South Fork Rough and Ready Creek

BETA

4 miles (another 5.5 on mainstem Rough and Ready)
It's hard to give it a class rating, but I feel comfortable saying that to enjoy the run, a class V skill set (and judgement) along with the ability to react to the unexpected would be a good per-requisite.

Stream:  Emile Elliott grew up near Grants Pass, and whenever we talked about the area he always mentioned the whispers he had heard of a run in the area the Knapp brothers had considered their favorite run.   He knew was it was near Cave Junction, ran dry in the summer, and you hiked a long way (possibly 6 miles up from the bottom).  He was pretty sure it was one of the tributaries to Rough and Ready Creek, which meets those parameters.

At first glance I thought the run looked kind of lame.  Where you drive over it, it's spread out and gravelly.  The satellite imagery didn't get me fired up either.  Yann Crist-Evans began talking about it more often this year, so I looked at it again.  Making a mental stew from photos and reports Zach Collier has from trips into the drainage, the whispers of a great run from Emile, and Yann's enthusiasm, I got the motivation I needed to put in the logistical efforts to get a group in there.  An opportunity arose on a weekend we were headed down to visit Priscilla's parents in Grants Pass.

I was lobbying for an overnighter in the NF Smith or Chetco drainages since the conditions were uniquely shaping up for something like that, but only half the the group was up for it.  The other half were more interested in the Rough and Ready headwaters, which seemed like an odd choice to me given the forecast, but once Joseph dropped out (he was part of the contingent interested in the overnight option), the momentum swung heavily towards Rough and Ready.  Iv'e never been against low water if it's a run Iv'e never done before so long as the stream is floatable, and it's a place I want to see, thus I was quickly converted to the Rough and Ready idea.

 

Rough and Ready take out, the highway 199 bridge between Cave Junction and O'Brien.

Most of the information I could muster up from the internet was from the North Fork of Rough and Ready Creek, but the mapwork I was doing made the South Fork look like the run I would have put money on the Knapps liking so much.  

Access to this area is tricky, which is why it is still the special place Zach Collier (who has boated more in the drainage than most) describes whenever he writes about the area.  While the option to hike up the south fork from the bottom existed, I was in for a penny, in for a pound so wanted to go in from the top and see the whole stream.  This would increase the logistical difficulty, but in the end would mean less hiking and more boating.  The major obstacles going in from the top would be the uncertain snow situation, and a gate on the shuttle road protecting the drainage from Port Orford Root-Rot.  This gate is typically shut during the time of year the creek has enough water to float, increasing the length of the hike, and I didn't actually know where on the road it was.

Regardless of the extra challenges of accessing the creek from the top, the team was up for the challenge. 

Joseph Hatcher drove up the shuttle road after work a couple days before our trip, sending us coordinates for where exactly the gate was, and giving us a better sense of the length of the hike and snow situation.  I try not to let the challenge of carrying a kayak keep me from boating rivers I'd like to check out, and neither do the people who were planning to be on this trip, so the trigger was pulled.

 Going to places where others are not can be part of the appeal of kayaking. 

Photo: Priscilla Macy

We hit snow on the road at about 4,000', the hiking on the road from there was easy.  Once we hit the cross country potion of the hike the going slowed.  Things started out brushy, opened up for awhile, then started descending steeply amungst boulders.    

Photo: Priscilla Macy

It was actually a nice, warm day for January, in the 60's.  We ate a snack once we reached river-level and gazed downstream at the first couple logs we were going to need to negotiate.  We were putting in as high as seemed floatable in the drainage, and based on imagery recon were expecting 5-10 log portages in the first mile, which dropped 400 feet.  

After taking our time gearing up, we started our descent on what had correctly been anticipated as minimal flows.

We were happy to be able to dodge the first couple logs as we started getting into a rythym on what was quickly becoming a cool trip.  The run was uniform, similar to many of the creeks in the area. 

We were finding the creek to be mostly read and run, continuous boulder cascades with plenty of boofs.

 

There were a few nice ledges in that first mile that Priscilla (who was in an IK) hopped out to check before giving us the verbal.

One of them ended up having a log that we were able to railside, Ben spiced up the move with a hula-paddle around the neck/camera mug.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

 

We were pleased to be finding that all the trees we had seen on satellite imagery were actually suspended 5-10 feet above the creek and non-factors for paddlers.  This has happened nearly every time I have done an obscure run in the Siskiyous, Ben calls these faux portages "shadow trees" and we were paddling under all of them.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

 

In fact, in almost 10 miles of paddling we had only 1 wood portage, and even that would have probably been runnable with more water.  After the first steep mile, Ben noticed his boat was taking on a lot of water, we pulled over to drain and saw that his duct-tape patch had been scraped off enough to be letting water in.  We ate another snack while Ben spent some time adhering more duct tape on with a lighter.  

