Marion Creek

BETA

Stream: A short section of bedrock not far off Hwy 22 that flows into the North Santiam near the town of Marion Forks.

It's a novelty run at best, but was worth doing for us under the right occasion.  We thought if we were driving from Salem to Bend at the right time of year it could be a nice way to break up the drive.  Or if someone was looking for a class IV version of Sweet Creek.

There is a short walk in through the woods, and everything can be scouted either by the standard method of catching eddies and walking down the bank, or before putting on by walking down a rudimentary use trail that parallels the creek on river right.

There was one log that was in the way when we did the run in 2019 that required us to bang down a shallow channel on the left.  The rest of the run was clean.

The last horizon is the tallest, and is run down the middle.  Below this ledge/ramp the creek returns to boulders and the take out is on the right just below the island in the following photo.

  
Flows:  We were checking this creek out on July 5, 2019.  It had some water left due to snow-melt, but it wasn't really "in".  Enough for a fun adventure for us, not enough to recommend to others.

These photos were taken from the bridge just downstream of the take out.

The rock circled in the photo was wet, with water washing over it.  If it was covered, I think that would be a runnable flow.

 July 5, 2019

BRIETENBUSH NR DETROIT

N SANTIAM NR DETROIT

Access:  No need for a shuttle vehicle.  Drive to the town of Marion Forks, about 16 miles SE on Hwy 22 from Detroit (between Salem and Bend).   Head up Marion Creek Rd 3 miles, there will be a bridge off to the right.  100 feet past this an easy-to-miss road goes to the right into a campground, which is the take out.  Scope out/mark the exit from the creek at this point.

To get to the put in drive upstream 1/4 mile, on a short straight away after a right turn and before a left turn park in a tiny pull out to the left.  Walk up the road another 100 feet and enter the woods and b-line for the creek.  

The walking is easy, there is a final bench to drop down to the creek.  If you are in the right spot there will be a log jam above and the first horizon below.

If you want, you can set the boats down before the bench and walk upstream a short distance to take in Gooch Falls.  It's not runnable, but is pretty.  There is a rudimentary trail that goes down to the campsight from Gooch Falls along the creek, so you can scout everything before putting on if you like.

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Trip Report
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It was the first weekend in July and we had done two week long trips to California in June.  I didn't really want to spend much time in a car this weekend, but still wanted to see something new.   It had been a good snow year so I thought there might be some water flowing off the Cascades still, so I set about finding a creek that would be capturing that snow melt I had not paddled yet.

I had seen plenty of photos of Marion Creek in the summer-time and it seemed like it held it's water better than rain fed streams of similar size.  I had read the Oregonkayaking trip report and while I didn't want to repeat that experience Jason had mentioned in there a section of ledges and slides below Gooch Falls.  The maps did show some waterfalls, and there was a bridge downstream that would make for a take out to a half mile section.

Priscilla and I headed up on a Friday with our rock boats, and found the logistics pretty straight forward.  We hiked in to Gooch Falls via a short bushwhack.  Gouch Falls was worth staring at for a bit before we headed downstream.  50 yards of boulders led to a log jam portage, and just downstream was a horizon line.  I recognized this first drop from the OK trip report.  We ended up taking a center line instead of the left line.

We found the section below to be just as advertised, 1/4 mile of small ledges and slides.  We scouted a number of them, one had a log in the main line that we skirted to the left of.  Other than that it was a clean creek bed.




Just below the largest ramp/ledge the creek returned to boulders and I saw a log jam downstream of the next island.  I headed over to the right bank to portage and noticed it was at a campsite.  I set my boat down and looked around the corner to see the take out bridge, so instead of portaging just left the boats at the campsite and I jogged back up to the car while Priscilla explored a trail heading  upstream from the campground.

We decided that we should do another lap, so drove up to a point Priscilla had determined from her trip up the trail from the campsite would drop us in just below the log jam we had portaged at the top on our first lap.  This time we didn't have to get out of our boats and were smiling as we hopped out again at the take out.

We both thought we might be back some day to break up a drive between Bend and Salem, feeling it was like a tamer Sweet Creek experience.  With more water, maybe we would even leave the rock boats at home.

We still had some time left over so paddled the Breitenbush at the lowest flow I have done yet.  We didn't have to get out of our boats and I'd probably even do it again at that flow under the right circumstance.  The left side of Sharon's closed out and pinned Priscilla, and we took the second from the left slot at the Notch, everything else went in the normal lines. We took out just upstream of Humbug Creek, as we typically do if flows are low.

   -jacob

Calapooia River: Headwaters

The Calapooia River was for many years one of the Willamette Valley area runs that was only accessible during hunting season.  Some years the water would line up that early in the Fall, other times it would not.

In 2018 Linn County reached a deal with Weyerhaeuser that the road would become a year round easement used for accessing the Willamette National Forest.  This is good news for boaters, as now any day of the year we can paddle the river.  There is a catch though, and that is that the 9 mile section described on Oregonkayaking.net has ballooned into a 15 mile run, and the section below that lost a couple miles.  The reason for this is that part of the deal is there is no parking along the easement section of the road.  This is all well signed and the rules are as follows:

Upper Calapooia Road

• The road is open to the public unless the gates are closed. We will post a notification on Linn County's website when we are going to close the gates.

