(photo-Matt King)
We decided to try out the alternate access I had been looking at the last time I was up there, that had been confirmed by Micheal Long. I decided to try getting down a little farther even to make sure we put the raft in below the log deck. It looked like this was doable, so we started carrying the raft down an old abandoned road until they reached the end in the form of a bowl with old car stuff and a campfire. From this point, we dropped off the right side just before entering this bowl and found a slightly steep, but short and reasonable descent to the creek. I never even had to take the boat off my shoulder. In my experience this was easier than the historic clear-cut hike, and made it worth while not dealing with the new portage up top, the manky stuff, or the log deck.
We headed downstream, and while the raft was having the anticipated problems of hitting rocks all the time, we made reasonable time. Soon we reached Hagen Daaz and after giving the rafters and first time kayakers beta plopped off and regrouped in the pool below.
Dan Mccain and Trevor reaping the rewards at Hagen Daaz falls.
(photo-Matt King)
Below Here we continued down to Euphoria falls. We didn't dilly-dally too much, with Ryan and Matt skipping the scout. The rest of us took a look, and then our turns. Once at the bottom we all poked around for a good view of what we hoped was an entertaining raft descent.
And entertaining it was, with Dan getting sucked under the raft before they even entered the main drop. Luckily he was able to get back in and hold on as they careened their way into the fang rock, then bounced down the rest. They hit the bottom drop much better. Since this was hardly registered as a crash in Dan's long history of bodily abuse we quickly moved downstream.
Of note was a small and insignificant looking, but sticky weir hole that got the best of one of the kayakers. To avoid a similar outcome, the rest of us went left of center.
Teakettle gave me a nice pirouette, and Ryan hit a cool boof off the curler landing in the eddy. The raft wasn't on target, but crash through the hole on the right without issue.
We all stared and talked around the Cracken for awhile, but were not all that excited about getting thrown around by the bottom pinch. I had assumed the raft would portage, but there started to be talk of Dan wanting to run it, and that Matt was considering hopping in the raft with him.
It was painfully obvious to everyone that the crack was too small for a raft, but Dan and Matt were pitching something about weighting the left tube and bringing it through there sideways. It didn't look like a bad swim if you went into the bottom drop upright, so there wasn't much concern since the top drop seemed easy so everyone not in the raft settled in to watch the show. Matt let me use his camera so we were able to document the result.
It was painfully obvious to everyone that the crack was too small for a raft, but Dan and Matt were pitching something about weighting the left tube and bringing it through there sideways. It didn't look like a bad swim if you went into the bottom drop upright, so there wasn't much concern since the top drop seemed easy so everyone not in the raft settled in to watch the show. Matt let me use his camera so we were able to document the result.
Dropping in, looking good.
They stalled out a bit at the lip of the shallow 15 ft'er at the top, as they went airborne Matt (who hadn't had any time to practice holding on with Dan's rope system) came out of the
raft.
Matt getting into position for the re-entry, while Dan seems to have other things on his mind.
He was having trouble getting back in with the aerated water, so he devised a cunning plan at
the last moment, waiting until the raft dropped out from under him in the second
drop, and using the moment of weightlessness to pull himself in as the boat went over.
Making the leap.
This worked out, and while he was quickly dumped again, I'm sure this was preferable to swimming through the drop.
Dan managed to keep the raft straight enough and pulled off the most an impressive low-side to keep the raft from going over and rode away on the raft sunny-side up.
From here we blasted to the take out and loaded the inflated raft on Dan's truck with high hopes of getting a fast and loose Lacamas creek lap in.
We got to Lacamas with 30 min of daylight left. I decided to hop in the raft for this one, we cruised the lake, portaged the first ledge, ran the first falls on verbal beta (or in the kayakers case, no beta) , then we eddied out above the Norway slide. We scouted for about five minutes before it was go time. As the light started to fade, we dropped this large slide with a good bit of water pumping down it, skipping across the pool at the base, it was a grinning good time.
The kayakers crushed it blue angel style which was one of the cooler things I have seen while boating in some time. From our perch 15 yards below the drop we couldn't see past the lip of the final plunge, they came from seemingly out of nowhere one right after another all on slightly different lines barreling down the face landing but a skip away from the raft.
The sun was gone at this point and we paddled downstream through the flat/woody water on whisps of refracted light down to and through a culvert. Not long after we had schlepped the raft up to the road, happy to have avoided a mis-adventure even the a haphazard approach.
From here we made quick work of the flat/woody water at the end, paddled through a culvert, and before we knew it had our boats up at the road after a successful blitz mission. This was a great day of boating, and one I won't soon forget.
The sun was gone at this point and we paddled downstream through the flat/woody water on whisps of refracted light down to and through a culvert. Not long after we had schlepped the raft up to the road, happy to have avoided a mis-adventure even the a haphazard approach.
From here we made quick work of the flat/woody water at the end, paddled through a culvert, and before we knew it had our boats up at the road after a successful blitz mission. This was a great day of boating, and one I won't soon forget.
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The alternate Hagen access
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How to get there. There is a clearcut where people normally put-in. Less than 50 yards before the clearcut is a road with a ditch across it shooting off to the left through the woods. Walk down this road a hundred yards or less. A road goes off the the right, do not take it. Go left for another hundred yards. You will cross another ditch, and the road will open up. Go right here and you will cross another ditch. Follow this road past one more ditch until you hit the end. You will see the circle at the end of the road, veir right into the woods at the very beginning of this circle. You will be able to find your way to the creek reasonably easy from here as you are less than a hundred feet above it.
These directions will drop you in one class III drop below the log-deck.
These directions will drop you in one class III drop below the log-deck.
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For Lacamas, put in at the lake, then take out where the road through town crosses the creek.
-Jacob
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