Sunshine Creek (Backyard)

This one flowed through my backyard growing up.  Its a tributary to Johnson Creek that flows through Gresham.  Highlights of this stream included Beavers damming the culverts that resulted in drops, boating the stream at flood in old bathtubs, K-Mart rafts, pool toys and whatever else we could find to float on (we lost a lot of "gear" on several occasions), a 2 foot mudstone ledge with a fast lead-in, foamy boating during low water periods, seal launching off bridges, zip-lining into the creek, running the dam we built, and kayaks were even used on some occasions.  Best at flood level, but always something to do if it happened to be your backyard run.  Usual suspects: Nick Hymel, Alex Hymel, Luke and Elijah Anderson, Kyle the neighbor, Gresham Union High School football team, extended Vogt and Cruser family, etc.

This bathtub saw plenty of whitewater action before we lost it in a logjam on a flooded Johnson Creek.

 There is a reasonable chance I taught Skylar how to wet exit before pushing him off this bridge.

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.