An Earth-bound quest for the celestial: Return to Wiki #1

Photo:  Emile Elliot

This creek has been gaining attention as the season nears its end.  The final quarter mile of boulder gardens (Smokin' Aces) has proved a force to be reckoned with.

Matt King runs Smokin' Aces on our initial exploration of the canyon last year.

 While this section of whitewater is fun, it is best experienced as icing on the cake after a run starting from Black Hole Falls.

One of the gorges on the middle section.

Photo: Matt King

For my third run of this creek, I joined a crew Andrew Bradley had conglomerated with high hopes of running Black Hole Falls.

For this trip John Edwards, Emile Elliot, Anna Herring, Andrew Bradley and myself camped at the take out the night before anticipating the adventure taking all day.  This approach turned out to be the right call as we hit snow almost 4 miles from the end of the road.  Emile got us 1/4 mile closer by some impressive charging in his truck, but sooner than later we resided ourselves to hiking the road.  Having anticipated this as a possibility, we dawned our various kayak shlepping devices and headed into the mountains.

Photo:  Emile Elliot

With only one short detour and a quick stop to fashion some low tech crampons for Andrew we arrived at the end of the road and the beginning of the bushwhack.

This is a lot steeper than I expected, are you sure that was the right road...?

3200'

Photo:  Emile Elliot

Andrew upgrading his footwear and testing them out.

Photos:  Emile Elliot

 Carrying kayaks down 30+ degree slopes is not something most people practice and this was apparent as we watched our precious hours of daylight tick by.  People pushed through the pain [Andrew had something colorful to say whenever we gave him a chance, we appreciated the positive moral :) ] and around two hours after starting our 3/4 mile bushwhack, we arrived at a bedrock laden creek.  There was a presence of wood in this upper section, but it was mostly out of the way and easy to deal with.

Put-in

Photo: Emile Elliot

We hiked upstream to run two fun bedrock slides before a short log portage placed us above another horizon.

First rapid, fun and straight forward.
photo: Emile Elliot

 The next half mile was horizon after horizon of easy, but oh so fun slides and ledges of all varieties.

Andrew lookin' fly
photo: Emile Elliot

Next two photos shot by Andrew Bradley

After leaving this series of fun rapids (The Asteroid Belt), a tributary came in on the right signaling the big falls.

This drop was tricky to scout, with an exposed climb right at the lip of the falls.  Andrew and I forgo this move and waited to hear back from the others.  On this day the falls was too low, with a green water landing (the landing itself is not visible from the scouting platform).  We made quick work of the climb to the trail on river right and took advantage by following the path to the pool below the falls.  We enjoyed the scene for awhile, paddling below the falls before continuing on.  Many more fun bedrock rapids continued, usually dropping about ten feet in various ways.

Two rapids stood out in this stretch.  The first was a fun double boof with a log below that made it a tricky undertaking, but everyone who ran it had upright lines.

Photo: Emile Elliot

 The next was a narrow slot-ledge on the right that looked pretty angry, which Emile apparently had no reservations towards.  He paddled right up and got stopped quickly by the hole at the base and began an impressive surf.  The boxed in hole below was not as wide as a boat is long, and he was pinned sideways twice, once upside down.  He fought through both of these, but once it was apparent he was not coming out in his boat, gave the signal and pulled his skirt.  We got him a rope and pulled him out using a non-traditional approach and were able to get him and his gear to shore safely.  We dubbed this one Solar Flare*.  Emile continued to lead the charge after this and we cruised down some read and run.

Shortly below here we came to the traditional put-in I had used before described in the initial trip report.  From here down it was apparent to me just how low the water was, as well as how low energy levels were becoming.    We took advantage of the trail once again to portage the V+ gorge and ran a few more good rapids that benefit a lot from twice the flow. We had the second swim of the day occur in a class two pin, really bringing to light the toll the long day had taken on us.   Eventually we reached the great wall signaling Smokin' Aces.  We ran the lead in and after recovering a paddle from an ill fated trip a few weeks back we found ways to get out on the right and look at the biggest boulder garden of the run.  The low water lead us walking around on the right.  There is also a wood sieve on the bottom left that was not there when Matt and I ran the drop on our first run.

We tried our best to keep it together through the last two boulder gardens, everyone fought hard, staying in their boats and soon enough we were walking through camp to nourishment at our cars!

Emile edited a video capturing many of the highlights of the trip, including his first swim in over ten years!


Wiki Creek #1 from Difficult E on Vimeo.

