BETA
8+ miles // IV-IV+ (P)
Stream: Indigo Creek is yet another high quality tributary of the Illinois River, entering from river right 3 miles above the take out at Oak Flat. Many a boater have floated by on the Illinois, looked upstream and considered what lay up there.
The barrier to running this creek is logistical. The access road "Bear Camp" goes up to an elevation of almost 4800', making it rare that there is water in the creek, yet no snow on the road.
After watching conditions for a few years, and passing up an opportunity or two in the middle of Winter (we were going to run the creek as an overnight trip), there was a unique opportunity late in the spring of 2020 after the snow had melted, in the form of a large, warm rainstorm.
Priscilla, Joseph and I added to the complex logistics by starting our trip off with a run down the Illinois, and meeting the other half of our group at the take out for the Illinois, setting shuttle and heading straight up for Indigo the next day.
Joseph Hatcher, Kory Kellum, and Dave Formolo at Collier Creek camp along the Illinois.
Aside from having a nice trip down the Illinois, we had the benefit of being able to check water levels on Indigo as we floated by, and walking up it a short way.
It looked like enough water to us, but on the low side. We continued to the take out, said good bye to the Illinois group, and hello to Ben Mckenzie and Yann Crist-evans, who would be joining us as part of the Indigo group.
We camped at Oak Flat that night, amid a soft rain that we crossed our fingers would keep levels on Indigo from dropping much overnight. The next morning we drove up towards the put in to meet Zach Collier high up on Bear Camp Road. We were pleased with how the logistics were working out, given they had been put in to action 3 days before and there had been no cell contact since. Zach had found the put in road to be un-gated on his drive up, so after stretching our legs we drove down to NF-2411 and began a descent into the Indigo drainage. We were happy we hadn't been stopped by a gate, but these old Kalmiopsis roads are always hit or miss as far as their condition, and usually come with their own set of obstacles. We were glad we had a chainsaw along, and Joseph was making good use of it clearing the path. We would have had a long walk without one.
The end of the road, and the beginning of the hike. We had all been prepared to get stopped early, and hike further so were in good spirits when we realized the hike would be less than a mile, rather than the potential for over 5 miles if the road had been impassible.
The walk in was pretty cushy for a 1,000 vertical foot cross-country descent, moving downhill at an easily walkable-able grade with stable footing through a recently burned area with minimal brush.
Photo: Priscilla Macy
We were aiming for the confluence of the EF of Indigo Creek, and Breezy Creek as our put in. The last 50' to the creek the hard shellers lowered our boats with a rope, though Zach found a different way down with his packraft that didn't need any rope. We found ourselves at water level about 50 yards upstream of the Breezy confluence.
Photo: Priscilla Macy
We had chosen the East Fork as our access to the drainage and were glad we did, but would probably choose a different route next time. There are cross-country routes to the West Fork, or nearer the confluence of the EF/WF Indigo.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can read about our trip down the East Fork of Indigo Creek here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*keep scrolling for Indigo Creek
Photo: Priscilla Macy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to Indigo Creek.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We woke up after a wonderful day of problem solving on the EF of Indigo Creek, and a nice night camping at the confluence of the EF/WF Indigo Creeks. We started the day pleased that the water levels had not dropped much, but displeased to discover cracks in both Priscilla and my boats.
Fortunately, we had Ben Mckenzie with us, of the Mckenzie Method, the next evolution of the
Waley Weld. He was able to guide us through the finer points of the method, and we had patched our boats well enough to get us through this trip and a week in Cali using duct tape, a butane torch, and an awl Joseph has on his multi-tool.
We put on and the additional flow from the West Fork was immediately noticed. Instead of bouncing down rapids, we were floating through them. Pretty quickly the whitewater got fun and we found ourselves in a groove of read and run class III and IV rapids.
The rapids were high quality, and our smiles were getting big. The rapids were of a read and run nature with nice boofs, chutes and ramps weaving between vehicle sized boulders with good visibility, plenty of eddies and easy scouting when needed.
Part of the reason Priscilla was excited about doing this trip was this creek is proposed as Wild and Scenic, so she wanted to get some photos to help with that campaign. And while every corner provided a photo opportunity we were all having such a good time it was hard to take a moment to stop. We would go 10-15 minutes while catching only an eddy or two and realized if we wanted some photos we were going to need to make a conscious effort to do so.
We took a short lunch break below this notable rapid, which we scouted and set safety for.
