Boulder Creek: Idanha/Detroit

Beta

Stream:  This is a short but sweet stream near Detroit.  Nearly all the notable rapids have some bedrock component with an unusual amount (for Oregon) of scoured down bedrock slides and ledges.  Wood is present, but if you pick the right routes there are no portages (as of Spring 2016, and still clean in Winter 2019).   I usually do a couple laps when I'm up there, going slow and scouting the first time, saw in hand, then taking a second lap straight through.

Typical Boulder Creek

After a short 1/4 mile hike along a game trail and a short off-trail descent to the creek (easy to follow in 2019) the trip begins immediately with a section of fun bedrock rapids.  It's probably best to shore scout anything blind rather than read and run your first time down if no one knows the run.

After the initial barrage of bedrock there is a short manky section before things return to bedrock.  Enjoy these fun slides but tread cautiously as about halfway down and around a blind right turn lies the largest rapid, The Venue.  You need to scout before turning the corner or run center moving right at this short horizon line.  Scouting/portaging/lapping is all convenient on river right.

The Venue

Photo: Nick Hymel

*There is another corner above this one that seems like it could be the lead in to "The Venue", but isn't.

There are only a couple of small rapids between The Venue and Hallpass.    The line at Hallpass is to enter right-ish and run the ledge/hole at the bottom center, keeping your nose up.  The move is not too challenging but that hole is backed up and should be taken seriously even though it's not a visually impressive rapid.  Safety is tricky but can be set.

Hallpass

Below here are more fun rapids, of all sorts.  It can be a bit blind and fast paced, but when wood free is all good fun.

The bedrock ends abruptly just upstream of an island with a large log blocking the right channel.

From here, you have a couple options.

Option 1:  You can continue working your way downstream.  There is some wood to be dealt with, and the class III whitewater is all bouldery.  If you are going for this route, my recommendation is to scout out the situation while running shuttle by walking upstream from the bridge on the overgrown road to scope out the Trash Collector, this small but problematic area will be obvious when you see it, a short distance upstream of the abandoned silo.

Option 2:  Take out before the island with the log.  There is a walk-able road on river right that leads to Hwy 22 near the bridge.

Option 3:  Regardless of whether you took option 1 or 2, you can continue down to the North Santiam.  Just be sure to look around the corner from the bridge over Boulder Creek before you paddle around that corner.

Once on the North Santiam it's a splashy class III big water ride down to the next bridge.

Flows:  Our reconnaissance trips were done with the Blowout Creek gauge (The most relevant I believe) at just over 200 cfs,  North Santiam blw Boulder Creek between 1500-2000 cfs, and the Brietenbush Gauge around 1,000 cfs.  That was a safe level for exploring Boulder Creek's blind corners and long slides with small eddies, but was hard on boats and that's not a flow I go back for.

Iv'e been back at 350 on the Blowout Creek gauge when it rained the night before and had good flows.

Iv'e also run the creek at 700 and dropping when it hadn't rained the entire previous day and it was in but lower than the day at 350.

The best flow was 600 after a night of rain, and you could go higher.

It just speaks to the fact that the ballpark gauge is just that, a ballpark.  If you aim for 500 cfs in Blowout, give or take a couple hundred after a night of rain your chances for enjoyable flows are good.


The good news is you can get a visual check before putting on.  For our 2016 trips, water was just barely spilling into the trough on creek left under the Hwy 22 bridge.  For a good medium flow, water was spilling over the rectangular support indicated below. The riverbed is comprised of boulders here, so don't be surprised if the streamed changes and this reference becomes obsolete.

*The creek will look low from the bridge, but if it looks like you can float your boat down here the creek should be at a good level.  

Below is a visual guide to the visual gauge.

Exploratory flow: No water over rectangular support, but water is splashing into the trough.
March 6, 2016
Blowout Creek Gauge:  220 cfs

A fun, low level:  Water pulsing over the rectangular support.

April 28, 2017

Blowout Creek Gauge:  350 cfs

Medium:  Water spilling consistently over rectangular support.
March 11, 2017
Blowout Creek Gauge: 600 cfs

The Gist:

•  If there is water on the rectangular support, there is enough water for the creek to be fun. 
•  High flows are undetermined. 
•  If water is not getting onto the rectangular support, you may still be able to run the creek if water is getting into the trough, but it will be scrapey.

After 5 trips to this creek, it's probably my favorite backyard style run in Oregon.