• The road is posted no parking from the end of the pavement to the national forest boundary. Law enforcement is writing citations to anyone who violates the no parking restriction.

• There is no legal access to the river from the public road until you get into the national forest.

• Weyerhaeuser is actively logging in the vicinity so be very cautious and watch out for log trucks

Neither Priscilla or I had run any of the Calapooia before, so this year resolved to check it out.  We started with the lower section, then set our sites on the headwaters.  I didn't have high hopes for this run, but I had seen a photo of a ledge drop and the gradient was around 200 fpm mile so I figured we would get to run a couple new rapids amongst the logs we would surely be dealing with.

We had planned to go just the two of us because of the high probability of a suffer-fest ensuing, but Zach Levine reached out and was game so we met him in Holley with plans to do the headwaters down past the no parking area for a total of 16 miles.

We hit snow shortly after reaching the National Forest boundary, so walked a mile or so through the snow to the put in.  We lucked out with a road I had not seen on the satellite imagery that led right to the put in so there was no bushwhacking necessary.

There was a fun ledge adjacent to the campsite, then a few visible log portages.  We geared up and got ready to parta.

PARTA Time.

Just below the fun ledge were 3 log portages in a row, the first two were easy, the third would have been on the right but we took the problem solving option on the left.  Things moved along for a bit below these logs and there were some ledges amongst more wood dodging. 

The stream bed was good, but the wood had Priscilla on edge.  After a couple more log shimmies and a portage or two she was reaching the edge of her comfort zone.  After an island portage, the wind picked up in a big way for about five minutes.  Trees were waving wildly, shedding limbs into the river and pelting us with hail.  We pulled over to chat in an eddy, while talking over the options a 20' long, 6" diameter tree floated by, Priscilla decided this was the last piece of wood she wanted to avoid for the day and headed up to the road.   Zach and I would meet her at the next bridge, heading downstream quickly so we could pass the floating log before it could wedge itself in a problematic spot. 

Zach and I passed the mobile strainer and pushed on for awhile, but after a short section of wood free creek we reached a braided area with some wood that required scouting and came up with a plan.  We'd hike up to the road, find Priscilla, reload boats and drive down to the National Forest Boundary (which turns out was less than 1/4 mile downstream).  We floated a few options after meeting up with Priscilla, but it was 2PM and she wanted to return when there was enough time to enjoy the remaining section of the Calapooia instead of the option in front of us which was to paddle the remaining 15 miles as fast as we could to get to the end before we ran out of light.  

So instead we decided to head over to Wiley Creek and do a couple laps on Cascade and down through the ledges to the quarry.  Wiley was at a great level, and provided a stress-free finish to the day.

We did the run on 4/5/2019

Wiley Creek Gauge

Pat Welches Calapooia estimate rose from a little over 1,000 cfs to 1,400 cfs throughout the day.

We put in at the Keeney Creek Confluence:  44.240961, -122.360716

And took out 100 yards above the National Forest Boundary:   44.236851, -122.383142

NF Toutle: Sediment pond to Kid Valley

Poking around on satellite imagery as I often do when I have some time to kill, I came across an interesting half mile of bedrock whitewater on the NF Toutle that seemed out of place.   The reason it is out of place requires a little background knowledge.  As many in the PNW are aware of,  Mount Saint Helens erupted in a big way in 1980.  There was much devastation, but the form that is relevant to our discussion here is the large debris flows that roared down the Toutle Drainage.  Aside from causing much destruction at the time (reaching all the way to the Columbia River), they left behind large deposits of sediment in the stream-bed.  This turned what was once a classic PNW, class III-IV style stream with canyon walls and greenery into a boulder strewn flood plain. The only distinct rapid left behind was Hollywood Gorge, about 8 miles upstream of the confluence of the Toutle with the Columbia River.

Back to the map perusing, why was there now a half mile of bedrock up on the North Fork of the Toutle that was not mentioned in any whitewater guidance literature?

As it turns out, the sediment laden river-system was causing issues down as far as the Columbia and to remedy the problem a retention structure was built to hold back a portion of the sediment working its way down the drainage.  Initially, the spillway that was there was not something of whitewater value.  However, in 2013 the structure was modified and raised 7 feet.  The history and reasons can be read about on wikipedia.

The modification in 2013 funneled the flow over bedrock that had not been exposed since us humans have been around.  The resulting 1/2 mile of channel drops 184 feet over a multitude of ledges, ramps, and slides.

In December 2017 Priscilla was passing through and scouted out the section from a convenient path on river-right at around 1800 cfs.

It looked big, but we were intrigued to come back sometime with less water and with kayaks.

June 2018 we were taking a trip up to the Cooper River and decided to start the trip off with a run down this section of the NF Toutle.

We set shuttle just below another dam, about 3 miles East of Kid Valley.

2.1 miles upstream was an overgrown road with a gate we dragged our boats down.

