Little Joe Creek

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Salmon River Canyon; Rafting

I finally got to run Salmon River Canyon this last weekend. It was everything anyone has said it was. Just as committing and full on, and the drops live up to and exceed the expectations I had going into the canyon.

 My first trip down was under unusual circumstances. I was with an R2 team who had been wanting to run the drops of the SRC for some time now. Hiking the raft in the day before it was obvious why this doesn't get done. After the dolly broke Dan cam strapped the raft to his back and hiked it the next mile to the meadow turn off for split falls. At this point I gave him the backpack I was using for my kayak for him to use as the cam straps were destroying his shoulders. He went down the sliding bushwack/trail with it on his back until the last hundred yards were he sent it barrelling down the hill right at me! I hid behind a tree as the raft/missile came barrelling down, but stopped short of where I was. We made it to Split falls and pumped the raft a bit and started rigging it before heading back out.

 After two days of hiking (Dan and Shane had hiked the raft the first half mile the day before), a river crossing, lots of pain, little water and food, we had a sense of accomplishment before even taking a stroek, Dan finally had his raft into the SRC. There was only one reasonable way to get that boat out now, paddling it downstream.  We walked the trail back out and drove home anticipating the adventure waiting for us the next day. The next day we hiked in from the bottom to avoid a shuttle at the end of the day with Luke Spencer as Dan's R2 partner and our trail group; Dans girlfriend Lydia, Shane Conrad and Christina. The hike was a long one that took its toll, sapping precious energy and taking time. We made it to Split falls and within half an hour I was in my boat and dropping over the falls, a fantastic put in!

 I set safety and after a few minutes they came down. The raft didn't fit... We had figured this might be the case though so Luke jumped onto the bank right at the lip and pushed and yanked on the raft until it was only a little wedged. Then he jumped back in and they rocked the boat until they dropped over, a perfect line and they came out upright but the falls was landing right on them and ripped them out of the boat. They self rescued and we made quick work of the portage below.

After this I took off to catch the group ahead of us who had the climbing rope we were planning on using at Final Falls. I also wanted to catch them for safety reasons, as I had just found we only had one throw rope, and that was in my boat.  So if we didn't catch the other group I was going to have to be mistake free. I arrived before too long and there was no trace of the other group. By my watch I had made it by the meeting time (which was interpreted differently by the different people in the two groups), so I must have missed them by less than five minutes.

I waited at the spot for Dan and Luke. When they arrived we had a short pow-wow. Were we going to try to catch the group ahead of us before Final Falls or hike out? We came to a draw because Dan and my vote was to keep going, but Luke counted as two votes in this situation since he had been there before and favored hiking out. In the end optimism prevailed and we set off in an attempt to catch the group ahead of us (who also had a raft). Little Niagara went well and ended up being my favorite drop of the run.  The raft went next and also executed the line we had picked out well.

In the throw and go around Vanishing falls Luke hit bottom and sprained his ankle. This was to be a factor the rest of the day. We regrouped and got ready to drop the next ledge, a boxed in 8 footer with a sticky hole.  Luke remembered this drop as unscoutable/unportageable so gave me the beta, run it on the right and keep your nose up with a left stroke.  It turned out to be easy to clear the hole if you hit the line and I signaled all good to the rafters while I set up the camera and safety. They had a good line and we headed downstream.

 There was one more class 4 ledge drop, then Frustration falls presented itself after a narrow and calm alleyway. This drop was committing, which weighed especially heavy on me as having the only rope I would be going without safety. While we were scouting Luke caught a glimpse of something unnaturally colored downstream, hoping it was the other team we headed down and could see them. They signaled for us to head down, we had made it! We were elated that we had done so and were going to be able to repel around Final Falls, but we had our work cut out for us first. There was a lot of discussion about how we were going to get passed Frustration Falls. The end result is what is important, so what we did was lower Dan down to a ledge right above the final 40 footer, then he counter the raft down to where he was. Because of Luke's sprained ankle, Dan would be R1ing the drop. We felt it was safer for Dan to R1 the drop than to risk Luke injuring his ankle further.  Because Dan was R1, he would not be able to paddle away from the undercut all at the base of the drop.  To deal with this I would go first and from a small ledge throw him a rope after he landed to get him free of the wall.