Access:  Take highway 22 east out of Salem up to the town of Detroit.  Within 5 minutes of passing Detroit you will cross the bridge over Boulder Creek (signed) near the town of Idanha.  This serves as a place to leave a take out vehicle, check the water level, and scope out the Trash Collector.  If you want to continue down the North Santiam, turn right onto Blowout Creek Rd and follow it to a bridge 2 miles after passing Detroit.

Photo pulled from google maps street view

To get to the put in return 0.3 miles toward the town of Detroit on highway 22 from the Boulder Creek bridge and turn right onto Boulder Ridge Rd/NF-2231.  Travel 1.3 miles up this paved road to where it makes a sharp 180 degree turn to the left.  Park near a yellow road sign before the turn and locate an overgrown road going off to the right, at the start of the 180 degree turn (50 yards past the sign).  The trail was well marked in 2019 and easy to follow.

If you are reading this in the future and the trail is no longer in good shape, here is the general path:  Walk the short distance along the overgrown road and follow the path of least resistance as it drops down from the road grade, then heads upstream quickly reaching an old game or logging trail at the far end of a scree slope.  After about 1/6 mile on this trail, it splits at a small ridge.  Take the steeper left trail over this ridge.  For the most part the path has up to this point been close to flat, but about 100 yards after the ridge the trail gets steep, then very steep, at this point* veer off the trail to the right and follow the path of least resistance upstream (more or less maintaining elevation) over to another small ridge that is followed down to the creek.  In 2019 the trail was all easy to follow.

*Where to leave the trail,  from here cross-hill to the next nose of land and follow that down.

  Put In   44.71, -122.0697

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Boulder Creek reconnaissance 

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It took three trips, but we finally got the logistics figured out for this run.  My first trip up there I didn't expect the creek to have any water and was just going to scout, but John Harmon sent me a couple photos from the take out bridge after he got off the nearby Bruno Mountain run on the North Santiam the day before.  Looking at those photos I thought that maybe it might just barely be runnable so brought my rock boat just in case and planned on meeting Steve Tegtmeyer to run the Breitenbush if the new creek wasn't runnable.  I scouted around a bit and saw a couple fun looking sections so when Steve Tegtmeyer showed up, we talked it over and we decided to give it a go.  He and I had a nice trip, but flows were at exploratory levels and we put in below some of the good stuff.  We had a couple portages near the end, so i decided to take out a little earlier the next time.  

The second time there was a much larger group consisting of Ross George, Brandon Lake, Nick Hymel, Pete Giordano, Ben Mckenzie, Jesse Shapiro and myself.  That time we decided to put in as high as we could float a boat in order to suss out the entire stream.  We did that, with the upper section leap frogging between fun bedrock rapids and wood portages.  It was a trying day, and the fatigue eventually caught up to us in the form of a dislocated shoulder in Hallpass.  The information we gleaned from this trip provided the knowledge needed to get logistics dialed for return trips to this unique run.

Hiking in on the information gleaning mission.

I made a mistake about which spur road to hike in on despite having the correct information relayed to me.  This meant we carried our boats further than necessary, dropping in on a tributary, meaning we began our trip with a couple extra portages.

There was some fun stuff in the upper reaches, but there were about as many portages as good rapids.

If this looks like fun, the upper section might just be your cup of tea.  

photo: Nick Hymel

Eventually we made our final portage and had over a mile of fun bedrock rapids, some of which are visible on google imagery, which is what got me excited about the creek in the first place.

Halfway down the lower stretch we arrived at The Venue.  Here there is a nice platform on the right where you can watch the show, from which you can then decide if you want to be a part of the show.  

Nick Hymel, center-stage

*The Venue comes around a blind right corner that looks like the rest of the creek.  If you turn the corner, you will be running the drop blind.  Look for a couple small eddies on the right just before the turn with green flagging and a root wad on shore.

A short distance below The Venue lies Hallpass, where fatigue combined with a rocky lead-in to a backed up hole led to a swim and dislocated shoulder on our reconnaissance mission.  Impressively the boater with the dislocated shoulder, who is no stranger to pain, paddled the rest of the run after popping the shoulder back in himself.

Hallpass

Downstream were a few more fun rapids before the take out we have been using.  It is at the end of a long bedrock sliding rapid that splits at an island where the right channel has more water and ends in a ledge (there are a number of spots on the run that fit this description).  Just below here the creek bends right with a couple eddies on the left along a wall.  From one of these eddies ferry over to river right where there is a convenient take out.  Downstream of here is a small log spanning the creek as the stream transitions to boulders for the duration of its course.  From the take out eddy you can walk downstream and away from the creek to a flat area which can be followed a short ways downstream to the take out.  Or you can paddle/portage the final 100 yards of the creek to the bridge.

