Little Luckiamute: The Gorge

BETA

Stream: After a messy and steep bushwhack down to the creek (maybe 15 minutes?) you arrive at the creek.  The first 1/4 miles is on the manky side and while you want to keep an eye out for wood there usually are no portages.  It is important not to be too aggressive on this run, the first rapid (Catalyst) comes up quick and has been run blind on accident.  It is at the end of a bit of a straight away with a busy class III approach.  If you sense bedrock eddy out on the right ASAP and walk down the bank to scout this 15' ramp followed by a 6' ramp.  

Lucas Reitmann approaches Catalyst.  Notice where the boats are on shore, well upstream of the drop.  Once you see the horizon line, it's too late to stop.

Photo: Joe Kemper

The pool below Catalyst empties into the lead in to Osmosis.  So get out in the pool below Catalyst to scout Osmosis which goes around the corner.  The lead in starts as a series of small slides, then turns right and enters a narrow alleyway.  This alleyway culminates in a beautiful 30' falls.  Scout thoroughly on the right, if you decide to portage, schwack along the rim of the gorge until you are looking down at a grove of ferns descending to the stream and can see a small falls cascading off the cliff on the right downstream.  If you drop down too early the descent is more difficult and you will run into Devil's Club.  It is easy after the portage to walk up the bank to the pool below Osmosis for safety and media.

                                                                                Photo: Nate Pfiefer 

A short gorge section leads to the lip of Tough Luck, a nasty 30 footer with numerous problems.  If it was wood free it would be runnable but still V+.  My first time doing this creek Jeff Hartley and I did a throw and go off the right side, but the landing zone is very small and at healthy flows it would be easy to lose boats here. 

Since that first trip I have always portaged left by doing a sloppy climb up the wall and then roping boats up after.  Everyone after the first climber can then use the rope for assistance (recommended).

Below here there is only one good place to descend back into the gorge and it's not too obvious.  It's a steep draw overlooking Tough Luck and requires roping boats down and I usually double up a rope to assist my descent as well.  Once below the first pitch it's an easy walk down to river level at a gravel bar above the next falls, Little Lucky.  Little Lucky can be scouted easily from the lip on the right, and if need be portaged high on the right (only necessary if wood is present).  This 15' drop has two obvious lines, both are clean but I like far right best.

Below here is a short bit of semi-blind class IV, when it doubt run right.  The tough stuff is over at this point and the difficulty of the whitewater quickly fades with the gorge.

The left wall is worth paying attention to for the next mile as the marine deposit retains its grandeur but goes from a hard stone wall to a softer, sandier material the further downstream you go.  The whitewater is unremarkable and is manky if flows are low but it keeps moving along.  Near the end the walls disappear and there may be an easy log portage or two.  The runout is pretty long so if you are running short on daylight keep that pedal to the metal.

This isn't a classic whitewater run, but it's absolutely worth it and definitely a classic adventure run.  Osmosis Falls may be one of the finest rapids in Oregon.

If you are still feeling fired up at the end, keep your gear on and check out Falls City Falls again on your way out.
  

Flows:  Pat Welch has an online estimate, I usually look for 400-900 cfs with some buffer room (Iv'e gone as low as 200) for this section if flows are stable or dropping.  I avoid this river if flows are spiking.


When I get to Falls City I take a look at Falls City Falls to gauge flows for the run, located here: 44.867172, -123.438568

There are three rocks at the falls that can help you get an idea what kind of flows you have.  
-  If flows are going over the yellow (L) rock, you have enough water to paddle the river. 
-  If water is going over the blue (M) rock, you have good/medium flows.  
-  If water is going over the orange (H) rock, you have high water. 

Too Low

Runnable Low

This was taken at the lowest flow the gorge has been run, here is a video of Osmosis on that day.
The runout can be a bummer at low water.

Photo: Adam Edwards

Medium
Here is a video from a healthy medium flow.

High

I am not sure if it has been run this high, though I know the Lucas's (Glick and Rietmann) ran it pretty high once when they lived in Corvallis.  At the flow they were there they needed to portage Tough Luck from well upstream of the usual spot, keep that in mind if you want to push flow limits on this one.  I choose to stay away from this river if it's spiking, as it comes up fast, and there is always wood present.

Flood

I do not believe the gorge has been attempted at flood before. Here is a video of the falls at flood.

Access:   It is highly recommended you cache a map on your phone and bring it with you on the shuttle/hike since the road system is confusing and ever-changing.  At the very least bring a paper map.

