53 - 7/16/2011 - Moyie (Idaho)

Yes, that is a dam, and it's downstream

I had only heard of the Moyie River a week before this trip. The unique thing about this run is that it has a dam in the middle of it. In 1923, Eileen Dam was completed and when it was being filled, the wall on the left side of the canyon began to crumble - the natural rock, not the dam. As a result, the builders dismantled the left side of the dam to allow the water to come through.

We had to drive a long way that morning. We had poor directions to the takeout and I didn't have a GPS location, so it took us a while to find it, but we did find it. We didn't get on the river until after 3PM, and we weren't sure how long the paddle out on the lake would be. Luckily, we found a campsite right next to the river and it made a perfect put-in. Despite the warnings, there was plenty of water in the river for our kayaks.

The first few miles contained many fun class II+ rapids. There were no roads nearby, just trees and cliffs. It was quiet except for the thunderstorm that followed us. At one point, we noticed that it was raining on me, but not on Lee, who was only 20 fee away.

At one point I looked up and I saw it - the dam. It was more intimidating than I had expected. The dam is 50 feet high and it's right smack in the middle of the river. To make it scarier, there is a class III rapid just above it, and a flip there would not be a good thing. After the rapid, the river runs sharply left through a vertical canyon about 15 feet wide. At the end of this, a waterfall from Skin Creek enters the river, and there is a small but swirly rapid around the base of the dam. At higher flows, this would have been difficult.

The run around the dam (the falls is from a side creek)

Below the dam, the rapids ease up for a couple of miles, but then begin to build in intensity. Several class III rapids set the pace for the big drop at the end - Hole In The Wall. This is a solid class IV rapid with a big drop. The water funnels into a tight slot with a rock pile in the middle. I used a hole above the main drop to slow me down, but this put me farther left than I needed to be. I paddled hard right, which put me into the current next to a wall, and spun me wildly. I stayed in my boat, and was able to watch Lee do a much better run than me.

After this, the river still flows for a mile or so before it enters the lake. We were pleasantly surprised that we could see the next dam, right below our takeout, just as the current ended. It was a short 5-minute paddle to where the car was.

We got back to camp and cooked dinner again. All of the other nights on this trip I slept in my SUV, but this night I set up my tent by the river. This was also the only camp where we had cell service, including 3G data, so I could catch up on email in the tent.