We were thankful it was a nice day or the patching would have likely been futile.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

After half hour or so we were ready to get back to it.   While the gradient had eased, that was relative, this next mile dropped about 250' (about what you have through Gettin' Busy on the Little White Salmon).  

Despite the steep gradient, the river was manageable, and still nearly all read and run.

 It was remarkable how wherever the water was going, there was a way through.  It was an intuitive creek to read and run, though in a few places we did venture away from the main channel.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

After another half mile to a mile, Ben's new patch had been scraped off by the constant boulder contact due to the low water level.  We now had just an hour and a half of daylight, and 2 miles before we reached the confluence with the NF of Rough and Ready, then another few miles on the mainstem.   Daylight concerns were beginning to enter the conversation.

 We ate another snack and pondered the forest of Port Orford Cedar while Ben worked on getting his boat patched up.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

The whitewater continued

Photo: Priscilla Macy

Ben's patch failed again awhile later, and while he thought about hiking out, decided instead to make a mad dash for the take out.  The nature of the creek was conducive to this, as at the flow we had if you just aimed for the deepest channel, that was typically the line so scouting hadn't been something we had needed to do since those ledges from the first mile.  After helping Priscilla unpin her IK, Ben took off on his own while I helped Priscilla re-attach a thigh strap that had come off in the pin.  

An IK has it's advantages on low water creeks, but something about the character of the run was making this a common occurrence.

The gradient had now eased off to the magic 200 fpm threshold and our downstream progress increased as we caught fewer eddies.  Bedrock rapids appeared every now and then, creating fun chutes and ledges.

Barrett, Priscilla and I did end up portaging one boulder pile that we later found out Ben had bombed through successfully.  Otherwise, it was more of the same, fun read and run, imagining how fantastic the run would be with more water.

Near the end of the run the creek started going around islands and was less awesome, but still had it's moments.

Finally we reached the confluence with the North Fork, with 45 minutes or so of daylight left.  After a quick surf we headed downstream, at more of a relaxed pace.  The assessment of the water level relative to the river bed had been promoted from "floatable" on the south fork to "low" after the confluence, we relaxed a bit knowing we would be making better time from here out.



Eventually we caught up to Ben, who was on shore draining his boat.  He had gotten a new crack that was about a foot long and would take more time to fix than we had left of daylight.  He would just paddle as far as he could as his boat took on water, then drain.  We were checking the watch and he was making it about 10 minutes between drains, his boat was filling up fast enough that it was bulging his spray skirt up.  

"What a beautiful, floating boat Barrett has.  Maybe he'd trade if I asked nice?" 

                                                      - Possibly what Ben was thinking

Photo: Priscilla Macy

Fortunately the mainstem of Rough and Ready was III-III+ at this flow so he was able to make his way through.  Without the ability to boof he was having to channel his squirt boating skills.

 I initially wondered if he might enjoy the challenge, but his expressions indicated otherwise.

As the light was fading we reached the low-head dam, indicating we were most of the way through the main stem.  One last boat drain here before boofing the left side of the dam (deemed reasonable due to the low flow) before making the final push for the take out.

With more water, this hydraulic has proven fatal.  Use good judgement here, it's an easy portage.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

 The creek was interesting in this lower section, in that it was on a wide flood plain and went between islands, the downstream view looked "off".  I don't really know how to explain it, but it was neat and if you paddle the stream I'm sure you'll understand.

It did get dark about 10 minutes before the take out, but the paddling was easy enough and without clouds there was enough ambient light to get where we needed to go. 

All but done, as the lights from vehicles crossing the take out bridge became visible.

We took out feeling like we had a nice adventure, and I saw why the Knapps would like it so much.  The South Fork is 3-4 miles of non-stop whitewater, everything goes where you think it would, and it's mostly read and run.  I don't think there is another creek I have done of that nature and quality. 

 On my list of creeks to return to, this one sits at the top (with the correct flows next time of course).

Flows:  Too low, I believe Jan 27 or 29th would have been good flows for SF Rough and Ready.  We had just under the "1" mark on the bridge.

Illinois River near Kerby

Take out bridge on the morning of our trip.

Driving over Whiskey Creek during the shuttle, flows were similar in this creek to SF Rough and Ready.

Access:  Know the snow situation before you head to the Rough and Ready headwaters, unless you are hiking all the way up from the bottom, you will be driving to 3,000'-4,000'.


