Opal Gauge (in Elkhorn)

The Little North Santiam @ Mehama gauge is far downstream of the "Opal runs" that kayakers from the area like so much.  It's a useful gauge, but there is often discrepancy between gauge readings and actual flow.   For example, last Sunday it was reading 680 cfs  and dropping when I left my house in the morning.  The low water cut off is generally considered to be 700 cfs.  We ended up having a pretty medium flow, one I would have generally associated with 900-1,000 cfs on the gauge.

The day before the gauge was 1,600 cfs and dropping when I left my house and the stream felt like what I would normally associate with that flow.

A few years ago I noticed a gauge much closer to the "Opal runs", right at the take out for Opal Gorge in fact.  There is no online reading, but Mick Evans has set up a Facebook page to report that flow on.  If that reading interests you, following that page will give you updates.  I am also collecting data here and will pull from that Facebook page.

The Elkhorn gauge, at the Elkhorn bridge.

44.8358, -122.355

------------------------

In the meantime, the first big rain of the season is always an exciting time for  boaters.  In Oregon, Opal Creek is one of the most highly sought after rain fed runs and people flock to it early in the season. 

Here is a video from Nick of opening weekend 2016, where we did a mine to Salmon Falls run at 6' on the Elkhorn gauge (I consider 5' to be the minimum flow).  6' is a nice flow for Opal Gorge where the run is not any harder but the lines open up in the main drops and the in between rapids are more fun than usual.  If it gets much higher The Undertaker needs to be portaged on the right. On the main run nothing is harder (Big Ugly is even easier) except for Big Fluffy, which handed out some swims and a low percentage of upright lines.



Opal Creek and Opal Gorge from IKNick on Vimeo.

November 6th, 2015@370-300

350

350

Little Klickitat

-By Nate Merrill

Hanging out with friends on Friday night, I expressed my feeling that the following day was going to turn into a circus. I had to laugh when my buddy Skip replied "When was the last time you went Kayaking and the trip didn't turn into a show?" It was true! After spending Tuesday driving up to the Olympic Peninsula only to get skunked and leave the area without putting boat to water, I too was having a hard time remembering my last trip that went off without any unforeseen problems. That being said, we had hatched a semi-cunning plan to ensure we were able to take advantage of the recent rainfall. With levels sky high around Portand and the Western Cascades, the group set our sites on the Little Klickitat drainage just outside of Goldendale, WA. Despite the LK being known as a run that only comes in with immense rainfall, the gauge for the rairly run creek was actually around 300-400 cfs higher than recommended flows. Given this fact, we decided that are backup plan would be to run Canyon Creek (LK trib) if indeed the LK was too high.
The next morning rolled around and as the group assembled and began loading boats, the rain continued to come down in sheets around Portland. Dan Rubado, Emile Elliot, Ryan Cole, Jacob, and myself all piled into Dan's new VW Sportwagon (45 mpg!) and headed east. After meeting up with Joe Stumpfel, John Edwards, and Matt Horton in Hood River, we beat feet up past the normal LK takeout to inspect Canyon Creek. With no eddies in sight and thick brush lining the banks, we decided that Canyon Creek was far too high to run with any regard for safety. It was the Little Klickitat today and it was juicy. (1300cfs? - The gauge was doing funky things when we put-on the creek NOTE: This was the old gauge, on the new gauge that would be a more medium flow) We quickly rallied back to the takeout, met up with some other paddlers from Hood River, and set shuttle.
The group, which had now ballooned out to nearly 20 people, opted to break up into smaller platoons to better handle the high water and the potential scarcity of large eddies. Sticking with the crew from Portland, we geared up and were just about to put-on the creek when another boater came into view walking up river. The conversation was brief but it I did catch the words "Swim", "Lost Gear", "No Eddies", and "Unscoutable". He was gone in a flash and everyone was left just a little less confident than they had been a moment earlier. This is where Ryan Cole stepped up in a big way. Having run the creek several times before, he offered to lead the run and delivered excellent beta throughout the day.
As soon as the boats hit the water, the true nature of the creek reveled itself. The creek, which was in the bushes, was colored a murky brown (probably had a lot to do with the copious amounts of cow dung in the surrounding area. yum) After floating for only a few minutes, we found ourselves rounding a bend and floating into the first big rapid of the day. Ryan had warned us to stay as far right as possible to avoid being swept into a nasty crack in the middle of the river. At this flow, there was no viable eddy above this drop and it snuck up quick! We all made the move to the right without difficulties and were able to catch a small eddy downstream and regroup. (I believe that the group we encountered hiking off the creek ran into trouble when they attempted to run the far left side of this drop.)From this point on, the creek never really let up. Big rapids were separated by fast moving boogie water. There were times when we would travel over a mile without seeing an available eddy to slow down.
A short distance below the initial drop, we came to the single most technical drop on the creek. This long boulder garden was scoutable on the left and had several pushy lines to chose from. After discussing the different options, Dan and I decided we had seen enough and returned to our boats to probe the center line. We pealed out and ran the lead-in without any problems. The next part is a little fuzzy in my memory: it all happened in the span of 3-5 seconds. After boofing over a rock near the top of the drop, I attempted to take a left stroke when agonizing pain shot through my shoulder and I realized that I couldn't move my left arm. I had somehow dislocated my left shoulder (not really sure how, but I didn't throw any brace) and was fast approaching the crux of the drop. After nearly rolling over in shock, I was able to reset my shoulder using a paddling motion and finish the drop upright, but in considerable pain. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten the shoulder back in so easily.
After catching an eddy and watching the rest of the crew come though, we took a break and discussed to option of me hiking off the creek. Several folks volunteered to help me with the hike out, but at this point, Skip's words from the night before were resounding in my head: "When was the last time you went boating and things didn't turn into a show?" After resting for a good twenty minutes, I decided that I was going to keep paddling. The shoulder hurt, but my range of motion wasn't being hindered and I felt I could continue on without putting the group (or myself for that matter) at risk.