 I put in below the first 20 which had some wood. The second drop is tricky. I had seen a number of blown lines there on video.  It appeared people would boof, only to have their tail caught by a shelf part way down, sending them over the bars.  My plan was to not attempt a boof, hoping that when my nosed dropped it would hit that shelf, bringing my nose back up.  This did not work according to plan and I hit the weird shelf and went into a bit of a freewheel.  I resurfaced upside down and trying to roll against the current, I did make it up and instead of being inside the bowl at the base of the ten footer, I was looking over the edge of the left side of the final drop!  I modified the final part of my roll into a partial backstroke as this side of the falls drops into a pothole of sorts that Luke had mentioned earlier had a rock in the landing and no one had ever run before.   The modified backstroke followed by another one kept me from dropping over. I stopped in the eddy created by the raft and set up for the bottom forty footer.

Instead of the reconnect line some people take, I used a little left angle off the kicker and free-fell into the pool below.  I was tucked forward and felt a good impact, my left leg popped out of the brace, but I was upright so I put it back in and started paddling against the current pushing into the undercut. I brushed it at the end but then I was into the clear and setting up for footage and safety for Dan.

He took his time preparing, then I saw some yellow, then I didn't, then here he comes! He dropped over straight and dove for the back of the raft and hung on. Then he was below upright and elated. We were all so stoked that he had just cleaned this drop! He was pushed against the wall which wasn't such a big deal in a raft, but being an R1 he was unable to paddle away from it as we predicted so I through him the rope and reeled him in. Then Luke jumped in and they tried paddling out past the veil of water that blocks the exit. After 3 unsuccessful tries Luke hopped out with my rope and pulled Dan through as Dan paddled. This worked and we were then above "In Between", the final drop above Final Falls.

We pulled onto the shore and saw... no one. This was not the site we had hoped for. After commenting on how unpleasant this situation was we started figuring out what to do. Luke was certain the other group would not have left without at least leaving the rope and thought he might have seen it so I ran the twenty footer and eddied out above the 70 foot Final falls. I walked down to the repel point and there was no rope... I signaled this back to the rafters and we discussed what to do. We regrouped again below the 20 and discussed our options. The last 4 people to jump the falls had all hit bottom, so that was iffy at best. Dan offered to lower us down on my throwbag and then jump, take the hit and just hope he didn't get injured to the point he couldn't hike out. In the end we decided to use Luke's plan and hike out on the left side, then cross the river when we could get back to it (it would take a couple hours of bushwhacking first), then climb up to the river right trail and hike out. Estimated arrival time at the take out bridge; 1am.

We geared down and started looking for a place to get up the cliffs. Luke thought he saw a draw that would go, but I wasn't really down with rock climbing and Dan was adamant that Luke was sure to hurt himself if he tried that. We looked around for another hour and finally came to the decision to head back to the river and have Dan lower us. We were a bit solemn as we headed back and got geared up. When we got to the platform above Final I looked around for a better jumping spot and found a small perch closer to the falls than where people had jumped and hit bottom before.  I thought that hopefully the scouring power of the falls would have made a deeper landing zone.

So Dan volunteered to jump first since he was going to jump anyway, and if he didn't hurt himself we would follow.  As Dan lept into the air I pushed away the thought that if he hit bottom we would probably have no other option than to jump anyway. Luckily he didn't, we shoved the boats off then followed suit, all of us minimizing our depth into the pool by filling our dry suits with air and planing our bodies once we hit the water. This worked, and we were together at the bottom, a happy set of boaters. We took some time to eat and drink, then took off downstream. We ran a couple more boulder gardens, then portaged a couple sieves, then we were in the class 2-3 runout. It was a great feeling to have met the challenges. I took off ahead to let the people at the takeout know we were ok, the raft joined us half hour later, with an hour of daylight to spare. In the end we were all ok, but we left with a sour feeling. We were definitely 3 unhappy people at the top of Final Falls, but I guess all that ends well is well.

 800 cfs Sandy at Marmot

   -Jacob

Zigzag River

           After a low water run on the West fork Hood (3.7 ft) that included two laps each on Punchbowl, Nate Merrill, my dad, and I headed over Lolo pass in order to run the Zigzag river on the way back.  We put in where highway 26 crosses the creek the second time if you are coming from Sandy.  We had low water but it was floatable.  Nate had one scary pin mid creek, but was able to work his way free.  The creek was really fun and going from this bridge to the lower highway 26 bridge is a good section of very difficult class III.  It sounds like an oxymoron but if you ever run it you will understand.  I feel comfortable on low end class five and such, but this was still keeping my attention, and Nate (who is plenty capable of much more difficult than class three water) had two pins.  My dad also pinned his IK on a rock that was actually under the water within the first ten seconds of the put-in, but cleaned the rest of the run, so the IK's will do fine. We only had one super easy portage and some minor log-dodging, which isn't always the case for this creek, or any creek of this size for that matter, or really any obscure creek in Oregon :) That was a pleasant surprise.