The take out is where highway 199 crosses Rough and Ready Creek 5 miles south of Cave Junction (42.092838, -123.683421).  This is also where the painted gage is.

To get to the put in, head further south on 199 to O'Brien and turn right onto Lone Mountain Rd.  If you are not looking at a map, stay on that road for 13 1/2 miles until you hit a gate.  If you are looking at a map, this road changes names and is called 5505/Lone Mountain/4402/Wimer, then at the very end just before the gate stay right on the better road onto 112.

Beyond the gate (42.013778, -123.836150), you will spend some time hiking on a road, then descend to the creek cross-country.  You'll want to make your own plan for how to do that.  Here is the route we took.

Click on the map to increase resolution.

The South Fork of Diamond Creek

All photos by Priscilla Macy

BETA
3 mi, 200 fpm

Stream: This was the third year in a row we had made an attempt to paddle the SF of Diamond Creek.  The first year we had been stopped 3 miles short by snow in the Spring.  Last year levels weren't there when we met at 6am in Gasquet, so headed to the SF Chetco instead.  This year, flows again looked low as we met in Cave Junction.  However Yann was in touch with a friend and got a visual update that the pipe gauge was at a runnable flow (~11.5) for Diamond around 8am.  Given this was our third attempt, we decided even if it was low we wanted to check it out.

Where as in years past we had planned to continue through Diamond and into the NF Smith for a long day, this time we were going to take out where most people put in for Diamond Creek.  We figured this would reduce stress and increase our chances of success.  Since we would pass by the put in first, we decided to drop boats off.  The spur had a gnarly little entrance, it took some digging and Barrett gritting his teeth and channeling some optimism to get his F150 up and over.

After dropping the boats off, we started the long drive down the notoriously rough road.  Eventually we realized we could hike as fast as we were driving, so decided to leave the cars a mile or so from the take out and walk back up to them at the end to save daylight for paddling.

We weren't too worried about traffic, so set up Yann's changing tent in the middle of the road.

We left the truck, packed into Yann's vehicle and crawled back up the road.  We walked the spur road this time, and upon reaching our boats headed cross country down to the creek.  The walking was straight forward for the Siskiyous, we had good visibility and followed a ridge down to the creek with minimal bush-whacking.

Planning out our route.

What had looked like a good flow from the top of the ridge, turned out to be a paltry flow once we reached the creek.  Enough to float though, so on we went.

 Low, but enough water to check it out.

It's both hard and easy to describe some of these small Siskiyou Creeks.  They tend to be fairly uniform, ledges and boulders, boulders and ledges.  Nothing stands out a whole lot, but they tent to be consistently entertaining and engaging.  Nearly everything was read-and-run on this one, though we did scout a few times.  

The only downside to the creek, were there were stretches that had dense brush that we imagined could get sketchy at high flows.  Other than the brush, it was 3 miles of quality class IV whitewater with no boring sections.  If it were closer to home I'd run it regularly.  

An example of the brush.  While it was manageable at low flows, I'd be apprehensive about it at high water.

There was one quick portage near the end at a bedrock pinch.  There was a wire across the creek here, and the log broached in the pinch was hard to see from above.

Our take out was obvious enough, where the road extends down to the creek just above the confluence with the NF of Diamond Creek. 

 We walked our boats up to a landing, and Ben and Barrett each took a lap down Diamond Falls on the NF.  Boaters continuing through the regular Diamond run would have this option as well.

Two from the group walked back up for the truck, while the other three waited.  The road only got rowdier down here.  We all reasoned if we ever ran the main Diamond run into the NF Smith, we would put on either the SF of Diamond again or the last couple miles of the NF of Diamond to avoid the road.


You might even save time putting in on a tributary if you are running your own shuttle, given how slow that road goes, not to mention the wear and tear and stress.

And of course you'd get more whitewater too.

  
Flows:  I don't know the Smith drainage all that well flow-wise so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.  From my experience in the area, I'd imagine 10,000 in the Smith @ Jedediah is minimum. Or 12' on the NF Smith pipe gauge.  15,000-20,000 might be a good range to shoot for, or 13-14' on the pipe with some wiggle room.   High water would be oh-so-fun, but the brush would worry me.

Our flow

Access:  The road is gnarly, don't even bother trying with a Subaru.  Get a truck with clearance and preferably 4wd too.  Most people would choose to hire Bearfoot Brad (707-457-3365) out of Gasquet to run your shuttle and continue down through the mainsteam of Diamond and NF Smith back to Gasquet for almost 20 miles of boating.  The hike and SF of Diamond took under 3 hours for us, we spent am similar amount of time driving on the Diamond road.  So if you go the SF route, it will probably only take 2 hours longer than if you drove to the NF/SF Diamond confluence with the added benefit of additional whitewater.