Nick took some helmet cam footage during the reconnaissance mission that I put together.

For round three, I was able to locate an ideal put in that provides the most bang for your buck; with no portages and many bedrock slides and rapids including both of the named rapids.    If you are looking for a longer day, you can walk from the take out described above on creek right down to the North Santiam River and get about a mile of splashy class III down to the Blowout Creek Rd bridge.  There is a nice wave just above the bridge on river left that is fun to surf at the levels required to run Boulder Creek.   The turn off to this bridge is about 1 mile back towards Detroit from the highway 22 bridge over Boulder Creek.

Trip two (photos from this report) was on March 6th, 2016


I think the Blowout Creek gauge will reflect flows the best in Boulder Creek.

I would recommend a slow first lap to figure things out, then a second, faster lap.  Or combine this run with Sardine Creek, French, Brietenbush, Secret Stash, Cedar, Bruno Mt, Opal stuff, etc.

          -jacob

North Santiam

My opinion of the North Santiam used to be one of lackluster.  It was something we did in the summer when nothing else was running.  I viewed it as having one rapid and some easy floating and a disproportionally long portage around a dam at the end was a buzzkill. It was better than not boating, but my admiration ended there.

This summer a couple things changed that made it more enjoyable for me.  First, I started bringing my playboat.  This made each rapid fun as there are always eddy lines and what not to play around in.    Next, we started taking a lunch break at Niagara where we cliff jumped or checked out the short gorge on Sevenmile Creek.  The final thing we did was start running the dam.  Last year there was a log in it that made the move tough, and with a hellacious hole in the middle it was a risk I only took once.  Now that the log is gone, low summer flows allow for an easy slide on the far left, negating the need for the obnoxious portage on the right.

Nick made a video of our most recent trip this summer, where his brother Alex tried out hard shelling for his 3rd time (yellow Nomad in the video).  He hit two combat rolls, surfed his way out of a hole that had stopped him, and learned to boof.  Needless to say we were all very impressed!



North Santiam-Low Stress Summer Playground from IKNick on Vimeo.


DISCLAIMER:   Do not run the dam if you are not able to analyze its hazards and/or have the ability to see and execute the line down the far left side of the structure.  The hydraulic in the middle is capable of lethal consequences.  One story amongst the community is of a raft that recycled in the hydraulic for over two weeks before it was shot full of holes so that it would flush.

Whitewater Creek: The low hanging fruit

With a name like Whitewater Creek, easy access off a major HWY, spring flows and no beta we should have known it would be a suffer fest.

I was planning to paddle the creek on my own so that the suffering was applied to the fewest people possible.  In the end I decided to invite Willy Dinsdale as he had mentioned wanting to check out this creek before.

Willy and his brother Ben met me after work and we drove on up towards Detroit.

The result was pretty predictable.

It started out on a steep tributary with very little water, like a luge course just wide enough for a boat, dropping 250' in half a mile or so. Eventually we decided it was more convenient to leave the track and walk our boats through the woods to a confluence. From this point on the wood increased substantially and there was enough push now to make it hazardous. The Dinsdales are capable boaters, and appear to lack fear.  Following them down this stream was about as uncomfortable as I had ever been on a creek up to this point. We knew light was going to be an issue and these guys took that to heart.  I was following them under and over logs, ducking only to turn a blind corner and do it all again.  There were probably a dozen corners I would have scouted if these guys hadn't just kept cruising around them.  After watching how well they worked together, I became quit confident if things went wrong they would be able to take care of whatever situation came up.

This proved true when they both boofed a sketchy looking log and I followed.  I was following too close so when one of them got hung up I needed to slow and back paddle (push against the gravel) in order not to run into him, as I had passed by the last eddy.  Once he cleared the log I didn't quite get back up to speed as I approached the manuever.   Boofing the first log, I landed on the second log as a third log became dislodged and I slid back into the gap between the two original logs.  I leaned into the downstream log and within a few seconds the front half of my boat was shoved under the log, and while my head was well above water I was pretty well stuck and couldn't see over the large log I was wedged against.   Before any plan to escape had come to mind Ben had ahold of the tail of my boat and yanked me out of there.  By the end of the day we had all gone through something similar to that.

I was continually impressed by these guys as they would paddle straight at log jams, yanking their skirt just before contact and leaping onto the jam before turning and pulling the other guy out, shortening the length of each portage.  I generally took out a few yards upstream of these situations, and resigned myself to the extra portage distances.

