Lochsa River

We ran this on our way back from Montana as a way to break up the drive on our return to Oregon with a paddle.  The levels were low compared to videos and pictures we had seen, so no massive wave at Lochsa Falls and no Pipeline.  Yet there was still plenty enough water to have fun and consider it "in".  The run was pool drop III-IV and could be road-scouted from Hwy 12 or boat-scouted from the river.  

We skipped the first few miles as we were scootering the shuttle and still had an 8 hour drive that afternoon, camping along the Lochsa was decent and allowed us to take a different route back than the way we had come.  And get one last river in before heading home.

Complete Beta Here.

Flows: We had low water, but still plenty to enjoy the run.  At this level, I would compare it to the Clackamas River at similar flows, while maintaining a more consistent class III-IV nature than the Clackamas with steeper rapids.

Gage:  Lochsa Near Lowell

We also ran it Memorial Day weekend 2018 at 20,000+ cfs and it was a continuous III-IV wavetrain.

Access:  The Lochsa is accessed off of Hwy 12, which connects Lewiston, ID and Missoula, MT.

We camped at the Knife's edge campground, which is boater friendly with boater changing stations.  The time of year we were there, a few of the spots were not available for camping as they were designated as daytime parking spots for boaters.

We took out at a foot bridge 3 miles upstream of this campground, and put in at a roadside pull out about 8 miles upstream from that bridge.  There are many other sections to choose from and other rivers to run in the area.

Notes:  At the campsite, we ended up eating dinner with a couple from Orofino.  As it turns out the women works at a scope manufacturer nearby, and built the turret that was used to fire this shot.



           -jacob

Klickitat: Parrott Crossing to Fish Hatchery

I had never run the Klickitat, so when Kory suggested we do a leisurely trip at a time of year when there wasn't much in the way of new stuff to check out it was an easy sell.

His wife Jo rafted with Priscilla and their dog Jackpot, my dad and I IK'ed and Kory took an RPM Max.  This assortment of craft fit right in on the Klickitat.

We had about 1200 cfs from snowmelt on August 13, 2017.  

We had concerns the low water would render the run a pain, but it was plenty of water for seeing the canyon.  The raft only stalled out once when they took the wrong route.  In a kayak, the depth was of no concern.  The whitewater was continuous and engaging class II-III without any real flat water, yet no distinct rapids.



There were some nice cliffs to look at, apparently at high water avoiding them and the hydraulics they create are the stand-out challenge of the run.  There was an outdated sign at the put in about a dangerous log jam, it must have washed free this last Winter.  We took all the main channels and while there was wood in play here and there, nothing was sketchy and nothing required a portage or shore scout.  I'd imagine this river only gets more fun as the level rises.

The shuttle directions on American Whitewater were spot on.

    -jacob

Briggs Creek

Stream: Briggs Creek is a tributary to the Illinois River that enters on river right about 2 miles downstream of the standard Miami Bar put in for the Wild and Scenic Illinois trip.  It is accessible by road without a hike and can be done either as a day trip or tacked on to the beginning of a Wild and Scenic Illinois trip.  

Brandon lake, Ben Mckenzie, Emile Elliott and I ran Briggs Creek at the start of a 2017 "Cinco de Illy" trip, meeting up with 20 other boaters at Pine Flat on the Illinois River.  

The beta we had going in was that there was a rumor that while Ben Stookesberry had been going to school in Ashland he had run this creek.  He put on with high water and when he got to the final rapid, had found it too sticky to safely run.  He chose to camp out above it, waiting for the levels to drop overnight.   A good group of boaters had also gone in a few years ago and hiked out at the first rapid when it was determined the levels were too high (about 5k on the Illinois gauge).   I had also gathered from maps and satellite imagery that the run was steep and bouldery (250 fpm in the crux section), but looked like it had minimal wood issues.  One of the boaters who had attempted the run a couple years ago (Jospeh Hatcher, who had given us the only beta we had on the run) was planning to paddle the run with us and take out at the campground, but the morning of it looked like flows were going to be low.  He understandably decided not to take work off with a likely possibility of getting skunked.  The rest of us were doing the Illinois anyway, so figured Briggs would be worth a look for us.    

