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Flight today in the Smith river gorge!

Nice! The XSP is known for the orange carrot in videos. You got a green egg :p
That looks like prime trout waters. I think I saw a tuna!
 
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Very beautiful shot made all smooth and precision. beautiful.
 
Hey @gasquetmike -
I suspect that is the Smith in NorCal? I have friends in Brookings that guide steelhead and salmon on the Smith, Chetco, and Rogue during the fall and winter before they come back up to Alaska to fish the summers. The "water mark" on the canyon walls almost appears to be clues that there was a dam on this stream at one time but its a Wild and Scenic River as a recall isn't it? If no dam then that would indicate a massive flow of water through this canyon at some time in the past. And that theory or speculation is supported by that erosional bowl at 4:20 from boulders rolling around in the depression from the turbulent flow of water and vortex created by that outcrop. Perhaps at the end of the the last major Ice Age. It also looks like in a millennium or two erosion will open a hole in the wall that is currently separating the bowl from the stream.

That would be a wonderful section to do a Drift Dive and just snorkel along with the current and have a couple of GoPros hanging below to get those wonderful underwater colors and environment.

Thanks for sharing. I grew up loving the Sierras and the beautiful mountain streams to fish. The Klamath and Trinity were my favorite fall steelhead and coho fisheries my grandparents would take me to.
=============

It just came to mind about that "lake" watermark. I think that perhaps its also possible that an ancient landslide from the canyon walls above blocked off the canyon with debris and created a natural still water reservoir. And over hundreds or perhaps thousands of years it eventually washed out and allowed the stream to resume its natural course. Things like that do happen in this amazing place called planet Earth.

One way of testing that "theory" is to examine the scour/water line to see if it maintains a level elevation over a long stretch of the canyon and then abruptly vanishes downstream at a certain point. That should be your landslide location and it should be recognizable if you look close enough at the mountainside. Sometimes things so obvious are overlooked by everyone when its right in front of their nose. :D But if the water mark continues down the stream and canyon at an angle then the first speculation I mentioned of just a lot of water flow would be more accurate. That would have been an amazing sight to behold.
 
Hey @gasquetmike -
I suspect that is the Smith in NorCal? I have friends in Brookings that guide steelhead and salmon on the Smith, Chetco, and Rogue during the fall and winter before they come back up to Alaska to fish the summers. The "water mark" on the canyon walls almost appears to be clues that there was a dam on this stream at one time but its a Wild and Scenic River as a recall isn't it? If no dam then that would indicate a massive flow of water through this canyon at some time in the past. And that theory or speculation is supported by that erosional bowl at 4:20 from boulders rolling around in the depression from the turbulent flow of water and vortex created by that outcrop. Perhaps at the end of the the last major Ice Age. It also looks like in a millennium or two erosion will open a hole in the wall that is currently separating the bowl from the stream.

That would be a wonderful section to do a Drift Dive and just snorkel along with the current and have a couple of GoPros hanging below to get those wonderful underwater colors and environment.

Thanks for sharing. I grew up loving the Sierras and the beautiful mountain streams to fish. The Klamath and Trinity were my favorite fall steelhead and coho fisheries my grandparents would take me to.
=============

It just came to mind about that "lake" watermark. I think that perhaps its also possible that an ancient landslide from the canyon walls above blocked off the canyon with debris and created a natural still water reservoir. And over hundreds or perhaps thousands of years it eventually washed out and allowed the stream to resume its natural course. Things like that do happen in this amazing place called planet Earth.

One way of testing that "theory" is to examine the scour/water line to see if it maintains a level elevation over a long stretch of the canyon and then abruptly vanishes downstream at a certain point. That should be your landslide location and it should be recognizable if you look close enough at the mountainside. Sometimes things so obvious are overlooked by everyone when its right in front of their nose. :D But if the water mark continues down the stream and canyon at an angle then the first speculation I mentioned of just a lot of water flow would be more accurate. That would have been an amazing sight to behold.
your right about the location. I snorkeled through there years ago and have thought about doing it again. i remember that the water enters that bowl at the bottom. Its really spooky in the gorge and powerful. thanks for your insights! Heres a video i took of the same section in April.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1p1SwRqorA&feature=youtu.be
 
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your right about the location. I snorkeled through there years ago and have thought about doing it again. i remember that the water enters that bowl at the bottom. Its really spooky in the gorge and powerful. thanks for your insights! Heres a video i took of the same section in April.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1p1SwRqorA&feature=youtu.be
I wonder if the swirling boulders actually wore through the side wall before the super high water events ended. I noticed the water level inside and outside was the same.

That raging river is just what the gold dredgers loved to see as the gold is on the move during flows like that and easier pickin's after the water recedes. My cousin and I built a dredge in 1971 during my last quarter of college and dredged the Feather and a couple secret small streams in the Sierra foothills before bringing it up to Alaska. Ten years ago I was monitoring Cal's changes in what they allow for gold dredgers now and its pitiful how restricted they have made it. The environmentalists claim the small operation gold dredgers do damage to the stream bottom and ecosystem and they should be banned. I guess they never have seen what rivers and creeks do to their own stream bottoms EVERY Spring.....like in your Spring run off vid you just posted. One of the best things the dredgers were doing was capturing and removing all the mercury the 49'ers used in their sluice boxes to capture the fine flour gold. That is heavy and is caught in the dredgers' sluice boxes and removed from the environment.
 
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I wonder if the swirling boulders actually wore through the side wall before the super high water events ended. I noticed the water level inside and outside was the same.

That raging river is just what the gold dredgers loved to see as the gold is on the move during flows like that and easier pickin's after the water recedes. My cousin and I built a dredge in 1971 during my last quarter of college and dredged the Feather and a couple secret small streams in the Sierra foothills before bringing it up to Alaska. Ten years ago I was monitoring Cal's changes in what they allow for gold dredgers now and its pitiful how restricted they have made it. The environmentalists claim the small operation gold dredgers do damage to the stream bottom and ecosystem and they should be banned. I guess they never have seen what rivers and creeks do to their own stream bottoms EVERY Spring.....like in your Spring run off vid you just posted. One of the best things the dredgers were doing was capturing and removing all the mercury the 49'ers used in their sluice boxes to capture the fine flour gold. That is heavy and is caught in the dredgers' sluice boxes and removed from the environment.
You didn't mention all the lead that gets pulled out of the waters! California is so full of regulations they don't want you to do anything! Great some pin head came up with that!
Looks like a cool spot to fly or swim great video!
 

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