Take Out: 44.869472, -123.510332

Put In parking: 44.869174, -123.556270

Driving into Falls City on Falls City Rd, you will pass the school and just as you reach the end of town stay right (left would take you over a bridge).  In 1/4 mile veer left onto Black Rock Rd, the road turns to gravel.  Follow Black Rock Rd 3.5 miles to a bridge and a white gate, passing by Camp Tapawingo and the world famous Black Rock Mt Biking area.  The bridge with the white gate is the take out.

**Whether the gate is open (on weekends during the hunting season) or closed (the rest of the time) dictates whether you are driving or hiking.**

                                 Photo taken during hunting season Oct 2016 at the take out bridge.

  There are three main routes to get to the put in, they are delineated by color in the following map.

The Little Luckiamute travels from West to East
Click image to magnify

And some details from the put in area.

I like this route when hiking in through the clear cut.  Start down the dominant ridge, then cross left to the secondary ridge when reasonable and follow that to the stream.

 

BLUE (3.3 mi): This route is the most direct, but it's steep and high profile as most of it is on the Black Rock Mainline.  From the take out stay on Black Rock Mainline for 2.3 miles before making a left onto a small spur road, 0.4 miles later make a right onto a very small spur.  Half a mile later park and begin the hike down.

YELLOW (4.5 mi):  This route is the longest, but much less steep and lower profile so I prefer it for hiking and really it is best to drive this road to minimize visibility.  There is nothing illegal about kayaking back there, and keeping a low profile is a great way to keep it that way.  In February 2019 the bridge over Black Rock Creek was washed out, within 100 yards of leaving Black Rock Mainline, so it was not possible to drive this route.  Work is being done to restore the bridge.Cross the bridge at the take out and turn left in 1/2 mile.  Continue 3.6 miles and always choose the main/flattest/most straight option (don't go into the helicopter camp).

PURPLE (4 mi):  If you miss the spur road off Black Rock Mainline, you can catch the next left to get to the put in.

*It's also possible to take a route on the other side of the river using Valsetz Rd, then hiking Fanno Peak (gated) to a spur to a bush whack that people have taken when the gate was closed, but I'm not going to explain that route here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Write-up

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had run this creek twice before, and hiked in a couple other times to scout.  After the first time I always knew I would return with the intention of running a beautiful 30' waterfall that was almost run blindly by Jeff Hartley on our first attempt of the creek.  That first time we were racing against darkness and had no time for a mishap or even to thoroughly scout the falls, sending us off into the woods for the portage.  The second time I returned, the water was low.  That second trip was about setting up ropes and scoping the run out for a return trip to run the falls with more flow and a softer landing.

On another trip Nate Pfeifer, Willy Dinsdale, and Brandon Bloomquist took me up on the idea to go back and check out the falls with the intent of running it.

We scouted the falls for awhile before Nate and Brandon decided to set safety for us, instead of running the falls which has a discouraging rock ten yards above the lip (gone in 2016).

I was concerned about the hit due to my tuck only making occasional appearances, but I really wanted to run the drop so decided to practice some mind over matter.  The lead in is a bit tricky so I was happy when my line went how I had envisioned.  I watched Willy have a great line as well only a few moments later making for a rewarding experience on the whole.

The team enjoys a special place!

(Photo Nate Pfeifer)

Nate Pfeifer did a write-up on the creek that can be viewed here.

2016 Update:  Catalyst and Osmosis are clean, the rock that was a nuisance just above the lip of Osmosis has rolled over and the alleyway leading into the falls is more straight forward as a result.

The following videos show the new configuration at Osmosis (0:50), and were taken at the best flow I have run the Little Luckiamute.

*Keep it muted at work or around the kids*

With Gusto from Difficult E on Vimeo.

This one also shows an alternate portage route at Tough Luck (3:00)

The wood situation was pretty good in 2019, just a couple easy portages in the class II-III stretch below the gorge.  The gorge was clean aside from Tough Luck.

Each year is different on this one as the levels get high, so wood cleans up or can land in bad places year to year.  I suppose that is all part of the adventure that is the Little Luckiamute.

     -Jacob

Dragon's Throat Revisited

(photo: Matt King)

The footage taken from the first descent of this drop was ruined by moisture, so I had hoped for awhile to get back up there and get some more. The time presented itself when my dad came down to school to see where I was living now and drop off some essentials. While eating lunch I decided we should head up there and look at that drop as it is a pretty cool spot and Macey (his dog) needed to get out and move around.