Do some mapwork before heading in there, and cache the map to your phone.  The spur road leading to the hike starts here:  41.996418, -123.865714

Good directions to the NF/SF Diamond confluence we used as a take out are here.  The left turn onto the spur is 2.6 miles after turning off 4402 onto what he describes as a "very small and shitty looking road", called Wimer Road on most maps. 

The cross-country portion of the hike starts here: 41.990895, -123.863165.  Put in is here 41.983462, -123.861375

Click on map to increase resolution.

The hike was pretty straight forward, at the end of the spur road it forks.  We went right, then took the path of least resistance headed downstream towards the canyon rim.  Once we got to the point where we could see into the canyon, the route down a nose of land was obvious.  

A trip to the Siskiyous doesn't feel complete without some Darlingtonia Californica.  The South Fork of Diamond's river-right canyon rim is in the background.

Notes:  While there is fun whitewater on this run, it is not for everyone who would be paddling Diamond Creek. There is a lot of class IV whitewater on this creek, at high water expect a class V experience.  And really at any flow class V competence is probably needed.  The hike in is not bad, but it does descent about 650' and might be daunting for boaters who are not accustomed to hiking with their boat.  While the regular Diamond run through the NF Smith is pretty splash and giggle, the SF of Diamond is a more serious run.  The creek bed is small and there is brush and wood in the channel, requiring good decision making and group cohesion.  Large groups are a bad idea.  While I would personally never drive down to put in at the normal Diamond put in, with the argument that the tributaries give you more whitewater for less driving, there are no doubt others would would not enjoy the extra challenges the tributaries deliver.  Make the choice that is right for you.

       -jacob

North Fork Silver Creek > Silver > Illinois

I think this is the best run I have done in Oregon, and one of my all-time favorite trips.  The adventurous nature had a lot to do with that, but it's also full of good whitewater in a very cool place.  I have since talked to several people who have run the creek and I wasn't surprised to find that a couple of them felt this was their favorite run they had ever done. 

Day 0:  At the time we are not linked in well with the community in the area, so spend weeks planning this trip, looking at satellite imagery we see there will be a lot of logs.  I estimate we could have as many as 30 log portages on day 1, Ben claims they are all "shadow trees" and feels we will be able to float under most of them.   We haven't done an overnighter on a run without first hand beta before in our hardshell kayaks so that plays a roll as well.  Shuttle logistics are daunting, but a scouting trip shows us there is access off Peavine and Bear Camp roads, though snow is a concern and we will likely need to hike in 6 miles (all downhill on a paved road).

Three river wide logs in 1/10th mile, will we be ducking or walking around these?  The answer will dictate the flavor of our trip.

Day 1:  We stay the night in Grants Pass at Priscilla's parents house, waking up early with Priscilla's family helping us out with shuttle.   There is fresh snow on the drive to the put in (complete with bear tracks), but we still arrive at the river much earlier and with more energy than expected.  The stream above the put in looks awful but consolidates right at the put in and we begin our trip with an enjoyable rapid.

Fun read and run class III-IV continues for a couple miles with some ledges mixed in and 1 log portage.  We are blown away, Ben was totally right about being able to float under all of the logs that were visible in the imagery.  They all appear to be deposited by high water and reside 5-10 feet above the stream, spanning the creek.

Emile floats under another "shadow-tree".

Photo: Priscilla Macy

We encounter a couple scouts and the creek becomes even more enjoyable, we begin to have hope this won't turn into a suffer fest.

There is one portage around a gorge with a log jam, Ben's boat is dropped 20 feet off a cliff into the river.  It has a dent, but no puncture.  We eat lunch on the portage.  A tributary comes in from river left over a couple small waterfalls and the stream enters a mini-gorge via a fun rapid with a nice boof at the end.  

In the mini-gorge, with another duckable "shadow-tree" in the foreground.

The next drop is a narrow 20 foot waterfall.  We don't look for a portage route, but I doubt that option would be straight forward.  The falls is tricky, but forgiving.  We have a number of rolls and a swim (due only to botched rolls in the pool), but there were not dangerous features in the pool below so the stress level stays low.

More read and run continues broken up by a scout every now and then.  We are beginning to have a lot of fun while at the same time realizing we have not made it as far as we had intended to by this point in the day and are glad we are prepared for 2 nights out.  We startle a bear hanging out on the river left wall and Ben pitons his boat in a neat rapid and now he has dents on both ends :(

We know we still have a serious section of whitewater ahead of us with 3 waterfalls (seen on our google scout) so we proceed cautiously, not wanting to get boxed in above one of them.  The first two falls turn out to be unique and fun with reasonable scouting options, though portaging would be tough.  Both were in the 10 foot range.  The gorge walls are daunting here, we are proceeding cautiously and do not find ourselves over-committed at any point during the trip.