Every now and then we would come to a larger, or blind rapid where one or more people would hop out for a look. These all proved clean as well and provided more good fun, I'd expect a couple of them to become class V at higher levels.
What really stood out was the sustained, quality read and run. By the time we were half way through, we knew this was a special trip and creek.
After a few miles the creek transitioned to a more open stream bed, and the gorge walls were left behind. The rapids remained down here, though they were less frequent. We enjoyed this section too, and eased in to the new pace.
There were a few campsite options now that we were beyond gorge walls, the best we saw was here: 42.49520480965567, -123.92883884785915
The most significant rapid was also in this stretch, formed by a landslide. We were able to scout from the right, and most of us ran the rapid, while a couple portaged right. There were a couple hazards and a tricky move.
The rapids continued downstream, in a greener setting, and distances between rapid sets.
A couple miles above the take out, the creek eases to cobble-bars for a mile or so as it weaves through Indian Flat. This let us know we were getting closer to the end of the trip, and we started chatting about the final obstacle we knew awaited us. We knew this obstacle was there because there is a trail that accesses the last mile or so of the creek, and Zach had hiked in to where a bridge crosses over Indigo some time ago. He had noted what was likely to be a portage, where a big landslide had dropped loads of boulders in a mess down at the creek.
Paddlers will know they are approaching the portage when the bridge visible in the photo below becomes visible. The rapids above and under the bridge are runnable down to a moving pool.
We then ran the first part of the landslide rapid into an un-welcoming eddy on the left, for a short teamwork portage. I would recommend anyone running this creek to be patient and thorough from the point the bridge is in view, to below the portage. Everything is manageable, but mistakes here would not be forgiven.
Below the landslide, fun boogie continues down to the final straight-away into the Illinois.
A happy group at the confluence with the Illinois River, as Zach takes the last stroke of the trip on Indigo Creek.
Across from Indigo is a wall of pitcher plants, then a few miles of easy floating down to the take out at Oak Flat.
Flows: We paddled Indigo Creek May 18-19 of 2020.
I typically look for the Illinois at Kerby gage to be between 3-10k and stable or dropping for the Illinois tributaries to be at a good flow. However there are times (like on our trip) where significant storms give water to the lower Illinois tributaries, but those storms don't make it past the mountains into the Illinois Valley where the gage is, and it reads low. In the past you needed to rely on a good sense of the area, and see if the Chetco or Elk River had plenty of water to make a judgement call.
Fortunately for boaters, a new gage has gone in on the Illinois near Agness. Currently it is only available on the northwest river forecast center map, but hopefully will be accessible in other formats in the future. I'm looking forward to getting a good feel for that gage.
Looking upstream from the Illinois at Indigo Creek the day we paddled it. Note the rock with the circle around it.
This is that same rock zoomed in, note the "cup" in the middle of the rock, and that there is a trickle of water floating through it the day we did the creek. I would definitely go back at the flow we had, though I'd want at least as much water as we had to put the effort in. So if the riverbed doesn't change too much, you'd want to see water floating through the cup to make a trip into Indigo.
The creek could definitely handle more water than we had, but I have no idea how much more before it became a class V run.
Access: Access to a put in is difficult for Indigo Creek. Options are abundant, but all spur off of Bear Camp road and require driving to 4800'. Snow will typically be the largest barrier to running this creek in any given year.
We started on the EF of Indigo, using NF-2411.027 to get close enough to go cross-country down to the confluence with Breezy Creek (42.54022150693661, -123.82644430527772).
If I were to do the run again, I would put in on the West Fork of Indigo, bushwhacking down from FS 2300.055 If I wanted to do another overnight, I would put in near Lazy Creek (42.55286705698742, -123.8562727687666).
If I wanted to do the mainstem as a day run, I would continue further down FS 2300.055 and put in closer to the confluence with the EF (42.51795927253282, -123.86370156281572), or maybe upstream off of this spur (42.53401209748882, -123.86334084891905).
The take out is fortunately very easy to find, at Oak Flat on the Illinois (42.516888209583165, -124.03946594559478).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Story/Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Priscilla, Zach and I reminisced about our trip down Indigo Creek on a podcast, you can listen to that here:
Rivertalk Podcast
Photo: Priscilla Macy
Photo: Priscilla Macy
Photo: Priscilla Macy
Photo: Yann Crist-Evans
No comments:
Post a Comment