SF Rickreall Creek

Last week my dad and I were up in the woods near my school when a hunter stopped to inform us that the drop I had just run was surely frowned upon by the authorities. I deflected that statement and went into my usual questioning of locals as to whether they knew of any waterfalls nearby. He informed me that yes, there was a drop that he believed salmon would not be able to make it up (10-15 ft?) on the SF Rickreall creek that was easy to access.

I still recall the directions.

-travel up the road until you cross the South fork of Rickreall Creek. There will be some logs in the road.

-the road to your right is the road to take, do not drive as there are signs posted against it. Its only half a mile that you can drive anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

-The road comes to a washout, cross this and a couple more for a short time until the road ends for good. Follow the hill down to the right and you will hear and see the waterfall.

Seemed simple enough to me. I decided that the gates were only open for two more days, so I went in today. I left my house at 1:20 thinking I'd be home before dark. I got to the road he described and started hiking.

After what was clearly over a mile of hiking I was having serious doubts as to the accuracy of this mans report. I finally came to the washout and started dealing with those, each one took about ten minutes to negotiate and there were a handful. I was becoming concerned with light at this point but the prospect of a new waterfall was enough to keep me going. After finally coming to the end of the road, I started off through the woods. I could tell it wasn't going to stay light for that much longer, so after seeing only braided channels and wood upstream, I decided to put on. I made it fifteen yards before I was out of my boat again for wood. Then about 30 yards before the next. The story stayed much the same for some time. I saw a slide coming in on the left that looked like a good ten footer, so I hiked up to run it for "fun insurance".  There was one slide on the main creek that was kinda fun that I ran after a quick scout.

After this I was realizing I should probably hike out. I passed one good opportunity to get up to the road only to go another hundred yards, turn the corner, and see about six wood portages downstream. I bailed up the steep slope on river right, hit the road and never looked back. It was dark by the time I got changed and started my drive home.

It was fun for me to go on a mission like this, I'm just glad I didn't try to talk anyone into coming with me.

Lesson learned, I had already written this creek off on the maps as worthless, but the call of an unknown waterfall was too much to pass up, wish I would have found it... so maybe no lessons were learned, I'd do the same thing again.

-Jacob

Dragon's Throat Revisited

(photo: Matt King)

The footage taken from the first descent of this drop was ruined by moisture, so I had hoped for awhile to get back up there and get some more. The time presented itself when my dad came down to school to see where I was living now and drop off some essentials. While eating lunch I decided we should head up there and look at that drop as it is a pretty cool spot and Macey (his dog) needed to get out and move around.

I figured as long as we were up there I would bring my boat and try to get some footage. To make a medium length story into a short story, the footage didn't turn out again... I guess I will need to go back yet again, but maybe it is destined that I will never get footage. Oh well, Matt and Nate took some great stills, so I will put the rest of those up today.

~Skipping back to the first descent~

Matt and Nate rallied down to meet me as I got out of classes for the day. I had been looking at this drop for quit some time and was ready to get it done. We drove the logging road up to the drop, went for a quick scout, then suited up.

Here I am scouting the drop.

(photo: Matt King)

The drop is pretty interesting, as it comes over a manmade structure in the form of four blocks narrowing the farther downstream they went. This resembled a set of teeth, and was the beginning of the Dragon reference. These we left unrun, as they landed in shallow water. Matt theorized that with a high enough flow, you could get speed and boof flat enough to avoid contact with the riverbed. Just below this is a lowhead structure (no hole) that begins a descent of about forty vertical feet over the course of 75 yards or so resembling the throat of the Dragon before it empties into a bit of an open pool (the belly you could say). The key is to get as left as possible in order to avoid crashing into the right wall halfway down. We all came close to the second pillow on the right on at least one of our runs, but this second pillow proved benign. The key is starting the slide in control, as it would be easy to get spun backwards. Once the slide is started, it is all about working left and controlling any bounces. It looks like at one point there is a six foot drop onto a slab of bedrock, but none of us took any sort of hit whilst running the drop.

Here I am below the "teeth" loading up for the first go at the drop.

(photo: Matt King)

The effort pays off as I careen down the Dragon's Throat.

(photo: Matt King)

Nate takes his turn dropping into the belly of the beast.

(photo: Matt King)

We all had really clean lines and a good time. We continued downstream for a quarter mile, but I would advise against this in the future. On my return trip we set up a rope and pulled the boat out on river eft just below the drop and this was very simple.

Speaking of the return trip, I ended up having an interesting line my first go of the day, trying to get too far left, my nose caught a shallow section and spun me sideways. Just about to drop off the steepest part of the drop, I spun backwards and rode it out as such. I was already far enough left however to avoid the right wall. I then hiked back up and had a much cleaner second line.

A couple shots head on of the drop.

Nate from the bottom.

Myself from the bottom, most of the way down.

(photo: Nate Merrill)

If anyone would like to take a look at/run this drop feel free to contact me and I'll point you in the right direction, but for various reasons I am going to keep the exact location off the internet. It is less than an hour from Salem.

A parting shot.

(photo: Matt King)

-Jacob

First documented descent: Dragon's Throat

I found this fantastic drop last summer as the water dropped out. I had been waiting for the gates to open and water to arrive. The day finally came on Nov. 3rd. Nate and Matt were fresh off their Battle Axe mission and were in an adventurous spirit. They rallied down to meet me as school got out for the day and we headed out into the hills... I'll finish this report later when I get the video put together and don't have to use my roommates computer. Dragon's throat from the top.

Nate making his way into the belly of the beast.

(photos by Matt King)

-Jacob

Before/between/after class paddles at WOU

Following is a list of after/between-class runs I utilized while attending school at Western Oregon University.

-Little Luckiamute (Camp Tapawingo to Falls City Falls)  Mostly II-III with one or two class IVs that get rowdy at high flows.  There is an odd braided island at the beginning of the gradient.  The channels change regularly at this islandy part, sometimes they go, sometimes not.

-Luckiamute  (About 12 miles upstream of Valley of the Kings) The first mile is pretty action packed III-IV depending on the flow.  The first mile is the best, followed by some easy floating.  There is also a nice ledge rapid just above one of the take outs that has an anthropogenic channel cut around it, presumably for the fish.

-Rickreall Creek. (Starting 1 mile above no trespassing sign on Martin road into the park in Dallas Oregon)  One class III-IV rapid and some interesting II-III.  A fair bit of bedrock for such a low gradient run, word is all the logs they used to send down the creek when that was standard logging operation practice scoured the creek to it's base.

All of these are mediocre runs with wood present (typically none to one portages), but i have enjoyed them all none the less, and none were too much work to keep from returning often (while I lived close by).  While two of those runs do make it into the back of guidebooks, the info is limited so you get the joy of figuring out the nuances for yourself.

Last week my roommates joined me on one of my adventures to Rickreall creek to film and see what kayaking is. I also needed to tune-up a few things for the little White, not sure if this creek really provided the best opportunity for that but it's what was available after class.

This is a short clip of me trying to have as much fun as possible on a class 2 creek.

There is a sign in the video that clearly states no trespassing. I have talked with the city of Dallas and they allow hikers, bikers, hiking kayakers, etc. up this road, just no vehicles except during the month of November.

Rickreall Creek Oregon from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.
*mob rules is actually by black Sabbath, not the doors.

-Jacob