North Fork Fall Creek (Eugene)

BETA
1.3 miles (we did 3 miles) 

Stream: A tiny, woody stream near Eugene.  From a bridge about 3.5 miles upstream of the Fall Creek confluence, to about 1.5 miles above Fall Creek, the North Fork is a mess of downed trees.  There were a few bedrock slides to pick off and some boulder smashing but mostly just carrying boats down the middle of the creek over, around, under, and through logs.  It took Ben and I 4 hours to go the 2 miles.

About 1.5 miles above the Falls Creek confluence the North Fork of Falls Creek picks up a bit of volume from a tributary and there are a handful of wood portages from there down.  There are also a couple runnable ten foot waterfalls and some other class III and IV bedrock rapids.   

Once on Fall Creek it's 1.5 miles of fast moving class I-II down to the take out bridge.  If the reservoir is low, there are a couple bonus class III's. 

  
Flows:  Ben and I were there January 22, 2019.  This was an ideal flow for rock boats. The last 1.5 miles could have handled more water, but the upper reaches would have been sketchy.  Below are a couple gauges in the area.

Inflow to Fall Creek

We had 5.5'-6' on the Fall Creek above North Fork gauge


Access:  

Our Put in:   43.9883, -122.5971

Better put in:  43.9864, -122.6262

Take out:  43.9727, -122.6607

Notes From an Oregonian: California (May 23 - June 1, 2019)

Tick check along the Trinity headwaters.

***Here are some notes from a recent trip to California.***

Sacramento (Box Canyon)

May 25

This is a great run, and maximally convenient when heading to the Sierra's from Oregon.  I am pretty certain this is the only shuttle I have run along I5.  It had many class IV rapids and some ledges in a beautiful section of stream.  We did the full run down to Dunsmuir at what I gathered from the Box Canyon Facebook Group was a level of around 5.5'.  This flow felt medium.  I would choose doing the full run every time.  Paddling under Mossebrae Falls was pretty cool and there were plenty of enjoyable rapids on the lower part of the run.

Campsite: Steve's house in Los Molinos (530) 519-1040

Food:  Camp food

aWETSTATE

Darin Mcquoid

Mill Creek

May 26

We camped at Steve's house, who is the go-to guy for running shuttles on Mill Creek.  He is a generous guy, with plenty of space to throw down a number of tents.  There were a cacophony of sounds that night likely exacerbated by a storm rolling through, including a cow mourning a lost calf, the thunderstorm itself, wind blowing metal structures repetitiously, and mid-night bass practice at a nearby party made for a long night.  This would all be fixed with ear plugs, which I'll be bringing on any future rural-residential camping trips.  The overnight rain brought the creek up to over 4,000 cfs which was higher than we wanted to run it, so we drove south to Pauley Creek.  Priscilla and I would return one month later to paddle Mill Creek.  Be sure to get your gas in Red Bluff or Chico, Los Molinos does not have gas.

aWETSTATE

Darin Mcquoid

Oregonkayaking

Pauley Creek

May 26

This is a fantastic little creek, and probably cracks my top ten repeatable runs list.  It felt like it belonged in Oregon, except that the rapids were more sustained than is typical for where I'm from.  The ratio of fun:stress was extremely favorable.  We split into two groups for the run as we had a lot of boaters.  There was one hickup when two from the "let's route it" group pinned on a log.  They were able to get out ok, but I was happy to have elected to be in the second group who were scouting blind corners.  I really liked the town of Downieville along the NF Yuba near Pauley Creek, and I would be happy as a clam spending a whole week there, boating and mountain biking. 

Picking up the pieces on Pauley Creek.