            I think it is a very worthy stop if you are in the area.  It is very similar to the majority of streams coming off Mt Hood, such as the upper Sandy, East fork Hood, White river.  It is just smaller and steeper.  It would be a great run to do before the Sandy Gorge, definitely more focus required, but no individual rapids are harder than Revenue Bridge, but you might feel right at home pin-balling your way down the upper part of that rapid if you have just come of the Zigzag.

            My verdict-worth doing.

Sandy at Brightwood should be between 1000 and 2500 cfs.  It would be super fun at high water but logs would start to get very scary in a hurry.  I don't know if I would be willing to run this creek when it was at bank full but it would be very very fun. 

      - It runs from snowmelt mostly.

a picture of the zigzag river at flows too low to boat

Yellowjacket Creek

                                 all photos by Matt King               

            Matt King and I ran Yellowjacket creek last Wednesday.  The ride to Randle was longer than we had expected from Portland, but eventually we made it there and after one wrong turn we made our way to the learning center to hopefully find a guy named Drew we had heard of on the internet, and maybe secure a shuttle.  Drew wasn't there, but one of his co-workers, Layla, was kind enough to offer help on the shuttle afterwards.  When we drove over the take-out bridge we both took a deep breath, the water was looking a lot lower than we had hoped for as it flowed across a flood plain.  We decided it would hopefully consolidate upstream, and we could float down this last section, so we would at least make it down even if it was low.

          We drove upstream about five miles to the normal put-in and took a look.  It looked like it was deserving of the "class V scramble" reputation it had been given, we had already decided to use the upper put in, pioneered by Dave Hoffman and group in 2008 so continued up the road another 2-3 miles until we started catching glimpses of the creek and a short, dirt road went off to the left. 

          There were a few boulder gardens in the first part of the creek, along with some easier floating.  

Eventually we came to the first real rapid since the put-in rapid.  We saw some wood so we scouted.  It was a 3 foot ledge with a weird hole, then a nasty falls with wood. It almost drew us in as a boat scout-able rapid, which would have been an error.  The right is the natural side to scout and portage on, but the left is better if you find an eddy you like over there.

From a return trip

photo: Priscilla Macy

Matt found a path on the right, so instead of running the marginal lead in drop and catching one of the little eddies on the left, we portaged on the right pretty easily.  Note: On a return trip, Whitney Butler ran the lead in down the left into an eddy then a number of us ran a lubricated seal launch on the left.

Matt and I ran a short drop right below, followed by a couple more fun boulder/ledge drops in the class four range, then before we knew it we were scouting another larger drop, which turned out to be the best rapid on the run.  It had an easy sliding lead in, followed by a moving pool, then it split and the right side was pretty manky, but the left side accelerated down a 15 yard long ramp into an 8 foot boof.

 The exit was a short slide, then I believe the creek went back to being pretty easy down to the next major drop.

 We knew there was a 30 foot falls right above the normal put-in, so we where on the lookout for that.  Eventually we found it as the creek started to consolidate.  It is a weird place for a falls because it goes from gravel bars right into the falls.  We got out on the left and at first thought it was good to go, then we saw the boulder on the left that the majority of the falls pushes towards.  We felt it was probably runnable, just hard, with high consequences.

  

               We did a throw and go, which was fun.

Priscilla does the same on a return trip in 2017

The falls does go.  Adam Edwards takes the center boofing right line, following an inspiring probe by Whitney Butler on a return trip.  June 17, 2017

Cispus abv Yellowjacket Creek was @ 2,000 cfs

photo: Priscilla Macy

Brandon Lake

Then we scouted the next couple slides which were pretty fun. 

                             The second slide                      all photos by Matt King   
                       

                     Then we where on the guidebook section.  The first drop was wood infested required a creative portage along a log to the center of the river (clean in 2017).  Next was a series of ledges before McCoy creek comes in.  Godzilla was benign at this flow, but is rumored to be rather hungry at higher levels.  There are a few more ledges and fun rapids when flows are good, then it peters out a bit before coming to the final rapid against the wall, which is run with the main flow.  Take a peak for logs if you are unsure about the wood situation.   If flows are low the rest of the run can be tedious, if flows are medium or more it's still engaging.  Somewhere in a short class two section I boofed right onto a piton rock which launched me onto my head causing the only roll of the day :/             

Eventually we came to the flood plain after what seemed a long time (it was low water, this section moves along nice and has fun III+ at medium flows) and then dealt with two more logs, one of which would be a portage at higher flows (in 2017 the only portage of the trip was a log just above the take out).  Finally we came to the bridge, satisfied with the adventure.  I hung around the take out while Matt and Layla from the Learning Center ran the shuttle.

