BANKS, Idaho — The Payette water master told us the North Fork of the Payette will likely start dropping on Sept. 3, and the Deadwood is expected to stop supplementing the South Fork on Aug. 30.
However, not many places in the West have good water levels in July and August. Reliable water draws paddlers from all over the country to our region during the summer and the levels held despite the lackluster snowpack Idaho received this past winter.
WATCH|Check out the video to see kayakers take on the South Fork, the North Fork and the Main Payette
"I think there was a lot of fear about water levels this year," said Rachel Weisz, who guides kids down the river with Youth Dynamics. "We have seen that a lot more on free-flowing rivers, but on dam-controlled rivers it has been fairly standard all things considered."
The South Fork of the Payette River gets supplemented by the Middle Fork in the spring, but when these free-flowing rivers start dropping, the river gets a bump from a release from the Deadwood Reservoir; this provides reliable water all summer long that flows around 1,600 cubic feet per second.
The same thing happens with the North Fork of the Payette, with water being released out of Lake Cascade as boaters benefit from irrigation in the summer.
"That’s why I’m here tonight," said kayaker Trevor Nelson. "It is the middle of the week, but I got to get some laps in while the water is still going."
Trevor Nelson learned how to kayak at the age of 36, and he began on the Main Payette. I caught up with him and his crew at Slalom Rapid on the South Fork of the Payette River, and he has progressed to running expert laps on the Lower Five of the North Fork of the Payette River.
"It is fast, it’s continuous and for me it’s kind of white-knuckle; it's a step up for me from anything else I've done," said Nelson. "I was hoping it was going to go through to Labor Day."
Most years the water holds through Labor Day, but that will not happen this year to hold more storage in the reservoir and also because Labor Day happens later than usual. The water master told me that right now the water is flowing to help the salmon downstream in the Snake River.
The water levels have also been slightly down this summer, especially on the North Fork of the Payette River. For example, last summer the river held at about 1,800 cfs for most of the summer and this year it has been around 1,400 since the end of July.
