From Mr. Bill Petty:

Ok, I think everyone may want to know the rest of the story.

When I first paddled I was still in a fiberglass kayak. It was Jim Greenleafs trip. I don't know if any of you know him. He doesn't whitewater kayak any longer.

That day we drove up to rooster tail. He thought it looked big. It was around 8000 cfs so we put in below rooster tail.

The NF quickly became my favorite run and have led dozens of club trips on the upper stretch. While we liked 5K to 8K I have personally run the upper above rooster tail as low as 2.5K and higher than 8K. At this point I am speaking from below Drumbeater to Trout Creek. This is where we always took out.

The current discussion is regarding the 7 mile bridge to Index or the confluence.

Kanako led a WKC trip a few years ago from Trout Creek at around 8K.

So the idea is to learn the river, which will make you comfortable at various levels - go slow as you progress in either direction on the gauge. Sometimes extra low flows are more difficult than higher flows. Running any section on any reach at any flow depends upon your skills, your experience, your comfort level and the strength of your group.

For less skilled or practiced boaters, you can also put in higher in small increments to learn more of the river gradually.

On another note, factors to consider also include rainfall, soil saturation, snow melt, temperature, side creek inflow, etc.

I hope this helps everyone.

- Bill Petty

Thank you John, Candice, and Bill for your responses.

If I understand what everyone is saying, I should base my decisions on a combination of the Galena and Gold Bar gauges. Perhaps American Whitewater can adjust their flow chart so it’s not referencing (or seeming to reference) the Index gauge. Or at least clarify if they’re calculating the flow based on a combination of other gauges.

Do these ranges make sense for the NF Sky? What is too low and too high?

Gold Bar < ~4,500 cfs/ Galena is < ~3.3 ft= Low

Gold Bar ~5,000-6,500 cfs, Galena is ~3.5-4.2 ft= Runnable

Gold Bar > ~7,000 cfs/ Galena is > ~4.5 ft = High

Posting to the forum for Bill Petty:

"Now I have paddled the NF Sky around two hundred times.

This goes back a long way before there were so many easily accessed gauges.

We would always use the gauge at gold bar.

There was a stick gauge at the bridge in Index. That's what you're referencing

as 18.5.

We always consider the AW gauge as an estimate.

There was also a painted gauge on the bridge across the NF at galena. Its is reading 3.78 currently 2/9/2026 at 6:30 am.

I used to stand on the bridge in Index and had a rock I used, which changed radically after the floods around 2007.

Our rule of thumb was not to paddle from Trout Creek to Index unless the main Sky was running at least 5000. We have been running this much lower than that.

In the old days I exclusively ran the upper, getting out at Trout Creek."

- Bill Petty

I’m trying to better understand which gauge people use for the NF Sky (7-Mile Bridge to the SF confluence).

American Whitewater lists the NF Sky at Index with a recommended range of 2250–4500 cfs, but I'm not sure where they're getting their data- there don't seem to be any gauges on the NF that show a cfs. https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/view/river-detail/2212/flow

When I ran this stretch on Feb 5th, the Gold Bar gauge showed 5400cfs. The AW page showed the flow in Index as ~1600cfs, which they say is below recommended. We definitely had plenty of water to run this, so I'm not sure why AW says this flow was too low.

The NWRFC gauge for Index showed 18.5' on the same day, which doesn't help me without knowing how that correlates to the cfs.

Can someone clarify this for me? Thanks