With the talk about the sticky final rapid, big holes at higher water and stacked bouldery rapids, we were happy to see low flows at the campground, but were they too low?

We decided to drive to the put in and if we could float our boats, put on.  Driving the few miles up to Brushy Bar, we were unhappy to see a plethora of poison oak in full bloom that lining the road.

We appreciated the beauty of the urushiol-free oak varieties though!

                                                  Classic Kalmiopsis water color at the put in.

Ben taking advantage of the facilities.

Priscilla saw us off and headed back up to the Swinging bridge to gear up her raft for the Cinco De Illy float.  We were planning on joining forces again either at the confluence with the Illinois, or more likely Pine Flat where the group was planning to camp.

There was about a mile of class II to warm up on with a log duck before the rapids began in earnest.
The first big rapid (one of two class Vs at our flows), was unique and was just around the corner from the onset of the whitewater.  The crux move was an 8' ledge with a kicker at the bottom.  Based on how you interacted with the kicker dictated how you went over the second, smaller ledge.  We had a variety of bounces off the kicker, with everyone coming through the bottom ledge upright, and most everyone facing forward :)

Ben went first, right on the money in "Cavity Search"

For the next mile or two, there were a bunch of nice boulder gardens with plenty of variety.  At our low flows, there were short pools between all the rapids, I don't see that being the case at medium flows.  Because of the low water there was also some mank, but the fun and clean lines outweighed the rock bumps.

Here is a photo of the same rapid by Tyler Pohle, a few months later (Nov 17, 2017) at medium flows of 3,000 cfs in the Illinois.  They reported that this way an ideal class V flow.

Some of the rapids we shore scouted, most of them Emile boat scouted.  I bumped into a patch of poison oak on one of the first scouts, but we were able to avoid it the rest of the trip.  At higher flows, boat scouting would be more challenging as the rapids padded out.

We had a good time through this section of whitewater which made up the bulk of the run, all the rapids had their own flavor and came at a pretty relentless pace with enough recovery time below each to not feel stressed.  Most of the rapids were entirely comprised of boulders, but every now and then some bedrock played a role.

Near the end of the run we came across a landslide we had been keeping an eye out for, from the satellite imagery the rapid created by the slide looked like it would be a portage and signal the entrance to The Brig, the gorged in section where portaging stops becoming practical and from which one needs to run the sticky rapid we had been warned of to escape.  We scouted the rapid from the right and found that while it would be hard to style, it actually looked plenty good to go and pretty fun.  It just involved lining it up correctly, then setting your angle and holding on!

Even when you are pretty sure a rapid is good to go, you are never really sure until someone tries it out.                   Ben probes.

Brandon, most of the way through the whiteout.

Just downstream from where Brandon is in the above photo is another tier that delivers paddlers into The Brig itself, the walled in section that ends with the ledge Stookesberry was held prisoner above while he waited for flows to drop.

Emile and Brandon drop in.

 There are just a couple small rapids in The Brig before the exit rapid, which ended up being a 5-10 foot ledge.  As it turns out the final tier is not only unportageable, it is tough to scout.   The drop definitely appeared sticky from above, and the line was not obvious looking downstream.  The water split around a rock in the center; right seemed ominous, left looked like it might go, and boofing center like it might go.  Because of our low flow, Emile was able to tether into his cow tail and crawl along wall through the shallow water pretty close to the lip while we held the other end of a rope.  He came back with good news; he could see the left line and it looked fine.  The recycle was also not as bad as it had looked from above.  He agreed to go first.

Emile seeks freedom from The Brig.

He was planning to bank off the wall, but instead took a left stroke and that worked fine. 
  Brig - A place on a board ship used for temporary confinement, like a jail cell.  

 From below, he was able to see the rest of the drop and signaled Brandon and I off the right edge of the center rock (Ben had already followed him down the left side).

