Drift Creek (Siletz Drainage)

Photos: Priscilla Macy

I expected this run to have only a handful of mediocre rapids separated by miles of flat water.  Lucas, Priscilla and I all wanted to see it anyway so went there on a sunny Monday after the 2015 Wind River Race.

Put-In for the guidebook run near North Creek.

 We found the run to be more enjoyable than expected at around 1,000 cfs with entertaining intermediate rapids in a nice gorge.  The run is described well at americanwhitewater.org complete with plenty of pictures.  The first gorge is the best, with bedrock rapids back to back, good scenery, and unique lines available.

First Gorge

The middle of the run doesn't have much going on, but it keeps moving.  Near the end of the run the whitewater picks back up and there are a few more fun rapids.

A nice boulder garden leads into this ledge that is larger than it may seem in the picture.

 Lucas scopes out a line.

 Once you see the pumping station on the left the run is over.  The two mile paddle out at the end isn't the greatest, but it can be tolerated.  The water keeps moving so I prefer to bring some hot chocolate and just float and drink rather than try to get through it fast as I can.  I would say this run is worth doing at least once, preferably more if you live close by.  Access is easy to figure out and its bridge to bridge, but in places has a remote feel.  I'd say if you enjoy Jordan Creek in the Wilson drainage, you would also like this one.

The run went by much quicker than anticipated so Lucas and I hiked into Drift Creek Falls afterwords and paddled down to the normal put in.  This upper run wasn't full of wood as anticipated, but there were only two rapids so that was a one time thing for me.

Lucas runs the larger of the two rapids.

 The event of the day for me occurred on the upper run when I went to eddy out behind a rock and there was a bald eagle perched on a rock in the eddy.  I had to brace as I leaned away and he took flight, both of us caught off guard!

Directions are on the americanwhitewater page, but here is an overview map to show you where in Oregon the run is.

Use Pat Welches gage to estimate flows.  1,000 was medium.  800 was friendly and fun.  Here is a link to a video from John Harmon running it at 1,500.

There is a gage at the take out that does not report flows, there is a staff gage on the river-right pylon though.  At 800 cfs that gage read 5.8-5.9', which again was a friendly and fun flow.

          -jacob

Sunshine (Siletz)

This creek has a place on the "what else can I do" list for Corvallis area boaters.  It used to have an estimate on the WKCC levels page and runs when other streams in the area are high. I think we had about 7,000 cfs on the Siletz gauge.  We initially planned to do Rogers (a scout of Rogers took it off my list, it has dangerous wood and non-captivating rapids), but headed to Sunshine instead.  We accessed it from Valsetz rd.  If you are comfortable with wood its class III-IV, if not its more IV-IV+.  We didn't have many portages and had a good time.  There is one bedrock gorge and the shuttle is easy.  No swims in the group, but one log pin.  Ran with Anna Herring and Michael Freeman.

Valley of the Giants

 All photos by Emile Elliot

The NF Siletz drainage has provided a wealth of exploratory style boating.  The main stem itself is fun and roadside, but then you get Boulder and Warnicke which are great trips too!  The last section for me to try out was the Valley of the Giants section which is mentioned in one of the guidebooks.  I tried to solo it one day, but got to the top of the big boulder garden (Golden Egg) and having just promised my dad I wouldn't do anything stupid while he was in the hospital decided to hike out and come back with others.

Emile Elliot and Ben Mckenzie decided they would take a risk to check it out and I'm glad they did!  It was great to finish up the stuff I wanted to check out in the NF Siletz zone and see this section of stream.

The scariest part of this run for me was hiking across the broken bridge on my initial attempt.  This time it was a lot less scary as I knew it would hold.

If care is taken, its not too bad.

There is a short hike in before putting in just above some tantilizing bedrock.  

This class four rapid goes around the corner to the right. 

Its a fun sliding affair.

 When a small waterfall came in on the left we got out to scout on the right.  Locating our next eddy on the left got us to a position to scout Golden Egg.

Getting left towards the small eddy above Golden Egg. 

 It was an easy scout on the left.  This was a good class IV/V boulder garden, but wood in the runout required scrambling into an eddy on the left.  I was not up to the task this day so agreed to catch Ben and Emile as the came into the eddy.  Everything went well and the rapid looked fun, I may have to go back and run the Golden Egg some day.

Ben enters on the right.

Ben takes his navigates his yellow egg through the rapid.

