Blue River Bounty

The Blue River drainage is a staple for the Eugene boating community, and its a drainage that I have been wanting to check out for awhile now.  After a long weekend of driving, we were happy to stay in the valley for MLK day.  We woke up to the Blue running over 1,000 cfs so decided to give it a go.

January 18

Being turf of the Eugene boating community, I garnered all my beta during the week from Nate Pfiefer's Wheels and Water blog aside from a helpful hint from Bobby Brown on another creek in the area.

Bobby's contribution.

Priscilla and I collected Emile Elliott on our way south, then met Ben Mckenzie in Eugene.  He is recovering from a shoulder injury, so was taking pictures today and making it possible to maximize our boating options by running shuttle.

Ground Support for the day.

All photos in this report by Ben Mckenzie unless otherwise marked.

First on the hit list was the Upper Upper Blue River
(Beta Here).

We wanted to skip the portaging in the upper stretch, so followed the overgrown 535 road which branches off the main Blue River shuttle road 1 mile past the Quentin Creek bridge.  We followed this overgrown road to a point where we could easily access the creek.  This occurred where the road started to disappear and an obvious route down to the creek was visible.

Our path is highlighted in black.  Route modifications are available.

We put in just below a bit of an island and just around the corner was the odd box noted on Nate Pfiefer's report.  A direct hit in terms of where we wanted to enter the creek.

Our Put in on the Upper Upper Blue.

This run was full of non-stop class III+ or IV- slides with a couple more channelized rapids near the end.

We had only one wood portage and made it to the take out at the confluence with Quentin Creek in short order.

Next was Quentin Creek
(Beta Here).

I think we were all the most excited about this one because of the fun looking slide/falls.  Unfortunately for us, less than a half a mile up the shuttle road we came across a logging unit whose work site blocked access further up the road.  We decided that the mile+ hike in and bushwhack would eat up the rest of the day.  We had more fish to fry, so saved this one for another time.

Nate Dogg has gotten in there, here is his POV of the run.

POV - Quentin Creek, OR from Nate Pfeifer on Vimeo.

We detoured to Cook Creek, where another road block (this one in the form of numerous logs across the road) turned us back yet again.  That was probably ok, as it didn't look all that good on the maps.

We had beta from Bobby Brown that Tidbits Creek was pretty fun, so drove upstream to where Ore Creek flows under the shuttle road via a large culvert.  Emile and I paddled through this culvert and into the non-stop action of Tidbits Creek.

The run was fast paced class IV fun with a couple of ledges and two short log portages.

Status Quo on Tidbits Creek.

There was one ledge that was pretty ugly which Emile ran right on verbal beta from me.  The result was of the sort that I then chose to portage, sorry Emile.

 For anyone debating whether it is worth touching up on those play boating skills, Emile makes a strong case for doing so in the clip below.

Just downstream of this dubious ledge was a short portage, it was fortuitously placed as Emile found a whole bunch of Ganoderma Oregonense, a mushroom which can be made into a tea and are reported to boost ones immune system.  Also called the "mushrooms of immortality".

We passed these mushrooms off to the ground team at the second portage.

Below the second and final log portage was more fast paced, fun whitewater that was all boat scoutable.  Near the end of the run was a ledge we had seen driving up.  We scouted what turned out to be the signature drop of the run.

Boofing through Tiddlywinks.

While waiting in the eddy downstream for the ground crew to shuffle around for photos, Bobby Brown (the boater who had told us about this run) showed up with his dogs.  There was one more sticky hole that was easily punchable on the left, then some more fun cruising down to the confluence with the Blue River.

The sticky hole, fortunately its an easy move on the left.

Bobby had his boat with him so we decided that a quick lap on the classic section of the Blue sounded like a fun thing to do, we all drove up to the put-in where Brian Ward happened to show up as well.

Priscilla, Emile, Bobby, Brian and I then joined forces for a fun lap on the Blue River.  There was one quick wood portage on the right (gone as of Feb 2016), and the rest was fun and splashy III-IV with some neat moves and friendly hydraulics.  Bobby and Brian knew the run well so we were able to move along at a nice clip.

After finishing that one up, we walked up the road for a quick trip down the Lookout Creek slide.  It was enjoyable and next time I'll aim to paddle more of what is upstream on that creek.  Next we ran shuttle and headed over to scout out the headwaters of Quartz Creek.  While we were not overly impressed by what we saw on Quartz Creek, we were pretty impressed with Bobby's snow driving ability.  Nate (Merrill this time) has run some of the stretch above the normal put in and reports at least one unique IV-V rapid that is not visible from the road. The sun was setting at 5PM at that time of year so that about wrapped up our day.

Lookout Creek Slide.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the whitewater in the Blue River drainage and hope to return again some day.

The wood situation is pretty good right now, so get it while its hot.

Here is a map if you want to orient yourself with the streams mentioned in this report.

        -jacob

Tamolitch

Paddler: Scott Baker                                   Photo: Lucas Rietmann
April 11, 2018 @ 1,100 cfs 

Tamolitch is an interesting waterfall along the Mckenzie River.  The river flows through lava fields of vesicular basalt, which creates a very permeable and porous ground.  When the aquifers below are not filled with water, the entire flow of the river runs underground leaving the surface completely dry.  There was a time when the aquifers below the surface filled each Spring, allowing the river to flow for weeks at a time, but those days are gone.

