Gladiator gage and water levels

Finding the Gladiator gauge 



 

  Find the road that is named after the town.  Along the main highway downstream of the road named after the town is a guard rail as shown in the picture below.  Walk along the guard rail about 75 feet, one of the posts has some yellow paint splashed on it.  Walk to the creek at this point through a couple of trees, the gauge is along the creek bank about 10 yards from the highway.

Interpreting the Gladiator gauge

There are four telemetry gauges to use for trying to predict whether it might be worth driving out there to check the visual gauge.  The Salmon gauge is by far the best correlation, but only came online in 2017.

SALMON RIVER BELOW SLICK ROCK GAGE

 

Visual Gauge on Gladiator Creek

The visual gauge on Gladiator

My notes on how the visual and Salmon River Gauge link up

Visual Gauge

3' is pretty high for a first time trip down the Middle, but good for the Upper.

2.5' is a medium flow. IV-IV+(V)

2' is low, and Vesuvius is marginal.  IV(V) 
1.5' is very low, most people would not consider paddling the creek at this level.

Salmon River Correlation

500 cfs is a low runnable flow, there will be a lot of rock contact. It equates to just below 2''
1,000 cfs is medium, and about 2.5' or just above.
1,500 cfs is high, but runnable.  Perfect for upper, high for Middle/Lower and equates to about 3'





*Flows rise and drop fast on this creek, be ready for a likely change in flows during the time you are hiking in.

*You can put in at the top of the Ludi stretch by hiking down a nose of land from the far end of the quarry if flows are too low for Vesuvius or you're just not up for it and don't want to throw-and-go.

*There is a nearby weather station that can be used to calculate rainfall nearby.

Historic Flows on Gladiator Creek

 Before finding out about the Salmon Gauge, I'd try to guess flows based on other, less reliable correlation gauges.  Below are my notes and data points from each time I have checked the gauge.


Salmon River (Slick Rock): This is the most relevant gauge.  1,000 is medium.  500 is low, but you could run Ludi down, 1,500 is a high runnable flow.

Willamina Creek:  Each time Gladiator has been run, this gauge was between 450-1,000 cfs. 

Sunshine Creek:  This is not in the same drainage, but is at the same longitude and elevation, with headwaters in the center of the Coast Range.
                  

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):    Gladiator has been run with this gauge between 1,000-2,500 cfs, and doesn't seem to correlate beyond that.  Even within that range, Gladiator can be too high or too low.

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):      Gladiator has been run with this gauge between 1,000-2,500 cfs, and doesn't seem to correlate beyond that.  Even within that range, Gladiator can be too high or too low.


There is also a nearby weather station that can be used to calculate rainfall nearby.

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DATA POINTS

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Oct 20, 2019
When we finished the run, we checked the gauge around 4pm and it was at 1.8'.
There were plenty of rocks to hit, but it was still worth doing and smiles were had.  The runout was rough.

Salmon River (Slick Rock):              Just under 500 and stable
Willamina Creek:                                175 and stable
Sunshine Creek:                                  80 and stable

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):     800 dropping to 450 from midnight to midnight

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Oct 19, 201

On our way to running the upper around 9am, the flow was 3.0'.  Priscilla ran shuttle for us, and on her way back through 2-3 hours later the flow had dropped below 3' and continued dropping throughout the day.   Flows were great for the Upper section, if they had held at 3.0' I think they would have been perfect for that upper section, but high for the middle and lower.

 Early morning                                                                                Late morning

3'                                                                                                    2.8'

Salmon River (Slick Rock):              1500, dropping fast to 650 by midnight
Willamina Creek:                                Peaked at 400, dropped to 250 by midnight
Sunshine Creek:                                  Peaked at 250, dropped to 100 by midnight

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):     Peaked at 1,400, dropped to 800 by midnight
SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):       Peaked at 1,400, dropped to 800 by midnight

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 February 18, 2019

This was a low runnable flow, the rapids are still fun, but there will be rock contact and the runout is rough.  The hit at Vesuvius at this flow would be rough and the line thin, but putting in at the start of the Ludi stretch would be reasonable.

