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courts are already burdened by too many cases of this type, a waste of time, energy 

 and financial resources for both the United States and its citizens. The only practical 

 and pennanent resolution of this issue is to clarify Congressional intent in a manner 

 that will not allow any future misunderstanding. S. 1374 and H.B. 2568 do that. 



Why don't people who support shared use just quit! Is it worth the battle? The 

 answer is decidedly yes! We will not easily give up the right to access our river and 

 canyon with either powered or non-powered craft. Floating a churning river through a 

 magnificent canyon is something we wish everyone could experience. In Hells Can- 

 yon this requires physical stamina, a large amount of money for commercial guests 

 and considerable time. But power boating is also a very special and exhilarating 

 experience, one available to everyone. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to climb our 

 planet's highest peak, sums it up this way: 



"I have found jet boating perhaps the most exciting mechanical form of 

 adventure I have ever undertaken. It involves a wide variety of challenges. 

 There is the beauty of the environment-superb streams, wild gorges, mountain 

 lakes. There is such a multitude of problems to tackle—ferocious rapids, 

 shallow braided streams, formidable boulders and thundering waterfalls. There 

 is the speed, the swift reaction, the sliding around tight comers—. 



Somehow the roar of the engine has never worried me. The jet boat seems 

 to fit into its environment. The constant change in direction, the struggle 

 against steep rapids, the long, deep, fast stretches, the sharp comers-all seem to 

 tune Into the engine from a gentle hum to the scream of power in a difficult 

 section. Rivers are exciting, noisy things anyway." 

 Bloxham and Stark, The Jet Boat, 1983. 

 Hillary would find jet boating in Hells Canyon today much less noisy and even 

 more fitting than expressed in his 1983 writing, but no less exciting. 



The River 



The Snake River in Hells Canyon is unique among those in the Wild and Scenic 

 system; the diversity it provides to that system makes it especially precious to the 

 American people. It is a large, high volume river. The 31.5 mile "wild" section be- 

 gins at Hells Canyon Dam in the south and extends to Pittsburg Landing in the north. 

 All of the class FV rapids (on a scale from I to VI), the major white water rapids in 

 Hells Canyon, are located in the top 16.3 miles. This segment is also the deepest part 

 of the canyon. While there is no geographically defmed "Hells Canyon" on the maps, 

 most of the old-timers considered that Hells Canyon started at Johnson Bar, about 17 

 miles north of the dam, and extended south to Oxbow, Oregon. 



The "Scenic" Snake River flows north from Pittsburg Landing, 36 miles to the 

 Wallowa-Whitman National Forest boundary, giving us a total of 67.5 miles of wild 

 and scenic river. An additional 4 miles of undesignated river nms north from the 



