and get into elk you have to move on. Conversely if you plan 2 nights somewhere that is a dud you are supposed to stay on schedule. Because the river loses significant elevation as you go down I figured the top miles were the least amount of work to get to the animals at elevation and get the animals back to the boats. I stacked the most days at in the first half of the mileage and then floated a little faster at the bottom. The river takes about 5 days to float so there were really about 6-7 days of hunting available.
The biologist was helpful and not helpful. He confirmed my guesses about likely elevation bands but really didn't have much else to say. They haven't done a population survey or flight in 15 years and he just kept repeating "we really don't know what is going on back there". We talked about wolves and bears but he repeated the line from the statewide elk report that poor nutrition hurts the population more than predators. The biologist also set some realistic expectations for success. He said success, even with a rifle during the rut was 'single digits' for self guided hunters and that realistic outfitter success was in the 20-25% range. The echoed one guy I knew who paid north of $10,000 per trip for 3 trips and brought home 1 bull. He said they aren't silent but people don't usually call them in. A locate is about as good as it gets.
The unit is incredibly rugged and remote. It is as far from civilization as you can get in the lower 48. There are numerous roads that poke into the wilderness but everyone knows this and they are very busy. My brother reported a camper on every corner and RZRs going all over the roads, which were extremely rough. 7mph rough. This is why you can get an OTC rifle tag in September. 95% of the land is inaccessible. When scouting we found trails that were on maps were a long distant memory. Some never existed and fires and blown downs had long since closed down others. Even with horses you have limited access to much of the terrain. The maintenance budgets are dismal and volunteers and outfitters are often the last line of defense for keeping trails open. Which means if you find a good trail you are competing with an outfitter for animals, and they know better than you.
On the drive in we did see about 100 elk at last light in a 2024 burn munching away on the green up. That was promising but it was 40 miles outside the unit and a day before opening. I was worried we would have to climb to 8000-9000 feet to see elk but this herd was well under 7000'.
The night before launch we arrived after dark and in the rain. We set up a tarp and called it good. My goal for the trip was to sleep in elk bugles. It did not happen the first night. I didn't have delusions of grandeur or minimum score requirements. The unit requires brow tined bulls, and that was good enough for me. I probably would have taken a spike or cow, if legal. Some of the guys were talking about a 6x6 minimum but even though anywhere in Idaho can grow big elk this unit is less likely than most and “low animal density”.
I’ll skip most of the rafting details but on day 1 it took 7 hours to go less than 10 miles. The river is 100 miles long. If we had to do 70 hours of floating there wouldn’t be much hunting. We arrived at a camp with 2 nights to burn but it was already 5pm.
I grabbed my gear that was already in a pack, strapped on my gun and headed up the nearest promising ridge. Unfortunately the basin I had to cross was full of deadfall and avalanche debris. It was very slow going, with intermittent rain the logs were slick and there were long periods where I was just log hopping and not touching the ground. With a pack carrying 3 days of gear including a gallon of water it was dangerous work.
I finally got to a decent saddle but dark was about to fall and I had only climbed half way to my goal. I glassed the last 30 minutes of light and saw zero animals of any kind. I set up in a saddle in the dark and decided to try to fulfill my goal of sleeping in bugles by letting gone out and seeing if anything would respond so I could know if I needed to move or not. Throwing out a location bugle from a sleeping bag in the dark is probably not the pro move. I sat there reading for a while when I heard hooves outside my tarp tent. Then I heard breathing. Then I heard chewing.
There was nothing I could do, so I just went to sleep hoping for the best in the morning. In the morning there were fresh prints and pellets just outside the tent and the area smelled like urine. There were a few beds in the area, but not particularly fresh. I glassed for a while, unsuccessfully, and decided to push higher. My target was a high basin above that had some open terrain, some water and the nearest road seemed just far enough away that road hunters might push elk to me. I had already used over half my water in the first half day but the water in the basin was still several miles off.
Half way up the climb the sun came out and I set most of my gear out to dry. The condensation has been brutal after the rain and I swear my tent had urine on it. While taking inventory I realized my stove was still on the raft in my kitchen box. I did have a bag of freeze-dried chicken salad that could be eaten cold and a handful of bars so I figured I would be OK.
