Bill Tuthill wrote:
Would you have volunteered to take your kayak out ahead, scouting for
down logs, and report back by 2-way radio? I don't know if I would.

I tend to be the lead paddler most of the time when we paddle, so yes, I
probably would volunteer. It's actually pretty normal to find trees
across the river on most of the (steep) creeks that we paddle. I've been
in that situation a couple of times, finding a tree blocking the entire
river. I find a strainer a lot more risky than many of the more
difficult rapids, and as a result, we tend to be as careful as possible.

Since we paddle pretty continuous stuff most of the time, there usually
is no scouting on foot, only from the boat. I'm not sure that could have
made much difference here though.

I read the story, thinking: what could I have done? Frankly, with so
many catarafts, I would probably be able to stop just in time in my
kayak, only to see a lot of them still get in trouble. :-(

If it was only one, with a couple of kayakers staying ahead, it might be
different if one would signal upstream, but it might still be too late.

Reading about the multi-day trip, I can see the need for a raft. That
sure complicates matters! I have very little experience with doing
multi-day trips, so I don't know how to circumvent that equipment issue,
unless you're all taking Prijon Tornado size kayaks... :-S

On Marsh Creek hazardous logs appear every few years. Below the
confluence with Bear Valley Creek, where the river officially becomes
the Middle Fork Salmon, I believe log danger is less.

In the aforementioned TR, it appears the log had just moved, because
another party had rafted the river days before and reported nothing.

Yeah, so I noticed. The kayakers did manage to get through unscathed though.

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/