Lacamas Creek

Photo: Priscilla Macy



BETA
1.3 miles

Stream: With a take out less than 30 minutes from downtown Portland, Lacamas Creek is (excluding the novel Willamette Falls and Oswego Creek) the closest challenging whitewater to Portland, OR.  Short and sweet, the run flows out of a dam and flows when it has been raining hard.  It's tucked into Lacamas Creek Park, which in turn is tucked right into the middle of Camas, WA.

From the parking area at the put in, either put in on the reservoir right at the bridge next to where you parked, or shoulder your boat.  Either way, paddle or walk, it's about 1/3 of a mile to the dam.  The run starts on the downstream side of this dam.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

The first drop is the smallest, but least commonly run.  It's about a 5 foot tall ledge, it has a hole and I have heard that if you have seen this place in the summertime without water, the potholes will have you taking this drop seriously.  Some people choose to put in just below this ledge.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

It's easy floating down to the next horizon line at Pothole Falls, scout left.  There are three line choices.  The one that seems most obvious is the middle line, but this line lands in bout 6" of water if you go straight off.  If you choose to run this line drive hard left.  At some levels it's a sweet Boulder Sluice style boof.  But again, if you boof the peak, you will smash the bottom of the river.

 Pothole Falls, all three lines are visible in this image.

Photo: Paul Thomson

The right (but not right wall) line is the easiest, just line it up and bounce 15" into the pool.

Far left is a sloping ramp that goes smoother than it looks, so long as you line it up correctly.

Andrew Bradley, lining it up correctly.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

More easy floating and a 5' ledge leads to a foot bridge.  Be sure to eddy out before this bridge on the left to scout Little Norway, the largest drop of the run.  

Photo from the footbridge: Priscilla Macy

This big slide is intimidating, but good to go.  Wood sometimes collect here, and in 2018 was problematic but still runnable.  It is best scouted and portaged on the left.  Safety can be set at the bottom.  Most people run just to the left of a large hole mid-slide.

Ben Mckenzie makes the final move to the left, avoiding the wood in the runout.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

From the base of Little Norway it is about half a mile of class II down to the take out.  It's worth pre-scouting your take out route, or, risk facing the wrath of the blackerry bushes.

  
Flows:  Lacamas is controlled by a dam and does not have an online gauge, so comes with the uncertainty of such a combination.  If the reservoir is full, and it has been raining the spillage is funneled into the creek so when the reservoir is full it's reliably in on high water days.  Since it's on the way to the Washougal drainage, it's easy to fallback on something in that drainage in the event you get skunked on Lacamas. 

Both times Iv'e run Lacamas, it's been on a day we also ran Hagen.  So 2,000 on the EF Lewis gauge, and 3,000 on the Washougal gauge are good minimums to shoot for.  If the first drop looks runnable, the rest of the creek will too.

Access:  Take Highway 14 into the town of Camas.  Below is a map of the shuttle route, click on it for higher resolution.

Take out:  45.5891, -122.3916

Put In parking:  45.6037, -122.4068

Dam: 45.6005, -122.404

The creek even has cell service!

Photo: Priscilla Macy

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Story
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My first time down was shortly after Dan and his buddy Trevor had the first go at rafting Hagen Creek.  That was fun, and with some time left over Ryan Scott suggested we try out Lacamas Creek nearby.  I hopped in the back of the raft with Trevor and Dan up front, while Matt King, Eric Foster-Moore and Josh Grabel kayaked.  There was hardly any light so we were moving fast.  Everything went smooth, I have a vivid memory of being in the raft below Little Norway, looking up as the three kayakers blue angled the drop, careening down the face all at once on slightly different lines.  We took out as dark set in, with cheers to another loose operation where the bolts held fast.

Jeff Compton guides an R4 team down Little Norway on another trip. 

 Photo: Paul Thomson

My second trip to Lacamas Creek was many years later, at the opposite end of the day.  We set shuttle in the dark after flows were reported as too high on option #1.  This time we were able to move slower and take it in more, Priscilla and Ben even observed a large Beaver sending it into the outflow of the first drop shortly after the sun came up!

 Photo: Priscilla Macy

With the addition time allotted to scouting, we tried out the left line at Pothole Falls which I had in my mind was ultra stout but I know consider the preferred line (at least at the flow we were there).  Adam probed and we were relieved but not surprised that it went so smooth.  Three more of us lined it up and rode the ramp into the pool below.

Little Norway ended up having a pretty prolific wood situation at the base on this trip, I definitely wasn't feeling it this time around but Adam wanted to give it a go.  He checked with the group to see how we felt about him running the drop.  The consensus was we trusted his judgement, but were not comfortable with the risk unless proper safety could be set at the wood.  Andrew and I scrambled out to the problem spot and found the footing manageable enough to feel good about assisting in the event we needed to administer a rescue.  There was no need, Adam executed the line so well it convinced Ben that he wanted to run it too, repeating a perfect line.

Adam Edwards running Little Norway, wood be damned.

Andrew, Priscilla and I chose to hike the trail to the take out, much to Priscilla's chagrin.  It didn't help when we passed some hikers and they told Priscilla they felt sorry she was going to have to carry her boat so far.  I promised her we'd paddle out next time, but the looks got no less dirty :)

With plenty of daylight left, we headed up to the NWF Washougal drainage where loads of paddlers were running Hagen.  Priscilla joined them, while the rest of us headed further up the drainage for something new.

Further up on the NWF Washougal.

Photo: Adam Edwards

           -jacob