In less than a mile we had reached the bank of the NF Toutle and could see the structure and beginning of the gradient downstream.  We walked the path along the right a short ways to scope out some of the eddies and the feel of the run (the whole run can be scouted from this path, 50-100' vertical feet above the river with few visual obstructions).

Things looked good for a first run, so we returned to our boats and launched off the wall into what was about 2" of water.  You see, the structure was doing its job and the sediment was being retained.  So the river was wide, and the water shallow.  It was only a hundred yards to the beginning of the whitewater, but it took 20 minutes as we scooted and walked our boats through the sand.  Each step had us sinking to our ankles, it was not your normal approach to a kayak run.

We reached the start of the whitewater at the retention structure itself, a gentle ramp to a 5' boof.  The sediment had filled in the landing zone, so a boof seemed necessary, even with a boof I landed on sand, though it did not hurt. A week later, Nick Hymel and Brandon Lake did the run and both plugged this drop, neither hit bottom, go figure.

At higher flows when the hydraulic at the base gets large, the retention structure itself could be snuck left or right.

We ferried to river left after the first drop to check out the retaining structure.  There is a trail that leads to this area, it would be an option to use that trail as a put in in the future to avoid the sand dragging upstream (Nick and Brandon used this route and gave it the thumbs up), though the path on river right from which the whole section is scoutable would not be accessible if that route was used.

Checking out the retaining structure

A quick tangent here: while there is nothing illegal about being on this section of river, we all know how muggles can get when they see kayakers kayaking in places like this.  We tried our best (and were successful) at passing through unseen and obeyed all signs indicating where we could not go.  If others choose to paddle here, I urge them to do the same.

After checking things out we walked downstream on river left to scout out the first couple ledges, which we ended up re-scouting from river right.  The first was a short ramp into a hydraulic, then shortly downstream a ledge dropped 5-10'.  During Priscilla's scouting trip, both had been enormous holes.

The first ramp at 1,800 cfs

The second tier at 500 cfs

Next was a bumpy section we ran down the right.  The water spread out below here, with the most obvious low water choice being down a smooth 50' long low angle concrete slab into a 5-10' ramp.

Priscilla sliding down the concrete slab.

Up to this point it had been easy to scout everything at river level on the left or right.

Below here the river split into 3 channels, all channels were sliding sections with ledges.  Far right being 3-4, middle being 4-4+, left being class V.

We started down the left channel, after scouting all the channels we decided to scrape down the far right channel.  As levels increase, so too would the challenge of scouting these channels.

On an after work trip about a week later, Brandon Lake takes the left channel.

Photo: Nick Hymel

When the channels reconvened, there was one last 5-10' drop with a hole on the left.  Priscilla went first and had an entertaining line!  She pulled a large boof but was booted onto her side and landed nearly upside down.  She was able to hold on until the hole spat her out and she rolled up.  That was the end of the half mile of bedrock, we noted it would be easy to get out on river right and walk boats back up the scouting path high on the right to do multiple runs in a day.  We had driving distance to cover that afternoon so settled for one lap this time around.  Downstream of the whitewater we drifted another half mile through gravel bars to a true dam that looks like a large version of the final dam on the Little White Salmon River.  It can be easily portaged on the right.  The take out was just below on the left. 

BETA

  
Flows:  We had 500 cfs in the NF Toutle near Kid Valley.  This was a low, enjoyable flow and I would return at that flow.  Nick Hymel and Brandon Lake returned the next week at 450 and said they would also return at that flow.  Both groups felt more water would be welcomed.

 Priscilla's 1,800 cfs scouting trip showed a class V/V+ section of whitewater.  The photos she took made it look like at that flow it could be the type of run that boaters running the Little White around 5' might enjoy.

Access:  Take Exit 49 off I-5 in Castle Rock.  Follow Hwy 504 20.5 miles to Otto Cook Rd and turn left.  At the end of the road is a circular area to park in at the take out. 
46.3723, -122.5786

Put In A:  From the take out, continue upriver less than 1/4 mile on Hwy 504 before turning right towards the sediment structure on Stewart Dam Rd.  Follow this to the parking area, and hike the trail to it's end at the structure.  There is a break in the fence where you can walk down to the stream.  Brandon and Nick took this route, and I probably would in the future too if levels were conducive to it (medium or low).
46.3642, -122.5595 (trailhead)


Put In B:  The way we did it was to continue upriver on Highway 504 for 2.1 miles from the take out and pull over at the gated road on the right (shown in the photo below).  We dragged our boats to the end of this road, where it meets up with the NF Toutle.  The water is very shallow here, even though the murky water made that hard so see.  We skipped the seal launch for this reason and just set our boats in the sand 1-2" below the surface of the water.  If flows are high, this is probably the way to go, as it allows paddlers to scout the whole run from a trail on river right.
46.3615, -122.545 

*Both hikes are less than a mile.

click to view full sized

Notes:  The run is about an hour North of Portland, it looked like there was a camping option off the take out road down to the dam.  



**While there is nothing illegal about kayaking this section of river, we all know how muggles can get when there are kayakers kayaking in places like this.  If you choose to do this run, please keep this in mind and keep a low profile, with special care near the dam at the take out.