As I tried to run through the Cottonwood snow shower on Tuesday afternoon, I heard a pretty loud sound coming from the Boise River. 

At first I had no idea what it was, but within seconds I saw one of Boise Fire's speedboats zip out from behind the trees lining the river.  If you've lived in the Treasure Valley for a while, you know that speedboats on the river aren't something you see everyday.  It usually means one of two things: Boise Fire is practicing their water rescue skills or they're cleaning debris like fallen trees that may be be lurking beneath the water to make the river safe for floating season. Over the final minutes of my run, I got my hopes up that float season could start sooner rather than later.

That's why I tried to play super sleuth as soon as I got home. A Facebook page called "Float the Boise River," maintained by Ada County, had actually posted an update while I was on the Greenbelt explaining that even though flows have dropped considerably from a few weeks ago, they're still unsafe for floaters.  On Tuesday, the river was flowing at 2,070 cfs.  The river traditionally opens at 1,500 cfs. They also said the Debris Team has a meeting scheduled for Thursday to start making a plan to clear the river for floating season.  It looks like it won't be too long before we can start pulling out the rafts and tubes!

There's a lot of anticipation for the 2018 float season after last year's super abbreviated season.  Thanks to Snowpocolypse and the snow melt/flooding that followed, the Boise River opened on the latest date on record, July 29. For comparison, the river opened on June 29 in 2016, June 12 in 2015 and June 18 in 2014.

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