Campsite: Rocky Rest Campsite, it is a pay site 39.513368, -120.977775

Food:  We ate at the bike shop in Downieville.  They had kayaker friendly pricing, and WIFI.

aWETSTATE

Darin Mcquoid

SBMF Feather 
May 27

This was a cool place, I did not boat the run, but others did.  I think I figured out a gauge more relevant than the Milsap gauge for this one.  After gathering data and consulting with some California experts, we determined Spanish Creek nr Quincy is indeed a reasonable correlation to use in most years as a starting point for guessing flows, though a final a visual check is still required to ascertain levels.  From what we gathered from 15-20 data points the following is a starting point for guessing flows:

Low 150 -250

Med:250 - 350

High: 350 - 450

 The run takes a long time for most groups, and even with someone who knew the run it took over 8 hours for the group who did the run at what they called a high flow a day after heavy rain.  Reportedly, the ferry above 199 problems is the crux at high flows and genuinely frightening.  They paddled the creek the next day as well and it was a more favorable med-high flow and the ferry above 199 was not scary.

Working on reducing the length of the hike out.

Campsite: Pinchard Creek, the last small tributary crossed on the way to the South Branch put in.  Free, plenty of room.  39.713635, -121.174839

Food: Camp food, this is a long way from any food you can pay for.

aWETSTATE

Darin Mcquoid

NF Feather (Tobin + Lobin)

 May 28/29

A staple of the California boating scene.  Priscilla and I had been there a few years ago for the festival and were scare-mongered from putting on the river on that trip.  It was nice to return and see that the run was just as manageable as it had looked from the road. The flow was 1200-1300 which seemed good.  Lobin was filled in compared to what we had seen during the festival.  Some of the boofs were covered, and there were a couple long pushy rapids that I hadn't remembered at low flows that were as good as anything on Tobin.

Campsite: The big spot where everyone camps for FeatherFest, it's free. 

Food: Camp food supplemented with some fish.  Then Sierra Nevada Brewing on the way out.  Fairly priced, but not cheap.

aWETSTATE

American Whitewater

Tangle Blue Creek

May 30

A run I had heard about from Bryanna Lyons, who said it was full of 5-ish foot ledges.  It was.  Zach, Ben and I had a good time working our way down this obscure class IV creek in the headwaters of the Trinity River drainage.  1,000-1,500 cfs in the Trinity above Coffee Ck seems like the sweet spot.

Campsite: Just far enough from the highway that the river drowns out the noise of any passing vehicles, and made for a nice take out for Tangle Blue Creek. 41.222966, -122.646949. 

Food: Camp food.

TRIP REPORT

Trinity (Headwaters)

May 30

After getting off Tangle Blue Creek, we ate lunch and headed up to paddle the Trinity back to camp.  We scouted out the headwaters and were pretty excited by what we saw.  We decided to paddle a short section to get a feel for the run before returning to do the whole thing the next day.  Priscilla hurt her shoulder in the third rapid so she and I hiked off while Zach and Ben continued downstream through bouldery rapids.  The section from Cedar Creek to Picayune Creek has the most bedrock and has class V.  The stretch downstream of the Little Trinity to the confluence with Blu Tangle was open class IV.  The rest was bouldery and tough on boats.  Walking on the banks was easy.  1,000-1,500 cfs in the Trinity above Coffee Ck seems like the sweet spot.

Campsite: Another spot along the Trinity 41.183782, -122.656579

Food: Camp food. 

Kidder Creek

May 31

Ben had raved about Kidder Creek, and this was one of our "must do's" of the trip.  Flows were a fair bit lower than his last trip, so we only did one lap but even at ELF flows it was a good time.   The Scott gauge was around 1200, but that's only a rough indicator of what you will see in Kidder.



Food: We ate at Dotty's in Etna, a nice burgers and shakes place.

aWETSTATE
Darin Mcquoid

Shackleford

May 31

After Kidder Creek, we ate lunch and Zach investigated what else we could do in the area.  Patterson was very low and the road was gated so he directed us to Shackleford Falls, which ended up being a fun park and huck at the low flow.  There was still a pocket on the left to be avoided, so we were studious about safety, but it proved easy to stay safe at this flow.

Campsite: A roadside spot along the Scott River that doubled as a nice put-in.  41.634000, -123.093322

Scott

June 1

I had done this run once a number of years ago.  An overnight rainstorm led to many of us waking up in puddles, and high water.  A few of us decided to paddle while many decided to head home (it was our last day of that trip).  We put in below the landslide rapid, Joni Randall and I and followed Lucas Glick as he read-and-ran the river, I think the hole in White House is still the largest hydraulic iv'e ever seen in a rapid I was running.

