BETA
5.2 miles
Stream: This runs requires carrying your boat in some fashion for a couple hours. You can mix and match some bushwhacking with trail hiking, or just trail hike the whole 4-5 miles. Fortunately, the hiking is superb and the trail does not have long, steep uphill grades.
The put in most people will use is at the base of Black Hole Falls, a large falls that has been looked at with the intention of running a few times, but always passed on. It's got a tricky lead in, and it's a big drop. It reminded Adam Edwards a bit of Tomata II on the Alseseca.
There used to be a sign for the falls on the trail, but last time we were up there it was just the posts, fortunately the trails makes an obvious split here so it would be hard to miss if you're looking for it. There is more quality whitewater above the falls, mostly of the sliding and ledge variety so if you want to carry your boat some more and portage around Black Hole that's an option too.
John Edwards above Black Hole Falls, at 650 cfs (below what are recommended flows).
The run is consistently fun class IV whitewater. The forest is stunning and paddling the stream is a way to see what the PNW landscape looked like before people modified it. There is wonderful variety in the whitewater, and while most of it is read and run, don't paddle into anything you can't see the bottom of.
In particular, watch out for a blind rapid with an old growth log duck, and then Solar Flare, a ledge with a narrow hole on the right that flushes better at high water than low. It was named Solar Flare due to a member of our party on my third run down having his first swim in 11 years when he was unable to surf out at low water because of how narrow the hole was (Solar Flares occur every eleven years as well).
Below Solar Flare the run transitions to class IV gorges separated by easier floating. Wood is present, but not overbearing.
There is one big gorge (Event Horizon) part way down that has been portaged to date on the right. An eddy on river-right just below a sloping 5' ledge needs to be caught to portage Event Horizon. The eddy below the aforementioned ledge is in the foreground in the following photo.
The first of two V+ drops making up Event Horizon.
After scouting Event Horizon, most people will choose to portage. To do this walk uphill perpendicular to the stream until you hit the trail (this takes some time/effort). Once on the trail walk downstream a hundred or two hundred yards. Passing a stand of Devil's Club, there is a nose of land with old growth trees and ferns lining the way back down to the river just below this notable tributary falls.
Downstream are more intermittent gorges with a couple fun ledges mixed in.
Eventually the stream eases off and becomes gravelly, it is time to start paying close attention. You will eventually see an unstable, and messy right wall consisting of dirt, debris and a small creek entering with a large wall rising up on the left as the river makes a hard turn to the left. You need to eddy out on the right above this small creek to scout Smokin' Aces, a 1/4 mile series of class IV-V boulder gardens that serve as a finale.
The messy right wall and creek, by the time you get to where the paddlers in this photo are, you are committed to the rapid.
Photo: Nate Merrill
Two large holes along the big left wall start things off.
Photo: Nate Merrill
Any of the boulder gardens in Smokin' Aces can be portaged on the right, but it's not easy. Walking off to the road and down to the take out starting above the tributary creek is possible, but not enjoyable. The first segment of Smoking Aces' is the most challenging, below they drop down to V- until the take out at the bridge.
The crux of Smokin' Aces on our first time down.
photo: Matt King
Wood is present throughout the run, but hasn't ever really been a problem other than maybe a quick portage or two.
Matt King finishes up the NF of Siouxon Creek.
Flows: Best I can tell from a few trips, you want to shoot for between about 1,000 and 2,000 cfs on the Canyon Creek gauge for medium flows. It can be run a bit lower, and probably higher too.
1,500 cfs on April 17, 2011 was choice. To run Black Hole you likely want 2,000 cfs or more.
Access: Some of the roads are gated. They have never been shut when we were up there though.
Take out access
(click to enlarge)
Put in access, includes a 2.5 mile hike after a short bushwhack.
(click to enlarge)
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Here is a trip when we used a different access point in order to drop in a mile above Black Hole Falls.
More photos
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Story: Checking out North Siouxon Creek.
It was the weekend of the NWCC and the flows were high enough that the Canyon Creek portion of the race was cancelled. It seemed like a good opportunity to check out a promising, but obscure stream in the area.
North Siouxon had plenty of potential given its geology and proximity to other high quality runs. I had spent time researching the access situation, and despite being void of information I had high hopes for it. We camped at the take out anticipating the day to come. We started early to deal with any unforeseen access issues, but found access to be reasonable and where we thought it would be, via some logging roads leading to a short, but semi-taxing 1/2 mile bush whack down to the creek.
We reached the creek and liked what we saw. Bedrock and plenty of water. We said good bye to the ground support team and paddled off into the unknown. Early on a nice gorge with quality class four rapids set the tone. We scouted a couple times for wood before getting into the swing of things. The creek would exit a gorge and go through a short gravel section, before returning to another gorge. Wood was present, but not intrusive.
We were floating though an easier gravel section when we encountered the tallest drop yet as the creek appeared to enter another gorge section downstream via a hard right blind turn. The drop below us was a nice 7 foot ramp into a diagonal hole. Matt went first, and caught a low eddy, but signaled me that it was important to catch the upper eddy on the right. I did so and we scouted the next gorge. Immediately after the right hand turn the creek roared over an impressive section of whitewater containing two V+ rapids that had wood in them (the wood is gone in 2018, but the rapid gorge is still yet to be run). The first of two drops in the gorge was the only one we spent time scouting and decided it would likely go once the wood flushes. We set out on an extended portage of the entire gorge on the right where a trail helped our cause, the return to the river was the only tricky part. We didn't need any ropes, but a "non-experienced portager" might have trouble picking the path of least resistance. There is a waterfall coming in on the left that makes for a good mark for where to return to river-level.
Runout on the rapid at the tributary waterfall.
More gorges and classy class four rapids followed. The next drop I remember was a five foot pour-over into a hole. We both came through upright and stoked on the fun drop. The next major landmark is the most important to remember for a repeat run. There is a large rock wall on the left that comes straight to the river. The right side of the river is a small, active erosional zone with mud and debris taking up the 30 foot high river right bank. There was a log parallel to the current that was in a tricky spot and eddies are small and soft here. If you have made it this far you probably won't have any problems, but it's worth paying attention. Not knowing the situation beforehand Matt had some trouble as the probe and needed to scramble into an eddy on river-left next to the wall after running out of eddies on the right.
From there he hiked back upstream and ferried across where I helped him into shore just above the start of the next rapid. The next time we did the run we got out earlier next to the log and didn't have any troubles, though attention was still required. Aggressive boaters can still catch the eddy on river right just before the stream drops through some large boulders. From shore you can see the beginning of Smoking' Aces, which is a series of class V boulder gardens ending at the take out bridge. The first two are the hardest, then they ease a bit with a finale just above the bridge.
Matt cleans up on the crux of "Smokin' Aces".
Matt on the right side of the final rapid, a center to left move also works.
-Jacob
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