After seeing the rapid, we could all tell how this drop would get hellishly sticky at high flows.  The walls below it kind of bow in, backing up the flow and creating a bowl.  We felt that at medium flows boofing off the center would be something all of us would be comfortable with.  We did not see a way to set safety from shore, or portage.  It looked though like a skilled rock climber could maybe sketch his way out from above the drop without his boat, maybe.

Floating away from The Brig, the walls open up immediately, a true boof to freedom moment.  A few minutes of class II-III lead down to the take out bridge at the campground.

If you are doing this as a day trip, you are done.  If you are continuing through the Illinois you have one last obstacle.  Where Briggs meets the Illinois it sifts through a gravel bar, where some of the water disappears into the rocks.  Then, right where the waters merge a stand of brush has grown thick.  Ben read and ran the obstacle and we all followed.

Next time I might just portage into the Illinois :)

We waited at the confluence for the rest of our group for a couple hours.

Around 3PM we started to wonder if maybe they had actually gotten to the confluence before us, so decided to head downstream.  We arrived at Pine Flat and spent the next hour collecting firewood, reminiscing and avoiding the creepy-crawlies.

When the group did show up, the rafts were unloaded and Cinco De Illy went into full swing.

Flows:  To estimate if Briggs might be running, the Illinois gauge is used.  If the Illinois River Near Kerby, OR - 14377100 gauge is between 2,000-3,000 cfs Briggs Creek will probably be running at a reasonable first-time/medium flow.  Add or subtract 500 cfs from that for outlier flows.

Since that is just a correlation gauge, and flows matter on Briggs Creek I'll also describe the visual gauge that locals use located below the footbridge at Briggs Creek Campground (42.37809292765215, -123.80436982944379).  Just below the footbridge are two rocks that are used to make the call on running Briggs Creek.  These rocks are circled in the photo below.  This run hasn't been run all that often, so take this gauge with a grain of salt.  For medium flows there should be a small amount of water going over the "triangle rock", but if you could boat over the triangle rock without making contact with the rock itself, it is considered too high to run safely by locals due to the committing nature of "The Brig".

Photo taken at minimal runnable levels, that correlate to about 1,500 cfs on the Illinois @ Kerby gauge.  Most of the photos on this page were taken at this level.

May 5, 2017

Photo taken at an ideal first-time flow, on Dec 30, 2023 with the Illinois gauge climbing from 2,000-2,400 cfs.

A photo of the gauge from a trip Mike Goglin and Tyler Pohle did March 25, 2018 with the Illinois gauge dropping from 3400 to 3000 cfs, at a flow they dubbed "High side of good".  They felt this was the highest this run should be done, as with more water the entrance rapid to The Brig would become unscoutable/unportageable in addition to the exit.

Looking upstream the day the photos on this page were taken - May 5, 2017

Minimal enjoyable flow

 Medium flows

Access:  Briggs Creek enters the Illinois River on river right shortly below the put in for the Wild and Scenic section.  The same road that is used for the Illinois put in is used for Briggs, just instead of stopping at Miami Bar, you travel another 2 miles to Briggs Creek Campground.

The take out is at Briggs Creek Campground, the put in is at Brushy Bar.

All roads shown on the map below were drivable by a high clearance vehicle without 4WD under dry conditions in 2017.  Personally, I would not take a Subaru past Oak Flat.

A final couple of notes if you are doing Briggs Creek in conjunction with the Wild and Scenic section of the Illinois via self-support.

• If you are hiring someone to run your shuttle, it might be tricky to start on Briggs.  You may need to get creative in order to leave your vehicle somewhere a shuttle company would be willing to pick it up.  

• Stash your overnight gear near the campground so you don't have a loaded boat on Briggs.

• If you get to Briggs Creek Campground and flows are not good, don't fret!  You can just put in right there at the foot bridge and you won't miss anything on the Illinois.  Or backtrack 2 miles to Miami Bar

• If the rowdy section of road between Oak Flat and the take out concerns you, 4105 is a better gravel road that serves as alternate access.  This route takes you past the put in first.  4105 is accessed by veering right off the normal Illinois Put in road 1 mile upstream of Six Mile campground and day use area (9 miles upstream of Miami Bar).  This road goes up to 2700'.
  