This time around things were at medium-low flows of 1,000 cfs on the Scott Gauge, which was enjoyable.  We got the shuttle situation all boggled up but after 2 hours returned from what ended up being a 6 mile shuttle (we had driven over 40 miles) to a worried Ben and Priscilla.  The take out for the short section we had been looking for is at Townsend Gulch (41.688529, -123.083061).

The landslide rapid ended up being not too hard, but blind.  I scouted from a brushy island to the right twice and gave verbal beta.  Ben and Zach ran down the main flow, Priscilla and I took a line with a couple boofs on the right at the crux.

The next 6 miles were classic, mostly IV with a couple IV+ or V- rapids.  We scouted White House as a group, and one other time Priscilla hopped out to give us the line.  We all really enjoyed the run. 


Campsite: We made the drive home to Salem, after a pit stop at OTT's 50 year anniversary party in Grants Pass.

Food: Five Mary's Burgerhouse in Fort Jones.  I'd go back, meals were in the $15 range.  This seems like the hot spot as far as date night goes in Fort Jones. 

aWETSTATE

Darin Mcquoid

 

Northwest Fork Washougal: Headwaters

Northwest Fork Washougal: Headwaters

BETA
2.5 miles

Stream: I had my eye on this section above the uppermost bridge for a year or two, and got the opportunity by chance when another mission fell through on December 30, 2018.  We ran Lacamas in the morning, then decided to head over to Hagen.  I wasn't about to put down lap 15 or whatever on Hagen when there was the opportunity to see something new, so decided i'd check out this new section while everybody else ran Hagen.  I was surprised when nearly the entire group wanted to join despite my assurances it was almost certainly going to suck.

Adam Edwards, Ben Mckenzie, Andrew Bradley and I dropped Priscilla off at the Hagen put in with a large group including a raft or two and kept going up to the landing from which we would schwack our way into the headwaters of the Northwest fork Washougal.  The hike was not easy, but also not hard.  Using the GPS function on my phone and pre-cached maps kept us on track.  The final descent to the stream was on an unstable rock field that took extra attention to protect ankles.  From here we were able to get a good view of the creek, and we liked what we saw providing the motivation to make good time down the boulder field.  A small fence of Devil's Club was the final obstacle.

The creek looked promising from the put in, about 2/3 the size of Hagen and dropping along at a good clip. There was bedrock and a decent sized ledge above where we were.  The first couple hundred yards were nrrow and clean, but with branches blocking the eddies.  We shore scouted a couple short ledge/slots, both of which we ran as far right as we could with a left stroke.  Downstream the creekbed changed to open and sliding.  The creekbed was mostly just one long, low angle slide for a few minutes interrupted occasionally by steeper drops or small pools and we were able to read and run this portion with some faith.

There was a log that prompted a scout as the creek seemed to enter a more wood area and I prepared mentally for the portaging to start.  Adam hopped out of his boat for a look and informed us it was all good though, so we ducked the log and the low angle sliding with occasional small ledge drops continued.  We continued reading and running, branches were often present bu tthe never ending class IV bedrock whitewater made it worth dealing with.  After 1.5 miles we reached the confluence with Skamania Mines Creek.

It would be possible for a motivated boater to stop before the confluence, make the easy hike over the small ridge and pick off Mike's Slide, the largest cascade on Skamania Mines.  Downstream the continuous read and run III-IV continues to the bridge.  The ledge you can see just upstream from the uppermost/1200 Rd bridge has a hole that is definitely bigger than it looks from the road.  it is easiest to clear center-right.

We pulled into the eddy below the bridge and sat there for a second, we were all pretty surprised to have paddled a quality section of class IV whitewater when the expectation had been for a suffer-fest. Ben said "I can't believe that just happened".

We even hike up to the Hagen put in to grab vehicles after finishing the run, drove shuttle, loaded gear and rove down to the Hagen take out before the group Priscilla was paddling with finished their Hagen lap.  Not what we expected setting out for an afternoon exploratory trip.    