I figured as long as we were up there I would bring my boat and try to get some footage. To make a medium length story into a short story, the footage didn't turn out again... I guess I will need to go back yet again, but maybe it is destined that I will never get footage. Oh well, Matt and Nate took some great stills, so I will put the rest of those up today.

~Skipping back to the first descent~

Matt and Nate rallied down to meet me as I got out of classes for the day. I had been looking at this drop for quit some time and was ready to get it done. We drove the logging road up to the drop, went for a quick scout, then suited up.

Here I am scouting the drop.

(photo: Matt King)

The drop is pretty interesting, as it comes over a manmade structure in the form of four blocks narrowing the farther downstream they went. This resembled a set of teeth, and was the beginning of the Dragon reference. These we left unrun, as they landed in shallow water. Matt theorized that with a high enough flow, you could get speed and boof flat enough to avoid contact with the riverbed. Just below this is a lowhead structure (no hole) that begins a descent of about forty vertical feet over the course of 75 yards or so resembling the throat of the Dragon before it empties into a bit of an open pool (the belly you could say). The key is to get as left as possible in order to avoid crashing into the right wall halfway down. We all came close to the second pillow on the right on at least one of our runs, but this second pillow proved benign. The key is starting the slide in control, as it would be easy to get spun backwards. Once the slide is started, it is all about working left and controlling any bounces. It looks like at one point there is a six foot drop onto a slab of bedrock, but none of us took any sort of hit whilst running the drop.

Here I am below the "teeth" loading up for the first go at the drop.

(photo: Matt King)

The effort pays off as I careen down the Dragon's Throat.

(photo: Matt King)

Nate takes his turn dropping into the belly of the beast.

(photo: Matt King)

We all had really clean lines and a good time. We continued downstream for a quarter mile, but I would advise against this in the future. On my return trip we set up a rope and pulled the boat out on river eft just below the drop and this was very simple.

Speaking of the return trip, I ended up having an interesting line my first go of the day, trying to get too far left, my nose caught a shallow section and spun me sideways. Just about to drop off the steepest part of the drop, I spun backwards and rode it out as such. I was already far enough left however to avoid the right wall. I then hiked back up and had a much cleaner second line.

A couple shots head on of the drop.

Nate from the bottom.

Myself from the bottom, most of the way down.

(photo: Nate Merrill)

If anyone would like to take a look at/run this drop feel free to contact me and I'll point you in the right direction, but for various reasons I am going to keep the exact location off the internet. It is less than an hour from Salem.

A parting shot.

(photo: Matt King)

-Jacob

Before/between/after class paddles at WOU

Following is a list of after/between-class runs I utilized while attending school at Western Oregon University.

-Little Luckiamute (Camp Tapawingo to Falls City Falls)  Mostly II-III with one or two class IVs that get rowdy at high flows.  There is an odd braided island at the beginning of the gradient.  The channels change regularly at this islandy part, sometimes they go, sometimes not.

-Luckiamute  (About 12 miles upstream of Valley of the Kings) The first mile is pretty action packed III-IV depending on the flow.  The first mile is the best, followed by some easy floating.  There is also a nice ledge rapid just above one of the take outs that has an anthropogenic channel cut around it, presumably for the fish.

-Rickreall Creek. (Starting 1 mile above no trespassing sign on Martin road into the park in Dallas Oregon)  One class III-IV rapid and some interesting II-III.  A fair bit of bedrock for such a low gradient run, word is all the logs they used to send down the creek when that was standard logging operation practice scoured the creek to it's base.

All of these are mediocre runs with wood present (typically none to one portages), but i have enjoyed them all none the less, and none were too much work to keep from returning often (while I lived close by).  While two of those runs do make it into the back of guidebooks, the info is limited so you get the joy of figuring out the nuances for yourself.

Last week my roommates joined me on one of my adventures to Rickreall creek to film and see what kayaking is. I also needed to tune-up a few things for the little White, not sure if this creek really provided the best opportunity for that but it's what was available after class.

This is a short clip of me trying to have as much fun as possible on a class 2 creek.

There is a sign in the video that clearly states no trespassing. I have talked with the city of Dallas and they allow hikers, bikers, hiking kayakers, etc. up this road, just no vehicles except during the month of November.

Rickreall Creek Oregon from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.
*mob rules is actually by black Sabbath, not the doors.

-Jacob