           -jacob

White Salmon: Lower sections (Below Husum)

Richie Slocum gives Rattlesnake a go

BETA

Stream: 

Lower White Salmon

 This run starts out in the town of Husum, and can begin either above or below Husum Falls.  Below the two bridges in town is a flat pool where those not interested in the waterfall can put in.  Immediately downstream is Rattlesnake, the first and most notable rapid on the Lower section.  Below Rattlesnake are a string of nice rapids of the class II-II+ variety before things off for awhile, keep an eye out for a castle-esque building on river left.  There is also a nice surf wave called the Cave Wave that is green, extremely friendly and with eddy access.  This also makes a nice spot for a lunch break.  Things ease off below here and gravels bars continue through the area where the old reservoir used to be, with houses t bank.  A bridge here marks the optional take out for those just running the Lower section.

Anna Herring and Priscilla Macy take a dynamic duo down Husum Falls.

Lower, Lower aka Bottom White Salmon

I have only continued downstream of the bridge in Husum in the Summer, so this description is for flows under 3'.  I have heard the area around Steelhead Falls becomes challenging to negotiate as the flows increase, but am not familiar enough with those flows to give useful insight over 3'.  

Downstream of the bridge, rapids are fairly continuous class II+ and maybe some areas that dictate class III skills.  The stream moves along through the portion of the stream that used to be underNorthwestern Lake Reservoir.  The rapids stay pretty easy as conglomerate walls start to rise up on either side as the stream approaches the historic Condit Dam site.  Below here the scenic value goes up quite a bit.

Before they removed the dam.

Photo: Shane Conrad

Scenic floating and rapids of a similar difficulty, but different style than those found above the dam continue for awhile, ending in the crux of the run.  The crux can be a bit challenging to describe, but if you are not with people who know the run you can still figure it out.  The crux move is catching an eddy above Steelhead on the left.  Just above this eddy the river makes a sharp turn to the left, then quickly a sharp turn back to the right and enters what is the largest rapid below where the dam used to be thus far (class III), downstream the canyon walls are tall and before the river settles down it turns to the left and out of site.  It is important your first time down not to go around this corner, and error on the side of eddying out too early as the closer you get to this corner the smaller and more challenging the eddies are to catch.

After beaching on the left, walk down the bank to take a scout of Steelhead.  If flows are not low, you may be wading through the river, ropes have been installed to help with this.  Steelhead is about a 5' pour-over ledge into a sticky hole, and is a large step up from the rest of the run.  It has been run successfully numerous times both left and right, avoid the middle.  As levels increase, so does the challenge and consequence of this rapid.  I have not done this section above 3', but hear as the water increases, this area gets challenging to navigate both for people running the rapid and those wishing to portage.

The stretch just below Steelhead is beautiful.

750 cfs on the Underwood gauge, a great flow for the Bottom White Salmon.

Sept 24, 2017

Paddler:  Nick Hymel                                          Photo: Priscilla Macy

More class II and one stretch that could be deemed class III continue downstream until the river becomes backed up by the Columbia.  If you are coming from upstream it can be satisfying to paddle under the bridge and into the Columbia before returning to the take out.


Flows:  There is a foot gauge in Husum, monitored by a local who reports regularly to This Facebook Page.  And this online remote camera of the gauge. The lower sections never get too low, but above 3' caution is urged around Steelhead for class III-IV boaters.  For these lower sections, the online White Salmon @ Underwood works.  750 was a padded level, and while catching the eddy above the Narrows required attention it was not stressful.  

Access:  Take out on river left at the mouth of the White Salmon River at the intersection of Hwy 141 and Hwy 14.  
An access point between the Lower and Lower, Lower/Bottom exists.  To get there turn left 4.1 miles upstream of Hwy 14 onto Northwestern Lake Rd, drive down and cross the bridge.  Then turn left into the park.


The put in is 6.4 miles upstream of Hwy 14 in Husum (or 2.2 miles upstream of the Northwestern Lake Rd/Hwy 141 intersection) along Hwy 141, where parking is abundant.