Look for 2,000 cfs+ in the Cispus @ Randle for medium flows, fun can still be had at 1,500 when the notable drops are still fun but the in between starts to get scrapey.

DIRECTIONS: From Randle, head South for 1 mile on 139 before veering left onto Cispus River Rd/NF-23.  8 Miles later turn right on Cispus River Rd towards the Learning Center.  You will quickly cross over the Cispus, and 1.3 miles after the turn you will cross Yellowjacket Creek at the take out.

Just passed the take out bridge (and on river left) turn upstream onto NF-28, continue upstream 7.4 miles.  The creek should be close by and a road blown out by a debris flow heads towards the creek and to a bridge at the put in. 
   

         -Jacob

Eagle Creek teaser video

Here is my footage from Eagle Creek.  We are trying to compile more, but it may take awhile.  This is a fun little video though.

Also, check out Ryan Scott's site CRG productions at www.gorgehits.com to see what he has put together from the trip.

Eagle creek 09 from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.
and here is a helmet cam version of Robert Shingleton running Punchbowl

just raw footage of punchbowl falls. from Robert Shingleton on Vimeo.

tube

-Jacob

Eagle Creek

We had an epic day up on Eagle creek saturday.  This mission was about the first raft descent of Eagle Creek.  The day was led by Hans Hooman who did all the legwork and made the calls to get this together.  He was kind enough to share his descent with the group and we all had a super fun day.  Everything except Metlako and the narrow cascade below it got run.  Here are some teaser pics, I will have more up this week including the full report, video, and pictures.

     -Jacob

all photos by Paul Thomson www.ptnature.com

                                            myself probing Skoonichuck                 First known raft decent of Skoonichuck falls in a raft.                      First legitimate raft attempt at Punchbowl falls.

all  photos by Paul Thomson www.ptnature.com

Little North Santiam: Classic Opal

Photo: Priscilla Macy

BETA

Stream: This section of the Little North Santiam River (usually referred to as Opal Creek) is one of the best whitewater trips in Oregon.  There are miles of fun and forgiving class III-IV rapids and 3 stand out rapids (two are class V-ish).

After a short walk in along a gravel road you reach the put in at an abandoned and barricaded mine.  Most people put in just below Hypoxia a short ledge with a hole backed up by an adjacent channel.  Paddlers coming down from the upper section usually sneak it over the shallow part on river-right.

                                                                Photo: Priscilla Macy

  The river is busy from the get-go with some pool and drop II-III separated by calm pools.  The water clarity is such that you can see the river bottom on a typical day.  Paddlers quickly pass by Gold Creek coming in on the right as the class II-III+ continues. 

Below the rapid above (smear the right wall at low flows to avoid a piton) is a gorgeous regrouping pool and then the whitewater really begins, with numerous boat-scoutable class III-IV rapids with fun boofs and unique lines.  This is a run where it is more fun to follow someone down who knows the run the first time because the rapids are not big enough to warrant a scout, but there are some small bugger rocks you are likely to bounce off of if you are boat-scouting yourself down at lower flows.

There are a couple stand out rapids before Big Fluffy including a rapid ending in two large boulders, be sure to dart to the right of them to avoid a small sieve in the center.  Too far right though and you may find yourself pushed into the right wall which has a small but generally benign pocket.

Another notable rapid is this ledge, proceeded by a deep pool between beautiful walls.  There is some nice cliff jumping here and provides an excellent place to take a break, it really captures the essence of this beautiful section of river.

Jesse Shapiro paddles back into the ledge for some enders.
Photo: Priscilla Macy

More pool and drop class III-IV continues down to Big Ugly, which is proceeded by a small rapid that pushes paddlers close to the right wall.  As you pass the wall the river turns 90 degrees to the right, the small horizon line at the end of the straight away is Big Ugly, which can be scouted right or left but is portaged right.  The left wall is the obvious hazard and becomes more of an issue as flows drop.  There is a sneak option on the right at some levels.

A boater snaking by that left wall at the bottom of Big Ugly.
Photo: Priscilla Macy

The next rapid below Big Ugly is a slot through a channel against the right bank.  Start left, driving hard back to the right through the slot.  It's easy and forgiving, but occasionally flips lackadaisical paddlers.  