 Below here the run is more like what you expect from Oregon streams, bouldery class IV with intermittent log issues.  All the portages were easy and there was enough whitewater to keep us entertained.  Soon enough we went under the hiking bridge for the valley of the giants hiking trail.  The confluence with Warnicke was shortly after this and we splashed our way down to the take out before walking back to Emile's new truck.

While there are higher quality runs in the drainage, this one is still probably worth the trip for the adventurous boater.  For the right person, it could be a fun full day getting both the Golden Goose and the Golden Egg by doing Warnicke, then follow that up with Valley of the Giants down through the NF run.  I'd suggest considering doing the quick Valley of the Giants hiking trail too if you like that sort of thing.

Here is Emile's video of the trip.  He assures us the song in no way indicates male affection towards one another and in fact was chosen for the reference to a valley :)


The Valley from Difficult E on Vimeo.


   -Jacob

Warnicke

I had my usual difficulties getting people to come on this exploratory trip, luckily Stephen Cameron caught a whim and joined.

This stream is part of two forks that join the headwaters of the NF Siletz.  When I came to school 3 years ago this was the first stream that caught my attention because of an obvious waterfall on the topo maps.  After learning the nature of access in the coast range I new this one would be a challenging stream to check out.

Last weekend, I passed on a trip to California and instead scouted out the headwaters of the NF Siletz.  I knew Boulder creek was up here and I wanted to check that out, plus I wanted to check out the access situation on Warnicke, while at the same time getting a look at the Valley of the Giants fork of the NF Siletz and take a hike through some of the few true old growth stands remaining in Oregon's coast range.

My scouting trip was a larger success than I had expected.  Gates were open, roads went farther than I expected, it looked like this stream could be done without excess effort.  Another thing I noticed was the geology was promising.  Trip reports of the NF Siletz left me with the impression it would not be worth the effort, but the guidebook run actually looked good too.

The highlights of this trip were hiking through the Valley of the Giants, which is where I saw Warnicke for the first time, as well as some very large trees.  Second was discovering the road up Warnicke had an open gate.  I started driving up this road and made it about a mile in the course of half an hour.  There were a ton of limbs and rocks to move off the sloppy road and my Civic has little clearance.  I eventually turned back, satisfied that the road went far enough to make a trip worthwhile.

Levels lined up perfectly the next weekend, so after Stephen arrived in Monmouth, we made the long drive into the coast range.  We decided to only bring one car and jog shuttle, which turned out to be the right call.  We made it two miles before the road bermed out, leaving us with a 2 mile hike to the put in.

The hike was pretty tame.  We hiked along an old, slightly grown over logging road with a couple easy-to-nagotiate washouts.  Dragging was possible, though we stuck to our backpacks. Eventually we decided to just shwack down to the creek instead of going all the way to the bridge which turned out to be an interesting call.  We ended up putting in just below a large class five rapid and upstream?  Slides as far as the eye could see.  Since neither of us were very interested in the drop it was a mixed blessing putting in where we did.  We missed out on what looked to be fun slides between us and the bridge, but we didn't have to portage this drop.

*to those that like this sort of drop, it is completely runnable, no wood or sieves and not too scary, just very class V.  Had our favorite probe unit not just moved to Eastern Oregon I'm sure it would have been run.  It can be scouted from the right very easily, but hardly at all from the left where we were.

  Andrew Bradley and I returned and ran this drop in 2012.  Its totally good to go and fun.

In 2012 the CCC went in and got a few more descents of the Golden Goose.  Unfortunately one of these resulted in a dislocated shoulder.

  Lucas Glick with a good line.

Nick Chambers photo

Stephen and I liked what we were seeing geology and water level wise as we floated into the class III stuff below Golden Goose.

Just around the next corner started a mile of quality boating.  Class IV boulder gardens with hardly any wood and really fun.  Steep and continuous. There were lots of 3-4 foot boofs and fun moves.  Every horizon we were waiting for another waterfall, but one never did materialize.  We probably only scouted twice in this section as Stephen brought his slalom skill set to the run and made it so we hardly had to get out at all.  If Stephen had not been on the trip, I would likely have been scouting more.

After the end of this mile was a log portage.  The next mile was III-IV with another log portage, and the last mile was III+ with another portage.  All portages were easy.  Stephen did have one interesting portage by seal launching five feet off a log midstream that went well.

