Coal Creek

BETA

Stream: This is an obscure Oregon stream up in the headwaters of the Middle Fork Willamette near Diamond Peak that provides an adventure style challenge to the type of local boaters who enjoy that kind of boating.

The first mile is steep, dropping about 400 fpm.  There is a larger rapid in the middle of the run that marks a transition to less gradient (still 150-200 fpm) marked by a boulder garden leading into a vertical wall on the right and the most significant drop of the run.  There are no committing canyons or features out of the ordinary on this creek, and I recall being able to deal with everything at river level.

The lower portion of the creek is more open, and on our trip had a fair bit, but not overwhelming amount of wood.  The run is bridge to bridge.
  


Flows:  Not sure, but we were able to guess a good exploratory flow from intuition so it must run when the stuff nearby is running.






Access:  Take Hwy 58 SE out of Eugene past the town of Oakridge, then take NF-21 up the West side of Hills Creek Reservoir.  Eventually you cross a bridge over Hills Creek Reservoir, 10 miles later turn right over a bridge across the MF Willamette and stay right after the bridge onto NF-2133.  1.3 miles after the bridge a road to the right leads to the take out bridge ( 43.4943, -122.4231).

Put In:  Backtrack from the bridge and continue upstream on NF-2133.  In 4.4 miles Coal Creek goes under the road through a culvert at the put in (43.4401, -122.424).

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Trip Report
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Ben Mckenzie and I had been chatting about this one for awhile.  The gradient was good, and it was a sister drainage to Staley Creek.  At some point Ben got a chance to get out there and scout some of it at low water.  He said it looked neat, and had some bedrock and ledges.  Ben also said he only thought he saw a couple pieces of wood, but that he was also daydreaming for a lot of it so may have missed some.

That was enough for me, so we went and checked it out at some point.  The access was good, we parked at a bridge and drove up to another bridge over a culvert.  This culvert was a fun way to start the trip!

We knew the first mile was the steepest at 400 fpm, and expected to be portaging a fair bit in here (Ben had not scouted this part).  We were surprised when it was pretty much all runnable, even if there was some strange in there.  I walked a couple of the sections that Ben ran.

At the end of this steep section the stream matured and spread out a bit.  There was one long boulder garden that dropped down into the tallest boulder ledge yet with a vertical right wall below (we portaged left) that marked the transition from steep and tight boulder rapids to more open ones with the occasional steeper rapid.  This transition period had a few large boulder ledges, Ben still reminisces about one of those boofs to this day.  It was also down here that the wood started to play a larger role.   Ben started to recognize some of the stuff from his scout, but was surprised by the wood, validating his earlier hypothesis that he may have been daydreaming during the scout trip.

The gradient eased off some more and we made it to the take out bridge well before dark.  Ben scooter shuttled, and he only had to push it up a couple steep hills.  In hindsight the stream was a lot more runnable than I had expected, and a nice little adventure.



   -jacob

Tire Creek

Photo: Nick Hymel                            Paddler: Ross George

Tire Creek is a silly little creek that flows into Dexter Reservoir about 30 miles SE of Eugene.

It caught Emile's attention because even though it is so small, it is well channelized through interesting bedrock features and finally one day Ben went and soloed it.  He swam in the first rapid so that caught all our attention since Ben doesn't swim very often.

Ben, redemption run on Flat Tire.

Not long after Ben's trip, another opportunity presented itself when everything seemed too high, which meant Tire might be perfect.  We headed down and Ben made it through the put in rapid without swimming, while the rest of us put in below.  Downstream were a couple ledges and then the main event at the bridge, a series of small ledges leading into a ten foot drop that was hard to stick but not particularly challenging to roll up after.

Ross, finessing it.

We took out here, pleasantly surprised by this fun little slice of bedrock boating and headed up to Staley Creek.

Two less than perfect lines from Tire Creek are shown between 1:56 - 2:20 in this video by Nick.

Clean Lines, Good Times from IKNick on Vimeo.

I don't recommend traveling to run Tire Creek, but if you are a Eugene local you might get a kick out of sliding down it once or twice when everything else is blown out.  The part we ran is less than 1/4 mile long.

Logistics:  Just drive to the lowest bridge over Tire Creek, the best part is visible right there (43.7968, -122.5537).  Figure out a place to put in a short way upstream, the further you go the more wood issues there are, but also there are some more rapids to pick off up high.  The more water the better, we had 5-6k on this gauge.  I would look for a closer gauge to use in the future though, probably Winberry Creek.  We there sometime in the first half of February, 2015.

    -jacob

Christy Blitz

Left Corvallis with the CCC at 12:30

Pulled over for outdated tags on I5 at 1:00

Started the hike at 3:30PM

Put in at 4PM

Take out bridge at 7PM

Luke returns with the car after bike/jogging shuttle before 8PM

       This run has a reputation of being a huge mission, but is really not a run to be missed.  This was my second time down and recalling the majority of the lines made this run drop from mission status to a fun day on the river.  Rhinosex is full of wood, and the second drop of Balls has wood (Michael and I boofed the first drop into the eddy on the right and it was an easy team portage from there).  The CCC cleaned up on Snakebite which looked ready to strike at this flow.

I recall most everything else as good to go, though we walked the big boulder garden just above Rhinosex.   I think the Miracle Mile gauge was at 17" which was perfect. 

Beta for the run can be found here.

The roads have changed names from when that report was written, so we put together an updated map with directions to get you where you need to go.

   -Jacob

Christy Creek

(photo: Nate Merrill)

If you enjoy Canyon Creek Oregon, this is another run in the Willamette Valley that you might be into. 

You have two choices when running the creek, put in at the top where there is easy bridge access, or hike in for the bottom couple of miles.  Putting up at the top makes this a full day mission, while putting in for the bottom two miles amplifies the bang for your buck and is done more often.