There is now a dam upstream, holding back Carmen Reservoir.  Water is not released from this reservoir at a consistent enough rate to keep those underground aquifers full.  Thus, even when there is a big rainstorm on top of a full pool height of the reservoir it can still take three full days of high flows to fill the aquifers before the river is able to flow above ground all the way down to and over Tamolitch Falls.  Most of the time the entire river bubbles up from the ground into the pool at the base of the bone-dry falls, before emerging and continuing downstream as a conventional above-ground river again.

Because it is so rare for this waterfall to flow, and even more rare for it to flow at levels suitable to kayak over, it does not get paddled often.  In fact, while rumors existed of someone paddling it "back in the day" when Eugene was considered the place to be for professional kayakers, no one I knew of could say who it was or had seen any photos or anything.  I found that intriguing so set about sorting out when the falls might run.

I certainly wasn't the only person interested in this waterfall, some had even tried to go to the falls when flows elsewhere were high only to be skunked by a dry falls.  By 2013-2014 I thought I had sorted out a way of making an educated guess as to when the falls might run.  In 2014, such a day came and while I needed to work (and waterfalls aren't really my thing anyway) Priscilla got a group together to check out the drop.  That story is told from her perspective further down this page.

Nowadays, the information is there for those who want to drop this beautiful and rare 50' treat.  Even if you don't have any intention of running the falls, it's a remarkable place for anyone to check out.  Whether it's dry or flowing, it's a must-see for any Oregonian.  Just be aware it's one of those place that has become overrun in the social-media age.  There might be 100 people walrusing at the falls on any given Summer weekend.  On the other hand, after three days of rain you might just have the place to yourself.

April 12, 2018 @ 1,150 cfs

Paddler:  Ben Mckenzie                                                               Photo: Priscilla Macy

Once you are done at the falls, you can paddle and hike the trail back down to the trailhead.  Some people will choose to just hike the trail the whole way.  For those that want to try and paddle some, there is a class IV section not far downstream of the falls with plenty of wood hazards, before it tapers to class II-III.  Eventually it becomes so woody that paddling isn't very justifiable.  Fortunately the trail is close to the river (river-right) the whole way, so it's reasonable to bail off the river at any point that the right wall is not prohibitive.



Flow Information:  According to the USDA, the falls typically starts spilling when the Clear Lake Outlet Gauge has been flowing over 900 cfs for three days in a row.  That is for predictory use only. 

Use the following gauge to determine if the falls is currently in, people typically shoot for at least 1,000 cfs. 

USGS 14158740 MCKENZIE RIVER BL PAYNE CR, NR BELKNAP SPRINGS, OR

 It takes very large, sustained storms to bring this falls in.  Check the gauge when everything else is flooded, or when they are doing maintenance on Carmen Reservoir dam upstream.

Access:   Tamolitch Falls is a waterfall on the Mckenzie River, a little over an hour East of Eugene.  To get there take Hwy 126 to the turn off for "Blue Pool" onto NF-730 and follow that to the Blue Pool trailhead, which is the take out.  The NF-730/Hwy 126 junction is about 13.5 miles NE of the bridge over the Mckenzie within the town of Mckenzie Bridge, and 5.5 miles south of the Sahalie Falls turnout.

To get to the falls from the Blue Pool trailhead:

Option 1 is to hike upstream 2 miles on the trail to Tamolitch/Blue Pool.

Option 2 is to return to Hwy 126 and head upstream 2.3 miles to a spur road heading towards the river.  If you go that route, have imagery downloaded on your phone so you don't get lost.  At the end of the 1 mile road, a steep trail leads down to the falls.  This road is often gated.

Option 3 if the gate is closed to the spur road involves either hiking the road, or bushwhacking down from just passed the gate to the river and across to the Mckenzie River trail and following it half a mile downstream to the falls (I don't recommend boating the river down to the falls). 

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Resurrecting Tamolitch, by Priscilla Macy

Tamolitch Falls, also known as Blue Pool is a unique waterfall on the McKenzie River.  This area is where the McKenzie River comes back up after being underground just after Carmen Reservoir. It's known as a dry falls, only coming into existence after long periods of rain when the river will flood over the lava bed.

Tamolitch from Below. You can see some of the water coming from under the lava beds on the right.

We could not confirm or deny if anyone had run the falls yet, due to the rarity that it comes in at a runnable flow.

Making the first run down

There was not a huge boil with the minimum flow, so there were a couple hard hits.  All around, good lines and an excellent time at a beautiful and unique spot.

 Brian, with the best line of the day

Dalton's Turn

Lucas' line

We used the McKenzie River@Trail Bridge Gauge on Pat Welch’s site.  When we left in the afternoon it was about 2600 cfs, this correlated to about 200 cfs at the falls.  We all agreed that at twice this flow, the falls would be ideal; definitely worth the trip if you are lucky enough to get it when it’s running.

If you have time after the falls, the McKenzie has some great play waves with eddy service when flows are high.

Brian playing in a fun set of waves on the McKenzie

Tamolitch from PMacy on Vimeo.

-Priscilla

A group returned a few days later with more water and felt the falls cleaned up nicely with the additional flow.

Tamolitch Falls - A Church Story from williamsaunders17@gmail.com on Vimeo.