 Access:  Before the dam was removed, Steelhead at the de-watered flow was 5-10' tall and a nice vertical boof.   A couple hundred yards downstream a logjam full of trash stretched wall to wall, the portage was done by walking straight over the wood and said trash.  Downstream another 1/4 mile was a powerhouse that returned much of the diverted water to the stream.  From a couple hundred cfs to 1,000 or more the stream would go in an instant.  Downstream were a couple fun rapids, the last of which was what some considered the best rapid downstream of BZ corner.  It was a series of pushy hydraulics and waves, class III+ in nature.  When the dam was breached, the surge of water deposited a lot of sediment in the location of this rapid and it no longer exists, a small price to pay for a free-flowing White Salmon.

Trouble at the Alter

The Little White Salmon River, with it's legendary status and easy logistics holds a special form of respect in the PNW.  Many paddlers aspire to one day travel this special waterway.  The crown jewell of this run, Spirit Falls may hold even more allure than the run itself.   Some paddlers run the Little White many times before finally finding themselves in the pool below this falls.  With a number of pro paddlers moving to Hood River specifically to run this river (for which most probably don't even have the word portage cross there minds on this river at normal flows) and the saturation of media from the canyon there has been a loss of mystique regarding this stream for kayakers.

With the recent resurgence of the rafting community however, this river and waterfall have become a true proving ground for the best in the business.  Only a few years ago I witnessed more than once, and heard many more accounts from kayakers telling Dan it was a terrible idea to take a raft down this river.  He took no heed and today has logged over 50 successful runs down this stream.  There are many other rafters who also run this stream now, with many having logged in the double digits.

However, Spirit has posed a problem for rafts in the past. With a handful of descents, only one attempt was successful.  Most resulted in lots of pain, followed by some downtime.  Dave Saquety and Doc Loomis reported taking the hit of a lifetime on the earliest attempt of this drop.  This low success rate keeps many rafters away, but also creates a draw for the daring to attempt following the few that went before them into one of the most special pools in the PNW for whitewater boaters.

Josh Sheldon is one such boater who wanted his own Spiritual experience on the Little White.   The following account is from Brandon Bloomquist, who was on the trip where Josh took the risks involved with reaching the sacred pool.  Not all went to plan, take what you will from this account.

  -jacob

---------------------

Sunday was a fantastic day on the Little White, at least once things got organized.  Nice weather made the three hours we were waiting for the final member of our party to show up more bearable.  We finally got on the stream a little after 1:00.  Jacob, Brandon Lake and I put on a little earlier than the raft and we all had nice lines through Gettin’ Busy.  There was a quick scout of Boulder Sluice, and I followed the green tongue in front of me to a porn star finish. 

Brandon ran Island, with a degree of success.  He made it halfway down when he pitoned the nose, which spun him into a tail piton.  He rolled quickly and we kept moving downstream.  Sacriledge and Double Drop were awesome.  I walked S-Turn and had a creative line over wishbone where I didn’t get square to the drop until I was 5’ from the lip.  It wasn’t good, but it worked out.  After watching the raft get hung up sideways on every rock and hole in the gorge, I was happy to see them catch the eddy on right below Horseshoe, which cleared us to follow into the gorge through which I was happy to have a stylish run.   I haven’t run the right side of Stovepipe before, but, wow, that’s a cool rapid. 

We got to Spirit at 4:00 with the sun shining.  We knew the rafters were going to take their time to consider the drop, so we broke out a lunch of smoked oysters, salami, cheese, crackers and snickers right at the lip.  We wave to the gathered crowd of about eight who hiked in from milepost 2, including Paul Thompson, Josh’s Mom and the Manimal, Trevor Sheehan.  

I turned to Jacob at one point and said “this feels civilized.”  I gave Spirit a lot of thought, but decided that I can’t afford an injury right now and told the boys I’d be at Chaos for them.  I was able to lower my boat into the Chaos eddy, where I delicately got in, then ran the ledge to the left of Chaos straight into the proper eddy. 

