Beaver Creek

BETA

Stream:   Beaver Creek is a tiny little stream that drains the streets of Gresham, OR.   Near the end of it's course, before its confluence with the Sandy River, it enters a half mile long class III-IV gorge bounded by two neighborhoods.  Putting in at Troutdale Rd means you have some brush to contend with but directions are easier.  If you put in further up at Stark Street you will have two culverts to contend with, some may find those obstacles fun.

If you use the cul de sac put in (the furthest downstream), walk down the path to the river.  Put in and proceed cautiously.  When the left wall rises up, start looking for the right wall to do the same.  Just before it does is a spot you can walk up to the rim and walk through a field to scout the gorge.

Cul de Sac put in

Once past this point it's committing read and run, but the difficulty is only III-IV depending on the water level.  It's a unique section of stream that I always enjoy. In 2016 there was a log jam at the end of the gorge that could be portaged over the wood on the left.  Alex N reported in the comments below that the log jam was still there in January of 2017.

Typical scene in Beaver Creek gorge.

After the half mile long gorge the stream opens up and while there were no wood issues in 2015, there have been in past years.  There used to be a foot bridge marking the take out but that got blown out, so be on the look out for a place to hop out on the right, there is a trail that goes up to where you parked the take out vehicle.
  
Flows:  Beaver Creek flows only after significant rains.  Medium levels are 8'-9' on this gauge. 7' was the lowest we ran it and while that floats a boat, its definitely low.  This creek spikes and drops fast so if you don't like the flow, grab a burger at the Dairy Queen down the street and wait an hour for it to change.

Access:  

Click on the map to enhance resolution.

From the intersection of Troutdale Rd and Stark St in Gresham (there is a Dairy Queen here), head East on Stark St (West would take you up-hill).  Turn left at the next light onto Evans St. and stay the course for about 1 mile until you see this location, which is the take out.

Take out:  45.530068, -122.378283

There is access to an agricultural field from this neighborhood, and I like to walk along the edge of it and scout the gorge before gearing up, others may prefer to do this from the river though.

 To get to the put in, return to Stark St and head back towards the Dairy Queen.  Beaver Creek crosses under both Stark St and Troutdale Rd near here, but the put in I generally use has you turning right at the Dairy Queen onto Troutdale road, then right again in just over 1/4 mile onto Beaver Creek Ln.  After turning right, the access is through the first cul de sac on the right. 45.523693,-122.384203

There is a narrow path where the arrow is in the following photo that leads to what is sort of a park.

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Original Write-up
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This creek is a novelty, flowing through the town of Troutdale.  That being said, it is much more enjoyable that it has any right to be. The stream is impounded on the Mt. Hood Community College Campus, flows along through some class II, culverts and wood for a couple miles.  It then crossed under Troutdale road and enters a short class III-IV gorge.  To run this we would hike it in the summer and address any wood issues, then the day we were to run it we would scout the whole gorge from river right on the edge of an agricultural field.  Once you are in the gorge it is strikingly committing for flowing through a suburb.

The best rapids were the first and last in the gorge.  The final one being the trashiest with a barrel and other assorted garbage collected on the left, creating an obstacle.

 Priscilla near the beginning of the gorge.

 Once through the gorge there were a couple small rapids and usually an easy log portage before reaching a foot bridge.  The first few times we hiked out on a trail on the left, the last few times we took the trail to the right.  I would recommend the right side, the left was a mess of mud coming up the hill to Cherry Park when it had been raining enough for the creek to come in.  My dad and Val Shaul did the run down to the Sandy once and decided that walking out at the foot bridge is better.

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 Put in either at Troutdale road or Stark street.  To cut to the chase, use these coordinates to avoid flat water and trees hanging into the stream.  45.523693,-122.384203

The trail to the put in is between these two houses. 

 To get to this cul de sac, turn right onto Beaver Creek Lane off of Troutdale road within a hundred yards of the point where Troutdale road crosses over Beaver Creek. After turning right, its the first cul de sac on the right.  The gorge starts within a hundred yards of this put in and the last point to get out and scout is on the right just before the first bedrock rapid. It is possible to get to the gorge rim and the agricultural field from that point.