John Edwards and Jacob board the freight train.

Ryan Cole is In Like Flynn

We got back on the creek and started bombing downriver. The next two drops came up in quick secession. The first we scouted from the right. It featured a nasty boulder pile in the middle but was fairly clean down the right bank, with only minor hole punching required.

Extra Frothy.

The second drop (we refereed to this one as the slide) was scoutable on the left but required committing to the rapid and catching a last chance eddy. It looks scary, but I promise, there is a large eddy on the left! You just can't see it from above. Faith! The drop itself featured a giant slide that feeds into a horrible looking hydraulic. This thing was massive! Fortunately, there was a narrow brown tongue that just missed the worst of the hole. We all attempted to ride this tongue with varying results. Matt Horton even got some rodeo action in on this beast. I could only watch from afar as he whipped off cart-wheels and loops at warp speed before calmly surfing out of the hole towards to center of the river. Well done!

Dan Rubado: "Hey diddle diddle, right down the middle"

It wasn't far down stream from the slide that we came upon the largest vertical drop on the LK. The falls is very wide and features a plethora of possible lines. Be careful when approaching this drop, it would be very easy to get swept into the falls when boat scouting. Ryan was able to recognize the drop 50 yards upstream and we still had some trouble stopping to scout. The drop is marked by a heavily wooded island that splits to river right down the middle. The easier scout is on the left and requires that you run down the left channel. If you run right of the island (like we did) expect to have some trouble stopping above the horizon line). Everyone had clean lines off the falls, which wasn't a gimmie on this day. If you failed to get your bow up, the uniform hole at the bottom promised to smack you around for awhile.

John fights gravity. And wins!