 

  
Flows:  We had 15" on the NWF Washougal gauge when we ran the creek, this was a good first time level.  I wouldn't have minded more water (remember the branches though), but would have minded if it had been notably lower.

Here are some nearby online gauges from that day.

 


Access:  Take out:  45.6909, -122.239

Take Hwy 14 to the town of Washougal, turn onto Washougal River Road and travel 10.2 miles to the Washougal River Mercantile.  From the Mercantile, head upstream less than half a mile before turning left onto the steep Skye Road.  Continue 3.9 miles on Skye Rd before turning right onto Skamania Mines/412th Rd (keep and eye out, people miss this turn occasionally).  The road quickly turns to gravel, as it winds it's way down to the middle bridge in about 1 mile.  This bridge is where the NWF Washougal Gauge is, on the downstream left side of the bridge. 
From the middle/Skamania Mines bridge head upstream on river left for 1.5 miles, and take the road going left.  This road crosses the NWF Washougal in less than 1 mile and is the take out if only running this section. 


Put In: 45.721, -122.2241

**If you are doing this section, you really should have maps cached on your phone for the hike, use the coordinates above**

From the uppermost/1200 bridge, continue (passing by the Hagen put in) for 1.6 miles and turn right.  There is a gate here, it was open when we ran this section on Dec 30, 2018.  If it's closed and you don't see an alternate route (4WD/clearance), just go back and do Hagen, it wouldn't be worth the hike from here.  If you get past the gate, take the left fork. 0.7 miles later take the right fork until it ends at a clear cut (45.7167, -122.2355).  Cross the clear cut and start bushwhacking.  Stay generally at the same elevation until you cross a micro creek (it took us about half an hour to get to this point).  Climb up the short ridge on the other side of this creek, then follow this ridge downhill, erring to the left until you reach a boulder field.  Scamper down to the upstream edge of this boulder field to put in where we did, watch your footing. 

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. 

North Fork John Day

BETA

~ 43 miles

Stream:  This Eastern Oregon overnight run starts out at 5600', and has more water than most streams you would encounter at that elevation in Oregon.  It runs from snowmelt and has a nice long season in the Spring/early Summer. 

The stream is clearly immature up near the put in, with minimal incision and migrating channels.  You get the high desert experience, with more action than the Grande Ronde, or lower sections of the John Day.  The run is II-IV(V).

A couple of us did this run over Memorial Day weekend in 2017, this is the only time I have done the full run (I've paddled the section you can drive upstream to from Dale while in the area on another trip).  The stress level was a bit higher than I like on class III runs due to the lack of eddies and the wood concerns, but we still had a good time. I would choose less water next time, probably shooting for 2,000-2,500.  Keep the water level in mind as you read the report, less water would change the experience.

The first mile offers a nice warm up, at one island we went left when we should have gone right and had to hop over a log jam.

Warming up.

The start of the significant whitewater is clear, the first rapid can be boat scouted, but as the river bends to the left, hop out on the right and climb up to the trail.  It is worth scouting out the next mile of stream if levels are healthy from the river-right trail, while the whitewater is class III/IV the eddies can be scarce, and the wood ever-present.  On our trip this section was both fun, and stressful with levels peaking over 3,000 cfs. 

Fast action up top.

After scouting the first mile, we chose to walk our boats along a hundred yards of it, due to the obstacle and others like it visible in the photo.

We put back on, and ran some fun stuff before scrambling into an eddy above a log we hadn't seen.  Fortunately it was an easy portage and we were back at it running some more fast and fun stuff.  The relentless nature of this section keeps up until the confluence with Trout Creek, which comes in on the right at a point where a large log is in the river.  It looks bad from above, but further inspection proved to offer easy passage on the left.

The final portion of the first onslaught of class III+ whitewater.

Downstream the gradient drops slightly, and the wood decreases.  Diligence is still required as wood in the wrong place could be tricky, eddies were still rare at our flow, and the corners can be blind.  The logs are spread far enough, and the portages easy enough that they don't detract much from the trip at this point.

A couple of the logs on the NF John Day

The further one goes, the less blind the corners, the less steep the rapids, and the less hidden the log hazards.  There were some campsites along this part of the run, on our trip many of them had hikers in them as there is a trail along this upper part of the river on river-right.  The trail switches to river-left about 4 miles downstream of the Granite Creek confluence in the vicinity of Bear Gulch.