The third falls is the one we are most concerned about as it appears to be the largest based on our mapping efforts.  It ends up also having the trickiest logistics.  We initially fear that we have got ourselves into a bad situation as the walls are vast and a portage route is not immediately obvious.   I catch an eddy on river left to check out the situation there and the drop is V+.  It has a twisting lead in before crashing into the left wall, it does have a nice landing pool though!  I spot out a narrow portage route on the left and signal the rest of the group down. Two people almost blow out the bottom of the scouting eddy but are grabbed from the bank before gong over the drop backwards.  The portage is short but has about 15 feet that is exposed, a slip would mean swimming over the drop.  Luckily there are footholds and handholds where we need them and soon we are all standing on a nice staging area from which we can complete the next part of the portage.  We do a throw and go, which was pretty fun.  The pool here is large and there is a nice launch pad for our boats.  The large boil created by the falls also provides a soft landing.

Portaging "Prisoner Falls"
Named by the Knapp brothers who first descended this creek.

Prisoner Falls from below.

We float through the gorge below Prisoner Falls and before much time has passed we see a wall of pitcher plants on the left and take a moment to enjoy the moment.  Just around the next bend the stream was backed up by a small log jam (runnable) where a nice camp presented itself on the left.  We stopped here for the night, stashing our food on the other side of the river in case a bear got curious.

Day 2: It rains softly all night and we wake up to gear that is just wet enough that we don't relish the thought of sleeping in it another night.  The level has also dropped a little so we plan to try to make it all the way to the take out today.  We have 4.5 miles to go until we reach Silver Creek, then 7 miles after that before we reach the confluence with the Illinois, followed by another 7 miles on the Illinois.  We feel it is possible to make the 19 miles to the take out, but given we only made it 4.5 miles yesterday that goal is by no means guaranteed.

We find the going easier down here, the big gorges let up for awhile and we have some easy floating mixed in with some committing class IV gorges where a log in the wrong spot would make for quite a predicament.  We are forced to deal with only one truly blind corner, which turns out to be benign.  Below these committing gorges the easy floating is next broken up by a landslide rapid that we partially portage on the left after a fun lead in.  After this class V mess the stream eases off again, with some class I-II stretches ending in one final hurrah before the confluence with Silver Creek.

The last couple obstacles are a large log jam we portaged more easily than anticipated on the left and then ate lunch at the bottom of.  After this portage are a couple lesser rapids leading into a tricky one right at the confluence that everyone aside from Ben portaged over the small ridge into Silver Creek.

Silver Creek provided 7 miles of quality whitewater, much of which was read and run, but there were also a few scouts.  There were no rapids that did not get run and we were having a great time.  It would be worth running just the mainstream of Silver for a less adventurous run.  I'd call it class IV with some "BC class IV" sprinkled throughout from the NF confluence down to the Illinois.

Just before Silver Creek enters the Illinois it flows through a final gorge.  The entrance is a powerful ledge that everyone aside from Ben boofed center.  He took the meat line through the gut on the right.  A final set of enjoyable rapids continued through this gorge and we rejoiced as we passed under the foot bridge and into the mighty Illinois.

After a quick celebration we turned the engines back on and trucked down to the take out, loading up and making it past Powers on our drive home before it becomes dark.

    The Team:     Ben Mckenzie, Priscilla Macy, Jacob Cruser, Emile Elliott, Brandon Lake

Videos

Day 1

Shadows,  Bears, and Marshmallows from Difficult E on Vimeo.

                                                          0:45    >>>      3:22

Jefferson Uncommon from PMacy on Vimeo.

Miscillaneous

happy trees and happy accidents from Difficult E on Vimeo.

Below are the flows we had on our trip down the NF of Silver Creek into Silver Creek into the Illinois.

(March 25-26, 2016)

We had a large storm roll through earlier in the week to supply our flows, we got on the run as the levels were on their way back down.  If I went back I would shoot for similar flows, and while it could be paddled lower the NF would lose a fair bit of its quality.  Higher would be just fine, but too high and the portage at Prisoner Falls would get marginalized.

Put in:  42.532439, -123.784084
Take out:  42.517164, -124.040155

Gate: 42.557979, -123.713982

*Bear Camp Rd is typically closed when there is enough water to do this run, Peevine Rd had no gates on it when we did the run though.