The upper section is full of steep boulder gardens with a sprinkling of wood.  These can be scouted and portaged at river level.  

Photo: Andrew Morrisey

There is a flat section, before the largest boulder garden on the run.  Most everyone will walk this massive cataract created by a landslide.  You can stay close to the bank or go high on the right for the portage.

Just below the landslide cataract is the put in for the lower section.  While the upper Section has a bridge at the put in, the lower put in requires about half hour of descent through the woods.

Teamwork on the hike in.

(photo: Nate Merrill)

This lower run starts off as fast paced class IV boulder gardens and ramps up to IV-V.  Some clean, some not.  

Everything can be run, but some are worth deliberation.  Reading and running is possible, but I prefer to shore scout most of the notable boulder gardens in this first part, especially with the likelihood of wood being in play.  

Andrew Morrisey runs one Iv'e always walked.

The character continues this way until a busy straight away with a couple large boulders on the left bank ends in a sharp left bend.  Just around the bend is the largest boulder garden of the run, so it's prudent to stop early on the left before being committed to the rapid, which has a large midstream sieve part way down.  Iv'e seen this one run, but have always made the easy (if you get up on the bench) walk on the left.   The portage route drops back to river level just above a fun boof in the middle of the river.

100 yards below here was Rhinosex, which does not look friendly at all.  Though it is runnable, the lead in drop is ultra hectic, and being upside down over the second drop has had dire consequences in the past.

The portage is on the left, and either involves a short carry and small rope lower, or little longer of a carry to where the land gradually leads back to the creek.

Below here are a couple of boulder gardens, one of them trashy. Then comes a sharp left bend with an eddy below on the left.  The next boulder garden leads into Balls Falls.  Be careful here, it is worth scouting out your eddy on river left before entering the sharp left turn.

I scout while Jeff and Andy help people across the deep current over to the viewing platform. At high water this drop is hard to scout thoroughly.

(photo: Nate Merrill)

Balls falls isn't as gleeful as I had anticipated.  The transition on the first tier is kind of abrupt and wants to shoot you left. Its still a fun drop, but not the auto-launch pad I had expected from photos. 

Nate Merrill running the first tier of Balls Falls.

 

The lower tiers are the main concern.  There is a sticky hole leading immediately into a large ledge with two channels.  The left channel is friendlier, but harder to get to, while the right channel is chaotic and has a shelf protruding off the right side.  On our first trip, all 7 people ran Balls Falls.  4 of them collided with said submerged shelf, one was backwards and was immediately ejected from their boat.  One made the left line, while Nate and I caught the river-high eddy below the first drop and portaged the bottom two tiers.  



The first drop was entertaining for me, as I had not made up my mind about the line I would take.  Jeff and I were going to catch an eddy on the right to take another look and scout a portage line.  The lead in drop pushed Jeff hard left though, and he couldn't make the eddy and the last thing I saw was a flurry of stroked with him sideways.  I wasn't sure how he'd done, so I followed and boofed into the eddy on the right in case he needed help, but he came through fine and we were now in good positions to set safety for the rest of the group.

The next drop had a sticky-ish hole at the end we all made it through, but safety would be prudent.  One more short class III and we were out scouting Snake Bite.  I would suggest scouting initially on the right.  Most of us scouted on the left, but this left the last person to portage in a bad spot as it was slick getting into the boats without a spotter and falling meant a trip into the powerful hole at the bottom of the slide.

Three of us decided to run the drop.  Myself and Aaron took the left line, which was a fun twisty slide with a critical stroke at the bottom to get through the large hole.  Nate Pfiefer ran the right side and hit the seam where the hole flushed at the bottom.  Both sides went, you will have to choose which looks better to you.



Below here were two more class five boulder gardens.  Jeff and Aaron stepped up to the last challenging drop, while the rest of us portaged on the right.  One of the boulder gardens would be easy to swept into if you were boat scouting aggressively.   Below the last big boulder garden was a series of slides that would create large, uniform holes at higher levels.  We stayed generally right, then back to center for the last one.  Below here things cooled down and we had about a mile of runout to the miracle mile.

We splashed through the last hundred yards of bigger water and caught eddies on the left at the bridge.  Spent but ecstatic about the great day of boating.

We had 3.65 on NFMF @westfir.  I don't know the area levels as well as some people, but I would go back if this gauge was between 3.5 and 4, though up to 4.5 is still medium.  It has been run at over 5.5' by the Dinsdale's, who considered that about as high as they would repeat the run (they prefer more water in rivers than most).

Many boaters haven't switched over to the new online gauge and still use the foot gauge at the take out for the Miracle Mile.  On that gauge a foot is the low end.  2.5' on the bridge gauge was reported as difficult but ultimately very enjoyable by the Dinsdale brothers on May 15, 2022.  1.5-2 is what I personally think of as medium.

Thanks to Nate Pfiefer for doing the legwork that helped put this run back on the radar for Willamette Valley boaters after a hiatus before I first ventured in.  I may still not have paddled Christy to this day without his efforts.

The first time I did this run it took much of the day, the second time we moved quick and went car to bridge in 3.5 hours.  Plan on scouting a lot your first time down.


Take out (same as Miracle Mile): 43.8799, -122.3854
Lower Put In:  43.9114, -122.367
Upper Put In:  43.9223, -122.312

Map with directions to get you where you need to go.  However, the NF 637 rd has been decommissioned so extra hiking is needed.  The yellow route in the second graphic shows the way I'd go in the future.

Green is the old route, yellow the new.  The pink represents off-trail woods hiking to another road, then the yellow dash is the bushwhack down the side of the canyon.  A chainsaw is a good thing to have for the shuttle.

   -Jacob