After the falls, the creek kept boogieing, but everything from this point on was easy to scout from within your boat. There were a few ledges towards the end of the run that could hand out a whipping if you weren't on your toes, but for the most part, the creek just rushes down stream. Right down the middle. Somewhere between the falls and the takeout, the sun actually made an appearance and I think we all took a minute to sit back and appreciate the unique area. Being local to the Willamette Valley, it is certainly a stark change to venture over in the central region of the state. Wide open rolling hills as far as the eye can see! As we arrived at the takeout, we met back up with the group that had put-on before us and there was a general feeling of success. Having knocked off such a rarely run creek at such an abnormally high level left everyone feeling pretty stoked on the day. I'll certainly be back the next time levels spike! Despite my shoulder injury, I still classify the LK mission under "Not at a complete circus", which is an upgrade over recent weeks. Thanks again to Ryan for sitting shotgun on this roller coaster. And Jacob for offering to hikeout with me when I injured my shoulder. Until next time. Nate

video from Emile from that trip

Little Klickitat from Difficult E on Vimeo.

Flood Fun

                                        Photos by Aqualegia Leet, Priscilla and myself

PNW got hit with huge water January 2012.  We had gone from no water to a state of emergency in nearby counties.  Finding a river to run seemed just as hard as with no water unless you were willing to playboat as all creeks were too high.    I ended up not trying to force anything and day one just scouted the local falls near our school that has yet to be run.

Still looked pretty ugly, the recycle at the bottom being the main concern.  Maybe it will get run at some point, but I won't be the one to do it.

Update: Not true

A year later I came back and decided it would be fun to seal launch in to the pool from the summertime jumping point at night.  Similar levels made for a soft landing.

The next day I went for a nice paddle with a fellow Earth Science student through Helmick State Park.  The Luckiamute had gotten absurdly high and we were paddling on the road that is usually 20' above the stream.

                           Jan 20, 2012                                                                         Fall 2016

 Jan 20, 2012      

      Fall 2016

 It was easy to paddle from the park into the river, so I paddled to the top of the park, peeled out into the river and road the 15,000 cfs of flatwater to the end of the park (the river was at 30,000 cfs the day before).

Mid channel.  

I paddled under the bridge which is usually 25 ' above the river and tapped it with my paddle.

Jan 20, 2012                                                                         Fall 2016

I then came back up and eddied out behind this tree.  The current was really moving through the park, you can see this here.

Jan 20, 2012                                                                         Fall 2016

 There were some conveniently placed steps at the gauging station that I used to get out.

Jan 20, 2012                                                                         Fall 2016

The next day I woke up really late and some of my friends decided to join me as we looked for a "secret waterfall".  I had little hope of the drop being runnable because the landing was only a couple feet deep in the summer when I had last scouted it.  We got there and kept on the down low as we crossed a field and got our first glimpse at Shivley Falls on the East Fork of Drift Creek.  It had a ton of water and I excitedly headed down to check it out from water level.  The drop is a two tiered, 30 foot drop with the top drop landing directly on the bedrock creating the second tier (no go).  I had hopes the second tier would be do-able.

I took a trip behind the falls to the other side and decided I would run the lower tier.

Walking over to check out the options.

Patrick Stephenson photo.

 We went back to the car and I geared up, going over all the things my team needed to know to keep me safe.  The big concerns were the 2 ft' deep landing and the lack of eddies to take out in before the stream crashed into some river-wide bushes.

I carried my boat behind the falls and set up next to the base of the first falls, Pat would push me directly through the edge of the first curtain and into the second drop.

The landing of the first falls, and the lip of the second.

Patrick Stephenson photo.

All went according to plan and I was able to execute the line I had planned in my mind,  upon landing I drove across the current towards the right bank where I grabbed onto a tree while Aqua grabbed my boat and I jumped out, stoked on such an impromptu and fruitful adventure.  All said and done we were there less than an hour before we were headed back to Monmouth for a birthday celebration.

My friend who was holding the camera was nervous and forgot to take pictures of me running the drop, and this blurry shot is the only picture we got of the entire falls.  The bottom tier is 10-15' tall.

Thanks to the team from WOU for coming and setting safety!

Butte Creek needs to be over 1,000 cfs before this drop becomes "runnable".

   -Jacob