It was a long day and everyone was beat by the end.  Attitudes stayed positive the whole trip and the day went smoothly/according to plan.  Even the two swims were taken care of quickly. We also had a very small number of log portages, I only recall 2 or 3 near the beginning of our trip.  From the sounds of it, we all plan on returning sooner than later to once again enter the adventure, and see the rapids with more water.  I have chalked this up as my favorite trip of the year, and the satisfaction has kept me charging through mid-terms here at Western.  This trip has reminded me to never shy away from the unknown in favor of the known.  For I find the rewards of adventure far outweigh anything else I have done in a kayak.

photo: Andrew Bradley

*The solar cycle resulting in flare's is 11 years, and the last time Emile pulled his skirt was over a decade ago. 
 = Solar Flare is name of the drop


   -Jacob










cc@650
want cc 1,000-2,000
900 min.

Wiki Creek #1 photo drop

Trip report is here if you have not read that yet.

The view from the put in.  

(all photos on this page by Matt King)

 Entering the first canyon via the first defined rapid.

This ledge is just above a stout gorge that has yet to be run to my knowledge.  The eddy you want to catch to scout and portage is the one visible below me on the left side of the picture.

The first of two V+ moves in the major gorge on the run.  

 The pool separating the entrance and exit to the major gorge.  Classic PNW water color.

 The waterfall rapid below the gorge we portaged.  The water pushes pretty hard into the undercut on the left, so take a good look if you run the lead-in ledge.

 Fun in North Siouxon.

 Scouting "Smokin' Aces" with the large river left wall domineering the scene.

Dropping into the second boulder garden in the Smokin' Aces series.

 A critical stroke.

 Finishing up the second boulder garden in the Smoking' Aces series.

Lovin' life!

(all photos by Matt King)

    -Jacob

North Siouxon

BETA

5.2 miles

Stream: This runs requires carrying your boat in some fashion for a couple hours.  You can mix and match some bushwhacking with trail hiking, or just trail hike the whole 4-5 miles.  Fortunately, the hiking is superb and the trail does not have long, steep uphill grades. 

The put in most people will use is at the base of Black Hole Falls, a large falls that has been looked at with the intention of running a few times, but always passed on.  It's got a tricky lead in, and it's a big drop.  It reminded Adam Edwards a bit of Tomata II on the Alseseca. 

Additional Scouting Photos

Photo: Emile Elliott


There used to be a sign for the falls on the trail, but last time we were up there it was just the posts, fortunately the trails makes an obvious split here so it would be hard to miss if you're looking for it.  There is more quality whitewater above the falls, mostly of the sliding and ledge variety so if you want to carry your boat some more and portage around Black Hole that's an option too.





                      John Edwards above Black Hole Falls, at 650 cfs (below what are recommended flows).

Photo: Emile Elliott


The run is consistently fun class IV whitewater.  The forest is stunning and paddling the stream is a way to see what the PNW landscape looked like before people modified it.  There is wonderful variety in the whitewater, and while most of it is read and run, don't paddle into anything you can't see the bottom of.  

In particular, watch out for a blind rapid with an old growth log duck, and then Solar Flare, a ledge with a narrow hole on the right that flushes better at high water than low.  It was named Solar Flare due to a member of our party on my third run down having his first swim in 11 years when he was unable to surf out at low water because of how narrow the hole was (Solar Flares occur every eleven years as well). 

Below Solar Flare the run transitions to class IV gorges separated by easier floating.  Wood is present, but not overbearing.  

  There is one big gorge (Event Horizon) part way down that has been portaged to date on the right. An eddy on river-right just below a sloping 5' ledge needs to be caught to portage Event Horizon.  The eddy below the aforementioned ledge is in the foreground in the following photo.  


                                               The first of two V+ drops making up Event Horizon.

After scouting Event Horizon, most people will choose to portage.  To do this walk uphill perpendicular to the stream until you hit the trail (this takes some time/effort).  Once on the trail walk downstream a hundred or two hundred yards.  Passing a stand of Devil's Club, there is a nose of land with old growth trees and ferns lining the way back down to the river just below this notable tributary falls.

Downstream are more intermittent gorges with a couple fun ledges mixed in.

Eventually the stream eases off and becomes gravelly, it is time to start paying close attention.  You will eventually see an unstable, and messy right wall consisting of dirt, debris and a small creek entering with a large wall rising up on the left as the river makes a hard turn to the left.  You need to eddy out on the right above this small creek to scout Smokin' Aces, a 1/4 mile series of class IV-V boulder gardens that serve as a finale.  