By this point in the day, I was feeling like the river was actively helping me be a better boater. 

When I got into position, I was surprised to see Jacob standing on the rock on river right in the pool (The Alter as some have called it).  He’d already styled the big drop thinking I was positioned at Chaos.  We were glad it worked out well, because I was a few minutes late.  Jacob practiced his throws, both into the boil and into the current past him.  I uncoiled my ropes a little in my defensive position slightly below Chaos and we wait. 

Jacob approaches the pool.

photo Paul Thomson

At 4:51, Brandon signals from the lip that the rafters are paddling.  Dan was on the right, Josh on the left.  They look good coming over at the lip.  One second and twenty-five later, the over-rotation was obvious.  They hit, the boat just went deep, then rebounded straight up with the paddlers still in.  Their weight pulls the boat down on top of them.  Dan and the raft are kicked out to the eddy on the right.  Josh goes deep in the boil and surfaces behind the curtain.  We don’t know it yet, but he didn’t square up his feet on the front thwart at the landing, and severely rolled his ankle (crutches for two weeks). 

Even seemingly good lines don't always work out.

As a recap, we have Brandon at the top, John the Grizzly on the left, Jacob on The Alter and me at Chaos with Josh’s Mom freaking out at the viewing area.  

The folks up top can see Josh moving around behind the curtain, but I can’t.  All I know is that they aren’t panicking, so I’m just staying put.  In any case, I can’t leave my station in case one of them comes around the corner.  Brandon tries to throw his rope gamely over the lip, but because of the undercut, it wasn’t going to work.  John tries to throw through the column of water from the right, but is rejected.  Jacob gets in his boat to paddle over to Dan, and they get the boat flipped over.  Jake gets back in his kayak and paddles over to river left, just below the left side of the falls.  There is an eddy there, where he gets out, then throws a rope to Dan and pulls him across.  It is already 5:15.  Jake has Brandon come to above him to lower a line with the intent of pulling them up the convergence zone and then into the undercut area.  They clip the line onto the raft, have Brandon walk back upstream on the cliff and start paddling, but the rope gets snagged in two places on the cliff.  I’m the only one who can see both halves of what’s happening.

At 5:30, they give up on this approach and move to simply paddling upstream directly.  Dan decides to first pump up the thwart and adjust it back to paddling position.  15 minutes later they make their first attempt and only get to the nub that sticks out on the right, and Dan is getting pounded by the waterfall landing on him.  They are within ten feet of the point where the current flows into the wall, but just can’t do it.  Over the next fifteen minutes, they try four more times and are rejected each time. 

I can’t see it from my post, but John managed to get a rope to Josh behind the veil.  He attempts to pull him up, but can’t.  Josh can’t climb, either, with a bum foot and an overhung wall.  He eventually cuts himself off the rope, landing on the bad foot, making things worse.  He’s getting cold, too, with the constant mist.  It’s been almost an hour.  Jacob switches boats and paddles his kayak through the veil, only to realize there is a secondary room and he cannot contact Josh from this lower room.  He paddles back out through the veil and down to Dan to further discuss. 

At 5:45, Jacob gets back into his boat, to the massive disdain of Dan.  For the first time, I can hear him through the roar.  Jake comes back to the river right eddy to study the situation, then gets in the current to catch the left eddy above Chaos.  He misses, but knows it and turns to face the challenge directly.  I’m relieved to see him simply style it and carry on to get out at the left, where we normally put in after the portage.  He runs up to where Brandon is, where they confer.  They pass a single line down to Dan again, but I know this won’t work.  I frantically motion to Jake and Brandon to clip the lines together.  They do, and start walking.  I blow a short whistle to stop them.  I get Jake to stay put, holding tension on the line, while Brandon walks around the curve of the falls to where we had lunch.  This keeps the line from snagging on the left wall. 

