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

Rock Creek(Lower Clackamas Tributary)

Jordan Englert, Rob Cruser (my dad), and myself ran Rock Creek near Happy Valley after a recent high water event.  Rock Creek flows into the Clackamas near the turn-off to Barton heading east on highway 212.  The take out is actually right under the highway where Hwy 212 and 224 branch off.  We set up a rope before hand to help with getting out of the gorge at the end.  Driving up to Sunnyside road, we put-in behind a neighborhood that was being constructed.  As of 2017 a park is being created further down that might be a better option for a put in.  We carried our gear down through the woods and put in on the brown creek.  From the get go we were dodging wood, but nothing sketchy.  We had a couple easy portages and one encounter with a barb wire fence!  We got to our first rapid(class 2-3), and it had wood in it so we portaged and I climbed up the wall to scout downstream .  I could see a horizon line and knew we had arrived at the falls (where the park is being built) I had seen while scouting in the summer.  We took turns running the class 3 lead in to the falls and scouted on the left.

    When I had scouted the creek in the summer there had been people working there no trespassing signs were up so I hadn't taken a thorough look at the falls.  We took a longer look this time and all had success on the left side, though its not especially deep over there.  The right side looks like the way to go but there is a rock just under the surface that can only be seen at summer flows.  I went first (far river left) and hit bottom slightly, but upright and it didn't hurt.  My dad went next and stayed off the bottom in his IK.  Jordan then went and while he hit his tail on something, it was all smiles.  More water would allow for a cleaner boof off the left and the landing would be less of an issue.   We continued downstream from here into the unknown part of the run for us.

My dad running the waterfall

   There were a couple fun class III-IV bedrock rapids in here.  In the best drop below the falls ( a small ledge drop), was a log/stick/hole combo in the landing, Jordan and I drove right to miss the wood and were successful, while my dad crashed into the stick and broke it off, cleaning up the drop significantly.  

      We continued on from here moving along quickly and portaging the occasional log jam.  The walls were vertical and remarkably committing in places considering we were between neighborhoods, but everything was portageble at river level.  There was at least one time where we portaged straight over a log jam, but most of the portages were pretty quick.  There were a couple times when it was nice to have my dad in an IK since he can just hop out of his boat onto obstacles, no eddies needed!  

There was one more ledge at the take out and a difficult eddy to grab, then we roped ourselves up the hill to our cars.  If I went back I'd continue into the Clackamas and down to Riverside County Park where there is an easier take out.

Despite the challenges (or likely because of them) I enjoyed the trip, it was a novel adventure and a fun gorge to check out.  It is only 1.5 miles long, so can be done quickly if the portages are not abundant.  

     The closest gauge is the Beaver Creek @ Troutdale Gauge.  It needs to be above 7 ft. to have enough water to check out, 8-9' is better.  Not sure how high you could go, wood and eddies would be more of a concern than the whitewater at high flows.

 The first mile can be scouted from the right bank, the last 1/2 mile from the left before hand or from the creek most of the time.  Down at river level it depends on where the wall is weakest.

After this adventure Jordan and I ran from Revenue to Dodge at 15 ft on the Bull Run gauge or so.  Big water, the usually flat first quarter mile was class IV, and the rock with wood on it visible downstream of the put-in was of concern with water pushing hard into it.  The entire run only took about 20-30 minutes with wood floating down the river the whole way and rocks heard crashing along the riverbed below us.

-Jacob