BETA
Stream: The Middle White Salmon is a fantastic resource near Hood River. The river is consistently class III-III+ and consistently flowing - it is never too low to run. At the beginning and end of the run are two rapids that are more challenging than the rest, if they are not to your liking you can put in below the first and take out above the other.
A day on the Middle White Salmon starts with a pleasant walk down a nice trail with built in rails for sliding your boat down, talk about convenience! Near the bottom the rails bend right, while a less used trail goes left. Going left gives you the option to put in above the class IV Maytag rapid, right leads to the option to put in part way down or below that rapid. Maytag is easy to scout.
Watch for a cave along the right wall early on in the run, after a short bit of warm below Maytag. At the cave rapid, paddling left of it is easy but necessary. Once past that cave the rest of the river is read and run class III. Everything aside from that cave rapid can be run where the water is going, a handful of the rapids stand out as more exciting than the rest but never really reach class IV until Husum.
Husum is recognized by a long flat straight-away, and a sign warning of the falls. Most people scout this drop at the beginning of the day when running shuttle, but it can be conveniently scouted from the left and only slightly less conveniently by stopping well upstream of the falls on river right and taking another look from the Hwy bridge overlooking the drop.
Photo: Priscilla Macy Paddler: Alex Hymel
All the channels and all the lines have been run successfully, the middle channel is most common. Over the years the hole has gotten a bit hungrier, and as flows rise over 3' it's not necessarily the friendly waterfall it is at the end of summer. Scout and make the decision that is right for you.
Flows: There is a foot gauge in Husum, monitored by a local who reports regularly to This Facebook Page. Summer flows are between 1.5'-3.5'. In the summer you can ballpark flows by dividing the White Salmon @ Underwood gauge by 400 to get the level on the stick.
This section never gets too low to have a good time on, for class III boaters ready to take the next step it is reasonable to follow someone down below 3'. On the other end of the spectrum, if you are showing yourself down for the first time this is a reasonable rule of thumb: Over 4' be a class IV boater. Over 5' be a class IV-V boater. This run can handle plenty of water without getting to class V. Husum is friendliest under 2.5'
Access: Take out in the town of Husum, WA. Parking is available across the street from Wet Planet Rafting. It's worth taking a quick peak at Husum Falls from the Hwy 141 bridge in town at this point.
The put in is 4 miles upstream/North along Hwy 141 at the BZ Corner Launch Site. Remember to take the 2 minutes to fill out your trip information at the kiosk.
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Notes
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I have found myself running the Middle White Salmon after a day on the Green Truss. Or as a start to a trip ending on the Columbia. Or when it is flowing in the 4-5' range, when it becomes fast flowing class III-IV wave trains with some fun features. Or later in the summer on a lazy day, when there isn't water elsewhere. Or when showing a newer boater down. Husum Falls was also the first waterfall I (and many others) ever ran. The point is this is a versatile run and a resource PNW paddlers are happy to have.
Maytag @ 6'
Photo: Kory Kellum
Story: Two of my cousins (Mitch and Braden), had been asking me to take them kayaking. One summer things lined up, so Priscilla and I put them in duckies and took them to the Middle White Salmon. They are of the athletic type and did well, I think they both made it through Top Drop and they stayed in their boats through all the rapids. We spent time in the cave and ate lunch at a spot on river right I hadn't stopped at before.
When we got to Husum, I figured they would look at for awhile and we would call it a day and head for dinner. They started asking how to run it and it became obvious they were considering it seriously. I didn't think I was going to be able to describe to them well enough how to boof, so gave them the most useful information I could. I told them to take a big stroke at the lip, but more importantly a big breath, and informed them it would be chaotic but the falls would let them go and they would pop up into the pool about 10 seconds later.
To my surprise this didn't deter them and off we went, both of them having predictably chaotic, but safe swims. Popping up with smiles, we collected all the gear save one paddle and headed back towards Portland.
Husum has proven many times to be a good place (at low flows) to paddle above your comfort level and learn the power of the river in a relatively safe environment. Yet it gets pretty serious as levels start to rise.
A personal note: I have swam out of Husum paddling a raft, hardshell and inflatable kayak.
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