It’s 6:00 by the time that Jake walks to meet Brandon at the top, then with Dan in the raft.  The boys at the top start pulling, with Dan simply highsiding to keep the boat upright .  They are able to pull the raft straight in to meet Josh.  I can’t see this for a long time, as there was mist from both sides of the falls jetting across my view.  Eventually I see a second piece of red clothing, and from the positions infer that it has to be Josh.  Then things get weird, and I see Dan break out the K-pump.  It turns out that they’d deflated the raft a little for the drop in an effort to make it taco on landing, but it is just confusing from my post.  I’m starting to dance to stay warm, and I haven’t been getting blasted by mist. 

Finally, at 6:15, with the left falls pouring on them, I see the raft emerge with two paddlers.  We all cheer, but they are just ten seconds from Chaos.  Dan knows it, and is shouting at Josh, but Josh is so cold that he can’t paddle well.  I see the look of a shelled soldier on his face.  The boat keeps turning to the right with Dan’s power.  They drooooop over the main drop at Chaos.  Josh falls out of the boat, right into the main pourover and loses his paddle.  I’m ready to hit him with a rope, but he grabs the chicken line.  He stays there for a few seconds, yelling at Dan that he can’t get back in.  The fear reaches through the air.  Dan hesitates, as he’s keeping the raft from flipping in Chaos, but pulls Josh back into the boat.  After a few more rounds while Josh retrieves another paddle, they are able to carry on downstream.  I watch the paddle make rounds in the hole for another two minutes before it finally spits out.  When I get back to my boat, it was waiting for me in that eddy. 

We run Master Blaster blind and catch up with the raft below the hatchery.  We drink beers on the float to the take out, where we carry Josh up the hill to the road and analyze how we can deal with situations like this more efficiently in the future.  

--
Brandon Bloomquist

The Ohane

 -Story by Nate Merrill

Since I made it back to the great north west from a winter in Crested Butte, the Ohanepacosh has been at the top of my list. Two weeks ago, Dan, Jacob, and myself headed up to knock off the PNW classic. Jacob had done the run once before, but it was the first time down for Dan and I. With flows looking to be on the upper end and a sunny day in the forecast, we agreed to meet in Jantzen Beach at 8 AM to begin the long haul up towards Mt. Rainier. Somewhere along the line there was a miscommunication and upon arrival at the rendezvous, I learned that Jacob and Dan were rafting together and I was going to be the only kayaker on the water that day. After some funny interactions in the grocery store, we loaded up Dan’s raft into my car, strapped the kayak and the bike onto the roof and we were on our way north. 3 hours later, we were standing at the secret camp put-in starring at river that was moving like a freight-train. I think it was this point when Jacob turned to me and asked “Hey, you see that big hole over there along the right wall?” to which I replied, “yeah, it looks pretty sticky.” Jacob smiled at my response and stated “on my first trip down, that hole was a shallow auto-boof and today it looks like it could pound the bejesus out of you.” The river was high. I don’t think I realized how high it was until much later in the trip. Note: the Cowlitz was reading about 2,000 cfs.

 After a quick discussion and a scout of the drops just downstream, we all decided to give her a go, despite the high water. I’d like to mention that Jacob and Dan were very respectful of my initial hesitance to commit to the run. Both offered to drive elsewhere in the drainage to catch other creeks and even offered to allow me to guide the raft R3 style if I wasn’t feeling comfortable with being the only guy in a kayak. In the end, we decided that we would take our time, setting safety at every drop, and work our way down the run in a methodical fashion. I busted out the bike shuttle in about 30 minutes and we were on the river before 2pm. Note: the bike shuttle is stupid easy for this one. The river starts off with a series of narrow ledges. The second of which is the drop noted on oregonkayaking to possess a dangerous crack/cave combo on river left. Each ledge was clean and the boofs were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Pretty soon we approached the first recommended scout on the run. It is worthwhile to note that after the initial ledges, the river mellows for about half a mile. Just when you least expect a major drop to be around the corner, hop out of your boat to scout this wood chocked 7 foot pour over. I portaged on river left while Jacob and Dan fired up the thin line with ease.

