Exploratory close to home

   as told by Jeff Compton

      Upper Siouxon creek is a tributary to the north fork of the Lewis river about  an hour from Portland Oregon. Despite commonly having enough water to paddle, great class IV whitewater, beautiful old growth forest and being close to paddling epicenters, this delightful creek has only seen a handful of descents in the decade since the first descent.

     Scott Michael and myself set our sites on it based on the oregonkayaking.net description from the first descent at very low water. They gave an estimate for what a better flow might be and described miles of bedrock drops.  Supposedly there is a 2.5 mile hike from the top accessed by difficult to find and possibly 4wd logging roads or you can hike the whole thing from the bottom. It was rumored to be five miles. The only other info we could find was that a group had tried to hike up from the bottom and tired before they got to the good stuff.

   We decided to hike from the bottom. The take out is easy to find and it is a nice trail. Unfortunately we discovered, via the signs along the trail, that the hike is closer to seven miles, possibly more. It did allow us to check out some of the larger drops and where to portage them before putting on. We put in at the confluence of Siouxon and Calamity creeks. They were each too small to float on their own, but formed a creek just perfect for an IK. What we found were quite a few nice class IV bedrock drops, a twenty foot waterfall, two larger cascades that we portaged, and enough wood to keep us on our toes. We both swam at the bottom of the twenty footer at the beginning, but it was too good to pass up. Overall the trip was good, especially knowing that the work involved keeps most paddlers from ever running this stretch.



Upper Siouxon creek from Scott Michael on Vimeo.

PNW Winter Synopsis

Eric Adsit made a synopsis in numbers of this year in kayaking around the PNW.  Matt and I get a mention for a trip to Eagle Creek earlier this year.   Check out the other neat accomplishments in his article.

Grand Union Falls - Eagle Creek, OR

Article - http://www.canoekayak.com/pacific-northwest-winter-for-the-ages