There is a section of good rapids in the mix a number of miles below the first onslaught.  This view of the rock formation on the left is the indicator that you are about to enter this next section of whitewater.

Making moves with the rock formation in the background.

10-15 miles downstream of the put in, you cross under a bridge and Granite Creek comes in on the left.  I recommend hopping out at the bridge if levels are high, as just around the corner is Granite Falls, a rapid that should be scouted and is often portaged.  If you miss the opportunity to exit the river at the bridge, there is a decent last minute eddy at the lip on the right.

Foot bridge, Granite Creek comes in just below on river left.

Zach Collier mentions a nice horse camp his group stayed at near this bridge in his trip report from 2023.

Granite Creek Falls.

The couple miles below the Granite Creek confluence is the highest quality whitewater of the trip, the longest and steepest can easily be scouted from the right bank along a trail.

Zach and company named this rapid "Little Jake's"

The whitewater is still pretty continuous below here at high water, and long miles of class II are often broken by fun sections of class III (at high flows).  The wood situation and visibility improves drastically down here, from this point on the river was read and run.  If you are looking for solitude, don't hold out for an ideal campsite down here, by the time you find one you will likely be within access of a road that comes upstream along river-right and one does not typically embark on a wilderness trip to fall asleep to the sound of motors.  

Picture taken from the access road.

That said, there are some nice spots down here that Priscilla and I have car camped at on another trip, so it's not a bust if you didn't find something upstream.

When I did the full trip, we found an island that worked ok for us not far below Big Creek, and only one intrepid motorcyclist had made his way that far upstream.

Big Creek confluence 

There is class V on this creek, but I have not heard of it being run.

Our chosen island to camp on.

The floating eases further below Big Creek, and there are miles of lazy floating down to about a mile below the bridge at Trough Creek.

Lunch break from another trip 

(we drove up to just run the last few miles that day).

When we were kayaking the run, a sign warned of downstream danger, and a scout was mandated by this sign.  

We were unsure if the sign was related to the fish-counter not too far downstream, or a section of fun class III rapids further along.

The most interesting rock formations were in this lower roadside section.

And some human formations were neat to check out as well.

Eventually, the stream eased off completely, with some class II's downstream of Dale.  Knowing we were near the end it was pleasant just floating along slowly and taking it in.  We were further lulled into relaxation knowing the shuttle was already run. 

 After reaching the take out we leisurely loaded our gear before making the drive back to the Willamette Valley.  We took the route back through Redmond for the views, I passed up one gas station while at half a tank and very much regretted that. 

Beautiful and new to me roadways helped me ignore the gas-light that had come on.

I pulled into a Redmond gas station a few hours later, an hour after the gas light had gone on.  I found out that by really finessing the gas consumption and (fortunately) traveling mostly downhill that our Toyota Yaris can have a tank range of 399 miles.

Back in Redmond was a reminder of why we had the three day weekend.

Flows:  3,000 cfs is the max I would recommend putting on at the NF-52 bridge.  It was stressful due to lack of eddies and wood in the upper reaches.  If I came back at similar or higher flows, I would put on to Granite Creek.  The section of the NFJD below Granite Creek was fun and not very stressful, with better and more challenging whitewater than what we encountered upstream (excluding the initial couple miles to Trout Creek).  If the levels were lower I would put in at the NF-52 bridge again.

North Fork John Day River at Monument

Flows the days we were paddling the NFJD, Memorial Weekend 2017

Access:  We hired the owner of the Dale store to run our shuttle, we were happy with the fair price and the job he did.

541) 421-3484

The entire route is paved.

We took out at a bridge a couple miles downstream of Dale.  To get to the put in we headed North 15.3  miles on Hwy 395 from Dale.  Turned right, and another right 1.3 miles later in Ukiah onto Camas Street towards Granite.  This road becomes NF-52 and 40 miles from Ukiah crosses the NF John Day at the put in. 



Take out:  45.001482, -118.989199

Put In:  44.913070, -118.400401