1.9'

Salmon River (Slick Rock):              600 dropping to 500
Willamina Creek:                                500 cfs average and stable/slight drop
Sunshine Creek:                                  100 cfs and stable/slight drop

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):     1,700 avg and stable/slight drop

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):       1,400 avg and stable/slight drop

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February 16, 2019


This was a good flow, on the lower side of a high-quality medium.
2.4'

Salmon River (Slick Rock):                670-880-770

Willamina Creek:                                  A high of 800 cfs after starting at 700 in the morning.
Sunshine Creek:                                    A high of 175 after starting the day at 150.

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):       A high of 2,500 cfs peak in the afternoon, started at 1,600 in the morning.

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):         A high of 2,400 cfs in the afternoon after starting at 1,500 in the morning.

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Dec 6, 2014

Salmon River (Slick Rock):               Not Available

Willamina Creek:                                 Peaked at 700 cfs
Sunshine Creek:                                   Peaked at 90 cfs

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):      Peaked at 900 cfs

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):        Peaked at 1,300 cfs mid-day

This was before I found the visual gauge, my guess is it was over 2.5', but less than 3'.

Great flow, mushy in places.  I liked this flow for Vesuvius, but I think the rapids are a little more crisp with a bit less water.  Plenty of padding throughout and the in-between cleans up.

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March 2, 2019
I was passing through on the way to the coast, so grabbed a data point.  There was water in the creek, but it was too low to kayak.

 1.4'

Salmon River (Slick Rock):                 230-220

Willamina Creek:                                   240 cfs and falling slowly, almost stable.
Sunshine Creek:                                     40 cfs and falling slowly, almost stable.                          

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):        450 cfs and falling slowly, almost stable.
SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):          550 cfs and falling.

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March 3/4 2012
Low water, ran the last few rapids of the Ludi section for the first time. Scraped the lip at Punisher.

Salmon River (Slick Rock):                Not Available

Willamina Creek:                                   450 cfs and stable
Sunshine Creek:                                     80 cfs and stable

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):        Right around 1,000 cfs and dropping slowly

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):          Right around 1,000 cfs and dropping slowly

Story reminder: Skirt too small

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Nov 15, 2008

Salmon River (Slick Rock):               Not Available

Willamina Creek:                                 500 dropping to 400
Sunshine Creek:                                   Unavailable

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):      About 1,000 cfs

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):       1,070 dropping to 970

This was low, probably around 2' on the gauge.  We only ran the lower section this day.

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January 1, 2003
High water
First descent of the lower section, from OregonKayaking.

Salmon River (Slick Rock):               Not Available

Willamina Creek:                                 1,000 cfs and dropping
Sunshine Creek:                                   Unavailable

SF Yamhill At Willamina (WRD):       2,500 cfs and dropping

SF Yamhill at Willamina (NWS):        Unknown

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Ryan

I was not close with Ryan, but I wanted to tribute him in some way on this blog. The only time I boated with him was to each of us our first time on the Little White. My dad(the only one who had done the river before) had meant to join us below Gettin' Busy, but fell and injured his ribs hiking in. He hiked back out, this left only Ryan and I to figure out the river together. What I remember most was how much more comfortable Ryan was boat scouting Gettin' busy than I was. He looked right at home on the river. He was very confident committing himself to running the next pitch. This meant I would often be watching him as he peared down the next drop.   Then he would signal me down to his eddy and we would discuss the line. I was very grateful to have some of the stress lifted in this way. We both had a very successful run with each of us flipping only at Wishbone I believe.    We portaged the bigger drops, but just getting in there, just the two of us, and figuring out the run together was a great experience. It was very strange hearing he was gone.

I always knew in the back of my head there was a good chance someone I knew, or myself, could very well die kayaking. It was not pleasant having that thought come to fruition. My thoughts have been recently turning to Ryan now and then, wondering about his family, wondering what his final moments were like, questioning if I should be in a sport where success means you are still alive at the end of the run. I know I am not going to give it up, it is too ingrained in who I am, but this will definitely keep me more attentive and safety cautious. So rest in peace Ryan, hopefully we have all learned from your tragedy.                                            Here is a short video I made some time ago from our first time down the river that eventually took his life.

 -Jacob

Little Joe Creek

You can click on the photo, then once it expands right click and save as to download it to your computer if viewing it that way is better.

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