There is a short bit of class II before the walls rise back up and the river disappears into the lead in at Big Fluffy, it is easy to eddy out on the right just above the horizon.

                                                              Photo: Clinton Begley

Scout and portage (via a seal launch) Big Fluffy on the right, this is where most of the pictures come from that people associate with the Opal Classic run.

The green boat is at the spot most people seal launch from.  Make sure to aim for the center of the river if seal launching, falling off to the right/downstream can result in a nasty piton.

                                                                Photo: Priscilla Macy

To run Big Fluffy I like to run the entrance ledge wherever is clever, then as I approach the pinch along the left wall I make sure I have momentum and angle to get to the left wall as I come through the pinch.  I then scrape (if levels are low) along the left wall until I am about 6 feet above the lip, at which point I drive back to middle and get in a left stroke to keep my nose up.  If you follow the current, you will find it pushes hard into the left wall.  

                                                            Ben Mckenzie gets it right
                                                              Photo: Lucas Reitmann

 The hole spices up at high flows and is not afraid of dishing out beatings and swims.
  I like to take the line drawn in the photo below at all levels, even when it requires scraping over an exposed shelf at low flows.
                                                           Photo: Lucas Reitmann

Things are a half class easier below here but the whitewater keeps rolling along, a small rapid with large boulders has a hungry mid stream sieve that is not obvious from above.  When you see those boulders, make sure you end the rapid on the far left.  


                                           Scouting the rapid with the sieve below.

The next innocuous spot is about half a mile to a mile below the bridge where Cedar Creek enters from the left.  Nondescript boulder gardens are the name of the game as the river makes a gradual left and the main flow crashes into a pile of boulders, make a strong move to the left or right of them, or sneak along the right bank.  This is one place where following a veteran is nice, fortunately the consequences for a mistake is just bouncing into some rocks.  Rolls can be unpleasant here.

There are a couple of long class II-III rapids below here and then the Little North Santiam pools again and bends to the left above the finale, Thor's Playroom.  

                                                                 Thor's Hammer
                                                              Photo: Priscilla Macy

The entry drop out of the pool and into Thor's has a number of options, nearly every time I take the second door from the right but don't let that keep you from checking out the other options.   Door two is through 2 soft ledge holes, I recommend a right stroke off the top one.

The current picks up again after the entrance and drops away through a fun flume run down the tongue with some offset waves.  As you slow down from the flume you will find yourself floating slowly (at normal flows) towards the final drop, a fast tongue into a ledge.  Eddy out on the right before dropping over to give it a quick peak from your boat.

I like to run this one moving right down the tongue, finishing right.  Otherwise follow the tongue straight over a boof that most people kind of just plop over, but every once in awhile it offers up a nice pop.  If you are looking for some extra fun aim for the seam between the boof and the hole on the bottom right.


                                             Ben drops into the final segment of Thor's Playroom.
                                                            Photo: Priscilla Macy

Take out on the gravel bar in the pool below this drop on the right.  There is a short set of stairs up to the parking lot.

The water quality is probably the thing people talk about most after their first trip to Opal Creek.

Paddlers: Nicole Smedegaard and Sean Bowen                                                                       Photo: Priscilla Macy

Flows:   This run can be done at a wide range of flows, and gets run anywhere between 350-5,000 cfs on the Little North Santiam @ Mehama gauge.  The most common and cleanest levels for running all the rapids are 700-2,000 cfs.   Much higher and Big Fluffy is usually portaged, much lower and Big Ugly is usually portaged.  And of course you can assume there will be other concerns that arise with flows outside of the ideal range though the difficulty does not change much until you get passed 3,500 cfs.

The gauge is far downstream, so the definitive gauge is the stick gauge at Elkhorn.  5-6' on that gauge is good for all the rapids, but it's visual only.

Access:  Take I5 to Salem and head East on Highway 22 towards Detroit Reservoir.  In about 22 miles turn left at a flashing yellow light onto N Fork Rd.  In about 15 miles the road turns to gravel, just under 2 miles after that turn right (there is a kiosk and some boulders at this location).  Just under a mile after turning right at the kiosks, pull right into the paved Three Pools Day use area (not signed).  This is the take out.

To reach the put in return to the kiosks on N Fork Rd and turn right.  Continue a little over 4 miles to a gate and park (there is a $5 fee).  Carry your kayak past the gate along the road, in half a mile you will cross over the compelling, yet log choked Gold Creek.  In another hundred yards veer right onto an overgrown spur road that leads down to the put in at the location of a decommissioned mine shaft.

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Some Opal Media
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Opal Creek 2009 from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.