Stephen did almost have to drop into a rapid blind when he ran out of eddies, but was able to catch some slack water along the left wall and saw that the drop went, it turned out not be a big issue, but was exciting for a moment.  This is the drop he runs the bottom part of in the video (He eddied out part way down to let me get a shot as I had already jumped out of my boat when I saw things weren't going to plan).

Speaking of video, this was the only shot I got because we were cruising pretty quickly down the run.

The creek was fun all the way to the confluence with Valley of the Giants fork.  The final drop was an island and as Stephen said about his run "I just ran an unrunnable drop, got stopped by that hole, then ducked a log".  If someone else does this, don't worry, its not as bad as it sounds ;)

From here we had a mile and a half of high quality class III down to the confluence with Boulder Creek, where we took out.  We then "jogged the shuttle", and headed home happy about our accomplishments.

--------------------------------------------
NOTES

-Stephen mentioned how un-epic this trip was.  If there was vehicle access to the top, there would be no reason not to run this thing often when the chance arose.

-I know there are not a lot of paddlers out there who like this type of run, but there are some, and if you want to see a new run that is pretty fun without much work involved, check this run out when the Siletz gauge is over 4,000 cfs.

-This area is the rainiest place in the lower 48 that has a gauge (google Laurel Mtn.).  I have been tricked by nice weather in the Willamette Valley more than once and dressed accordingly only to show up to rain in this area of the coast range only 30 miles to the west.

-You also drive through Valsetz if coming from Portland, which was once the rainiest city in the lower 48. (it is no longer a town)

-Jacob

Big rock Creek

I have been hoping to get on this one for a couple years now. On the maps is an intriguing pinch with high gradient.  The levels lined up and while I needed a late start due to wanting to watch my buddy Alex throw javelin in Salem, I figured 3 1/2 hours was enough time to deal with a mile of gradient.

Jay Kirkwood and Anna Herring both agreed to go along on this trip.  We met in Summit at 1:30 and were at the takeout by 2.  The access was relatively painless for an exploratory trip with a bridge at take out and put in.  We got within a half mile of the put in before finding a gate that had not been there when I scouted last year, not an uncommon occurrence in Coast Range.  We parked at the gate and hiked in.  We were at the river quickly and put in, noting the woody character of the creek.  There was a nice class III under the put-in bridge, followed by a fair amount of wood and mank.  The creek then became class I-II with a couple log portages before we reached the place I originally planned to put in when I thought we could drive all the way.  We paddled some more class I as I assured them that the gradient was coming.  Soon we could see the hill creating the pinch and not long after the creek hit it, turned, and some easy sliding bedrock was encountered in the class II range.

The creek started making its bend to the left where it would drop through the hill and we got out to scout our first rapid.  A fun III-IV double slide with an ominous horizon downstream.  The view scouting this drop was promising with a gorge wall and bedrock.  We made the mistake of getting our hopes up before setting eyes on what was an ugly V+ mess with wood and boulders at the bottom.  Luckily there was a river level portage that wasn't too bad.  A lot of wood had collected in this drop and the boulder garden below it, so we set off on a relatively easy, but still taxing portage down to the next runnable rapid.  This was a neat, but manky boulder garden that went a lot smoother than it looked.  Jay pointed out a promising line that we all took.  At the crux move at the end, Anna went for the 180 and showed us up by greasing the crux stern first!  Below here was a III-IV runout before the next short log portage.  Below here was a drop that was challenging to scout and involved some leaping to get onto an island where the first part of the rapid was visible.  We ended up portaging the top in the name of saving time, but were able to run the lower part, a pinch boof seen in the video below.

 Below this rapid the gradient cooled off and had a couple more fun class III-IV sections.  I think we scouted one more time before the boogie to the end.

 I was still in boat scouting/watch out for wood mode, when Anna passed by me in an eddy giving me a "hey Jacob, its class II now" look and took the lead as we cruised down the runout and one more small slide before getting to the takeout bridge with about 15 minutes of light to spare.  In all the trip went well and I had a blast exploring this place I have been eyeing for awhile now.  I am not planning a return trip, but it was a good adventure and usually that is enough.

We had a stable 125 cfs in the nearby Sunshine Creek on March 3, 2011 and that was a friendly exploratory flow.

The Siletz gauge was dropping from 4,500 to 3,800 from midnight to midnight.  I typically look for the Siletz to be over 4,000 cfs for creeks in that area.


Put in: 44.782027, -123.693687

Take Out: 44.751095, -123.699236

Click on map to enlarge

-Jacob