Take out:  45.530068, -122.378283

This is the trail we came out on.  It is accessed from the first foot bridge to cross Beaver Creek below the gorge.  We headed downstream, then up on the trail to get to this point on Evans Ave.

For good whitewater, we would aim for 8'-9' on this gauge. 7' was the lowest we ran it and while that floats a boat, its definitely low.

The gorge drops 120 feet in .58 miles.

   -jacob

Sandy

This one is in a lot of PNW guide books and gets run all the time, I grew up near this river and have done countless trips on various sections.  One of the most memorable was an overnight rafting trip starting at Sleepy Hollow and finishing at Oxbow, we camped in the beginning of the Sandy Gorge, which I have also done in kayaks.  Here is a report of my dad and friends running all the guidebook sections in a day.

Sandy River in a Day

Gordon Creek (Sandy Drainage)

On a couple of occasions in the past I had driven over Gordon creek and noticed that it had the amount of water needed to be considered boatable. I spent some time driving around the area trying to find access points. Google earth came in handy along with a topo map from GI Joes. After a couple months of roaming around the area, hiking down a few logging roads, and one close enough to get frightened encounter with a bear I felt ready to give it a try. The take out was easy enough, right upstream from Oxbow park on Gordon Creek Rd. The put-in we eventually used was down a gated road, that required close to a mile walk down a gravel road, only the last 30 yards or so required bush wacking. I found out later that this creek has been run, but we thought it was a first at the time and treated it so.  Today My dad and I would be joined by Dave Sacquety. The put in was right at the top of a class 2-3 rapid that went around a blind corner into a class III+ bouncing down a few boulders with a log duck that only Dave ran while my dad and I portaged on the right.

 Put in rapid

Bouldery drop.

border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5061209897166642322" /> The next 75 yards was fun, class III-IV boulder gardens that were a little pinny. After the first section of rapids was a log portage. The rapids cooled down a lot after this, which was nice for the first 1/4 mile until we started wondering if we would ever see another rapid. This section was also full of logs, a situation that got worse the farther we went. After a while it got very tiresome. After the fourth or fifth log portage we started to give up all hope on this run. Here is what much of the middle of the creek looked like

And a typical log portage.

Every once in a while we would get hints that the creek would start moving again, but we were continually dissapointed. Eventually we got to a 200 yard section that was filled with logs and devils club. We portaged three log jams through forests of Devils Club and eventually found another creek that was easier to portage down, this is the one in the video. This creek had about 15 cfs and had portages of its own but was the easiest route. After this was a sketchy portage that included paddling as hard as you could at the right bank in order to ride up on it. My dad went first and had no one to catch him, but still made it just fine even though he had a small log and a rock to clear that neither Dave or I had to deal with. Without an IK this move may not have been possible and the portage would have been at least another twenty minutes through devils club, one of the many reasons not to repeat this trip. My dad still trying to be happy after a fun day of portaging After this awful section we passed under some power lines that were supposed to mark the beggining of the 210 fpm section at the bottom. This seemed unrealistically steep since most of this seemed to drop closer to 100 fpm or less. After a while of class two (better than the middle section of the creek). We arrived at the first and only pool of the trip. Below this was a steep rapid that was different from all the others. It would have been fun, but it had a couple logs. Below this was another class three and then a quick eddy on the right before a rapid we almost ran blind but my dad volunteered for the tough scout on the right. Good idea because it had a small log seive on the bottom right and a log extending into the middle(both right next to unavoidable). This class four turned class five required catching an eddy half way down before things got really nasty. At this point we seriously considered hiking out. With the overgrown road (at best) a couple hundred feet above us and since the move was only class three to the eddy, we decided to go for it. I went first and made the eddy, as I took my hand of my paddle to give the Dave and my dad the thumbs up, my edge caught amd I had my only flipof the day in a really bad place, I had a super quick role and stayed in the eddy, thankfully. The other two came down and had no trouble. Then we had a somewhat difficult portage left of the nasty bit of the rapid. Below this was a somewhat interesting rapid that required a log duck. Below this was some almost worthwhile class three rapids before our last log portage and the take out. The view from the take out Copy paste this link to see the video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4832483548562207619