The Milner Mile is a class five section of whitewater on the Snake River east of Twin Falls, but this section of the river below the Milner Dam doesn't run very often.
Idaho Power needs 10,000 cubic feet per second beyond the needs of irrigation and aquifer recharge to release the water. However, if the water is there and they get a request they will release the water. The last time this happened was in 2019.
"It doesn’t happen very often I remember being here when I was 15 years old with a crew out of Boise where I was raised," said Ethan McLeod, who is now 28 years old and is the executive director of the Jackson Hole Kayak Club. "It doesn’t happen very often so it is a very special experience."
A new generation of kayakers got to experience the Milner Mile for the first time on Sunday as kayakers came from all over the region to test their skills on this experts-only run.
"Oh man, the Milner Mile was spectacular," said Mateo Kowalcyzk, a 16-year-old paddler out of Boise. "It is super exciting to grow up knowing how close an amazing piece of whitewater is, finally be old enough and have everything line up to come in. I’m super stoked to be out here with such a good crew to fire it up."
The Milner Mile features huge crashing waves and big holes spread across the entire river. Paddlers have no choice but to hit these features head-on and try to hang on, or roll back up after being knocked over. You would not want to be out of your boat in this section, but nobody swam during the release.
"The section is only 1.3 miles, but it feels like you kayaked all day when you get to the bottom, you are just so tired," said Kowalcyzk. "The water is moving so fast sometimes you catch it perfectly and you just go right over the top of these super big waves, but other times it hits you right in the face and you feel like you just got slammed by a football player."
Aaron Pruzan brought a crew over from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Aaron owns Rendezvous River Sports and Jackson Hole Kayaking School. He told us around 30 kayakers showed up to do more than 60 laps despite the temperature being around 45 degrees on Sunday.
"That is pretty sweet, that might be one of the larger groups ever and I’ve been coming here and running this since 1995," said Pruzan. "It is a pretty cool resource and we have to thank Rob Lesser for making this happen."
Rob Lesser is a whitewater legend and the first kayaker to complete a full descent of the North Fork of the Payette River. However, Rob called the Milner Mile the biggest whitewater in Idaho, and training here helped him pioneer first descents in Alaska and British Columbia like the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.
"People forget that Idaho and the northwest in general produces a lot of incredible whitewater kayakers," said McLeod. "What you are looking at is some of the most high caliber paddlers in the United States, a lot of these kids compete in the world championships and place in the world championships."
The kayakers wanted to thank Idaho Power for the release as the Milner Mile has only run in 2019, 2017, and 2011 in recent history.
