West Fork Hood

Photo: Rob Cruser





Beta

Iv'e never run the WF Hood at anything but low flows, so I will direct you here for better information on healthy flows.

Stream:    I like putting in at Lolo Pass, but many people choose to put in at the Lake Branch confluence to avoid running or portaging a class V upstream.

The section from Lolo Pass to the standard put in is class III-IV with some fun bedrock rapids and one class V-ish bouldery rapid in a small gorge.  This one has a semi-strenuous portage high on the left if needed, or I have done a partial portage on the right at low water and paddled the rest of the rapid on the right.

The run below the Lake Branch weaves in and out of gorges with numerous class III-IV rapids.  The most unique hazard is a fish ladder half way through the run.  This has been run, but it is highly recommended that you make the easy portage on the left.  Rumor is there used to be a ten foot waterfall here before the fish ladder was created.

The biggest boulder garden of the run is just down stream and can be boat scouted or shore scouted on the right.  Rapids continue down to the take out bridge, some portions being more interesting than others.  Either take out on the right and hike up to your vehicles below the bridge or check out Punchbowl Falls just downstream, which is a powerful ten foot plunge usually boofed on the left.

Nick going center at a low flow.

And a video

  

Punchbowl is a straight forward move, but missing the line can result in serious downtime.

 If you run Punchbowl continue down to the confluence of the EF Hood.  Take out on the gravel bar on the right and walk the steep-ish trail up to the decommissioned road and back to your vehicle.

Flows:  The run can be done as low as 300 cfs on the WF gauge, but people generally shoot for 500 cfs and up.  700 cfs is medium.

If you are using the Tucker Gage 5-6 feet is medium, 7' is still not high.  4.5 is low but still fun. 

Iv'e been down with my dad as low as 3.5' a couple times, most people would not like the run at that flow.  The lower the flow, the more inviting Punchbowl is.

Access:  Take Hwy 281 out of Hood River to the town of Dee.  A bridge crosses the stream in what used to be the middle of a town.  Cross this bridge and turn right on Punchbowl Rd.  Follow this road until it crosses a bridge.  Backtrack 100 feet and you will find a gravel parking area that is the take out (downstream of the bridge).  Some people may wish to spot their take out from the bridge or by walking down the road past the gate.

Amercian Whitewater has done good work for this location, in the future the take out may be improved and more obvious to spot.

The put in is accessed by returning towards Dee, but instead of crossing the bridge continue straight on Lost lake Rd.  Following it through farmland and then paralleling the WF Hood 5.4 miles to the standard put in.  For the Lolo Pass put in continue upstream 2.5 more miles, then turn left onto NF-18/Lolo Pass Rd and follow that a short way down to the put in bridge.



Notes:   The Green Point Creek drainage has seen some attention by locals, this stream enters the WF Hood in a gorge in the last 1/3rd of the run.  Here is a trip report from Ryan Scott on the North Fork of that creek.

East Fork Hood; Upper

                                            

3.8' with a big diurnal at Tucker, on a day we got a raft down.  Photo: Tim Brink

Beta

4.5 miles

Stream:   The old put in used to be up at Sherwood campground, but in recent years there has been a couple wood issues between there and the Hwy 35 crossing a short ways downstream.  As a result most people put in at the Hwy 35 bridge these days.  If you do put in higher you will be treated to the only bedrock on this run, in the form short sloping ramp.

The ramp

The stream changes year to year, but is uniform in character.  That character is continuous steep and bouldery rapids with fun boofs and soft holes. No pools!  It's fast reaction boating and some people find it to be fun, others don't.  The steepest part of the run starts about 1/4 mile below the Hwy 35 put in and continues for about 1 mile.  This is fun read and run whitewater if you know the wood situation beforehand.  But if you don't, anything blind can be scouted.



After about 1 mile of continuous maneuvering the stream slows a bit, but it is still continuous class III-IV route finding down to the take out bridge.  If you don't have current beta on the wood situation, be cautious your first time down, then take a second lap!

Flows:   As of 2018 there is a painted gauge at the take out bridge where Hwy 35 crosses over the EF Hood near Dog River West Trailhead.  This gauge lines up roughly with the foot level of the Hood River at Tucker gauge when there is snowmelt.  In the Winter, the EF bridge gauge often reads 1'-2' less than the Hood Gauge.

4.5'-5.5' at the bridge gauge is the friendliest range.  It is still fun down to 4' but expect to hit a fair number of rocks, and it's possible even lower than that but is less enjoyable for most hard shell kayakers.  I do not know what the upper range is.

Some data points 

Access:  Take Hwy 35 out of Hood River, a couple miles shy of 20 you will cross the EF Hood at the take out, this is the bridge with the gauge (45.464787, -121.570097).  Continue upstream another 5 miles or so to the put in where the highway crosses the EF Hood again (45.410877, -121.570676).

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Original write-up
The second lowest trip Iv'e done down the Upper EF Hood

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July 12, 2007, headed to the Upper East fork of the Hood when the Truss didn't pan out.  We were surprised the EF still had water in July, even if it was pretty low. We put in right below the beginning of the Worm and ran down to a roadside pullout 0.8 miles downstream. It seemed longer because we scouted most of the river due to it being steep, low, and with wood present.

Typical Upper East Fork Hood

The run was III-IV, but a flip would have been painful, and a swim even more undesirable than usual.

Nick running my favorite drop on the run, it is not all pictured here.

Then Nick and I headed over to Punchbowl falls on the West Fork Hood for a couple laps, we had fun goofing off over there. The easiest hike back to the top of the falls was on river right, and this meant that the most convinient way back into the river was a nice seal launch pictured here. You can hike up the other side which we have done in the past, but we preferred this route. The hole at the bottom was not sticky at this level, but was still powerful for how little water was going down the gut as Nick shows in this sequence (the same thing happened to me).
-Jacob