The messy right wall and creek, by the time you get to where the paddlers in this photo are, you are committed to the rapid.
                                                                 Photo: Nate Merrill


Two large holes along the big left wall start things off.
Photo: Nate Merrill


Any of the boulder gardens in Smokin' Aces can be portaged on the right, but it's not easy.  Walking off to the road and down to the take out starting above the tributary creek is possible, but not enjoyable.  The first segment of Smoking Aces' is the most challenging, below they drop down to V- until the take out at the bridge.

                                              The crux of Smokin' Aces on our first time down.  
                                                               photo: Matt King

 Wood is present throughout the run, but hasn't ever really been a problem other than maybe a quick portage or two.

                                             Matt King finishes up the NF of Siouxon Creek.

  
Flows:  Best I can tell from a few trips, you want to shoot for between about 1,000 and 2,000 cfs on the Canyon Creek gauge for medium flows.  It can be run a bit lower, and probably higher too.

1,500 cfs on April 17, 2011 was choice.  To run Black Hole you likely want 2,000 cfs or more.

Access:  Some of the roads are gated.  They have never been shut when we were up there though.

Take out access
(click to enlarge)

Put in access, includes a 2.5 mile hike after a short bushwhack.

(click to enlarge)

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Here is a trip when we used a different access point in order to drop in a mile above Black Hole Falls.

More photos

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Story:  Checking out North Siouxon Creek.

It was the weekend of the NWCC and the flows were high enough that the Canyon Creek portion of the race was cancelled.  It seemed like a good opportunity to check out a promising, but obscure stream in the area.

North Siouxon had plenty of potential given its geology and proximity to other high quality runs.  I had spent time researching the access situation, and despite being void of information I had high hopes for it.  We camped at the take out anticipating the day to come.  We started early to deal with any unforeseen access issues, but found access to be reasonable and where we thought it would be, via some logging roads leading to a short, but semi-taxing 1/2 mile bush whack down to the creek.

We reached the creek and liked what we saw.  Bedrock and plenty of water.  We said good bye to the ground support team and paddled off into the unknown.  Early on a nice gorge with quality class four rapids set the tone.  We scouted a couple times for wood before getting into the swing of things.  The creek would exit a gorge and go through a short gravel section, before returning to another gorge.  Wood was present, but not intrusive.

We were floating though an easier gravel section when we encountered the tallest drop yet as the creek appeared to enter another gorge section downstream via a hard right blind turn.  The drop below us was a nice 7 foot ramp into a diagonal hole.  Matt went first, and caught a low eddy, but signaled me that it was important to catch the upper eddy on the right.  I did so and we scouted the next gorge.  Immediately after the right hand turn the creek roared over an impressive section of whitewater containing two V+ rapids that had wood in them (the wood is gone in 2018, but the rapid gorge is still yet to be run).  The first of two drops in the gorge was the only one we spent time scouting and decided it would likely go once the wood flushes.   We set out on an extended portage of the entire gorge on the right where a trail helped our cause, the return to the river was the only tricky part.  We didn't need any ropes, but a "non-experienced portager" might have trouble picking the path of least resistance.   There is a waterfall coming in on the left that makes for a good mark for where to return to river-level.

Runout on the rapid at the tributary waterfall.

More gorges and classy class four rapids followed.  The next drop I remember was a five foot pour-over into a hole.  We both came through upright and stoked on the fun drop.  The next major landmark is the most important to remember for a repeat run.  There is a large rock wall on the left that comes straight to the river.  The right side of the river is a small, active erosional zone with mud and debris taking up the 30 foot high river right bank.  There was a log parallel to the current that was in a tricky spot and eddies are small and soft here.  If you have made it this far you probably won't have any problems, but it's worth paying attention.   Not knowing the situation beforehand Matt had some trouble as the probe and needed to scramble into an eddy on river-left next to the wall after running out of eddies on the right.

From there he hiked back upstream and ferried across where I helped him into shore just above the start of the next rapid.  The next time we did the run we got out earlier next to the log and didn't have any troubles, though attention was still required. Aggressive boaters can still catch the eddy on river right just before the stream drops through some large boulders.  From shore you can see the beginning of Smoking' Aces, which is a series of class V boulder gardens ending at the take out bridge.  The first two are the hardest, then they ease a bit with a finale just above the bridge.

Matt cleans up on the crux of "Smokin' Aces".

Matt on the right side of the final rapid, a center to left move also works. 

    -Jacob