  From here, we entered a series of complex boulder gardens separated by moving pools. I have a feeling that some of these boulder gardens were actually made easier by the flow that we had. I think the extra water opened more lines and covered up a few rocks that might have thrown someone off line. The holes were big but avoidable for the most part. Clean lines were had by all. Before long, we go out to scout Triple Drop. This class V drop starts with a log jam, which is doable, but leads into a romping stomping terminal hole and is followed by two more giant pour over style hydraulics. I portaged the drop outright while Dan and Jacob walked the tricky log jam/hole combo at the top and ran the second and third holes. The last of these holes is backed up by a giant boulder that gives the hydraulic a retentive nature. Lines existed on both the right and left side of the drop, but anything in between would lead to a long and nasty beating.

 

This is where things started to blend together a bit. There was a lot of eddy hoping and boat scouting through some amazing boulder gardens. The crux of this section consisted of a really funky ledge drop with a tall curler right at the lip. The ledge was narrow and dropped into a slot that looked turbulent, but was flushing nicely. I ran the drop first while Dan and Jacob set safety. The goal for this drop was to boof off the curler at the lip and have enough speed and a strong enough stroke to gap out over the pour over and land in the slot below. AKA. Paddle really hard and try to boof 5 feet downstream. The line actually worked very well for both me in my kayak, as wells as the raft. And the photos of both runs turned out great.

  Next up was an 8 foot ledge that we didn’t scout, but probably should have. Jacob likened this drop to boulder sluice on the little white. Being in the wrong place at the lip or missing a stroke would probably result in a beat down. Below this ledge, you have about 75 feet to hit an eddy and begin your portage around Elbow Room. This drop is nasty and the portage isn’t much better. Dan opted for a seal launch in the raft, which nearly resulted in his head knocking a rock, while Jacob did the 45 foot cliff jump into the walled out gorge below the rapid. I wasn’t feeling the jump and spent about 25 minutes roping my boat and then myself down the cliff side to a small ledge at river level where I was able to get into my kayak. After a few more smaller rapids the walls began to rise up even higher on either side of the canyon and we entered the crux section of the Ohanepacosh. It was at this point when I realized just how high the water was. I was standing at the lip of a falls that I had studied intently via photographs, yet I could hardly recognize the drop nor the class V rapids below. All of the photos that I had seen of this section were no help at the water level we had. Everything looked completely different and a lot harder. Dan and Jacob opted to gut the falls and had a great line. Somehow Jacob got bucked from his seat in the raft and landed in Dan’s lap. Apparently, this was a theme for the majority of the trip…. But you would have to ask Jacob or Dan about that. I opted to take a line that was more technical, but if performed correctly would allow me to avoid the meat of the falls and maybe even keep my head dry. I ran the lead-in (a series of 3 small pour overs) on far river right before catching an eddy at the lip of the big drop behind a midstream boulder. From here I surfed a wave, which was created by the boulder I was behind, over to the river left side of the maw and drove hard onto a flake. The result was an autoboof that kept me high, dry, and well away from the powerful hydraulic at the bottom of the falls. Although the line sounds convoluted (and it was) I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So fun and I didn’t get worked!

  You can see the small series of pour overs I came down on river right and the eddy I caught (just below the raft) Dan and Jacob gut the falls. I surfed over and boofed off the flake river left of the raft. After the adrenaline of the falls, I was content to walk the last rapid on the Ohanepacosh. It looked good to go, but a blown line would mean a beat down and I was starting to feel tired from the long day. Of course, Dan and Jacob, steped up to the plate and fired off the drop with style. A photo is worth a thousand words, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking on this one. I would like to note that this is the section that is often photographed in trip reports and guide books. I suggest comparing the photo here to the photo in Bennet’s book. The comparison gives a good indication to the amount of water that was in there on our trip.

 

After Jacob and Dan had completed their run, we boogied down to La Wis Wis campground and began our long drive home. As I was getting out of my boat it dawned on me that I had just completed my favorite run thus far in my kayaking career. The rundown: easy shuttle, amazing whitewater, pristine old growth forest, crystal clear pools, steep granitic canyons, and lush steam side vegetation. All this coupled together with the adrenaline of a high water descent has certainly left an impression on me and I can’t think of any run I enjoy more. I’ll be back as soon as I can.