At one point Ben got pinned and swam, his boat lodged itself under a log.  It was in there pretty good and completely submerged, being that it was nearly dark, I was looking around for the easiest way up to the road to bail out of there.  After 30 seconds or so I looked over and the brothers were jumping up and down on the boat in the middle of the creek/logjam.  I decided I clearly had a thing or two to learn from these guys, as I wouldn't have considered what they were doing as an option worth pursuing.  And sure enough, 15 minutes later the boat was out and we were back on our way.  The catch was by this point the sun had set and we were no longer able to see well.  After what felt to me like some sketchy log maneuvers in the dark they bought into my plan of hiking along the bank for a bit, but it was slow going and Willy had a busted foot, so after a few minutes he decided to get back in and continue on in his boat.  Ben hiked with me for awhile longer, but it was starting to become futile, on one 30 yard section literally took us 5 minutes.  A couple times I would get my boat stuck in a tree and couldn't figure out how to get it unstuck (because I couldn't see it).  In the darkest parts with the most tree coverage, I was unable to see my hand in front of my face.

Ben made a case for putting back on, at least out there we would get some refracted light on occasion.  I didn't like the idea, but agreed that hiking wasn't turning out to be fruitful.  So we put back on and in two separate occasions I crashed into an unseen log at chest level.  Both times I was able to work myself free without flipping over, butI was clearly working with credit on the luck front.  Eventually I was just no longer willing to risk the river and though Ben was more interested in floating into the logs rather than walking into them, he was willing to hit the bank one last time.  Turns out we were pretty close at this point and within ten minutes we reached the bridge!

Ben and Willy headed off to get the shuttle vehicle and I waited with the gear.  Making a fort with two boats and Ben's drysuit, I was able to fall asleep a couple times but was getting pretty uncomfortable by the time the brothers returned.  The put in road had been so small Willy had walked right by it on the way up!

By the time we got back to the main HWY it was 11:30pm.


So now Iv'e got some fond memories to reflect upon each time I cross Whitewater Creek while taking Hwy 22 to Bend.


   -Jacob

EF Rock Creek: The Rock

all photos by Emile Elliot unless otherwise marked.

  This run has a rave review on Oregonkayaking and I had heard promising things from others who had tried to run the creek.  We had some water this weekend and decided to finally see "The Rock" for ourselves.  Access is pretty easy following the description on Oregonkayaking, the only tricky part for us was locating the take out trail, but Alex saved us from getting skunked (for now) by spotting it on our way out.  We put in at the bridge and dealt with a handful of log portages and a hornets nest that found Alex's neck and Nate's hip.  Alex hiked out at this point, a few more portages later Nate joined him.  Emile and I got to the falls and found a really clean, fun looking drop with some sketchy logs in the outflow.  We decided to wait for the logs to evacuate the pool before returning and running this drop.  We hiked to the road to communicate with Nate and Alex and decided to continue on regardless of the likelihood of a torture fest.  We portaged two parts of Sluice box due to wood, but the parts we ran were fun.

 The sequence of myself running the bottom of Sluice Box. 

 The bedrock drops we ran that lacked wood were fun in a unique kind of way.  They were very low consequence that were run right down the middle.  Just sort of paddle to the top and then enjoy!  Unfortunately, most of the drops had wood and there were times I felt we were just walking along the creek until we saw a drop we could run, running it, then resuming our never-ending trudge along the bank.  By the time we got to Damage Inc we were more than over the creek, but there was still lots of work to be done so we did it.  It was nice to see the take out.

The altered, then altered again Damage Inc.           
 

 Getting back in below.

This run would be totally worth doing if it lacked wood like back when the Oregonkayaking team was running it, I really liked the style of the drops.  Unfortunately it is unlikely this run will ever return to form without some help.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were over 100 pieces of wood in the stream contributing to a portage with many more on the banks waiting their turn.  As is, the park and huck of the falls is likely all that is left of a past gem.

Ghris Gabrielli launches big off Nutcracker!

photo EJ Etherington

Flows:

The gauge mentioned on Oregonkayaking has been discontinued.  Thomas is close by though so here is the flows on Thomas on days the EF Rock Creek has been run. Shooting for 1,000 cfs or more in Thomas Creek seems to be a good bet.

THOMAS CREEK NEAR SCIO GAGE

 This is the flow we had, on October 28, 2012. I'd go back again at the same level.

These are the flows OregonKayaking had.

Compare below the same days on Rock Creek (from the OK trip report) and Thomas gauges.

The Shafer creek Near Lacomb gauge is also a gauge on note.  It's a little further away, but the size of the stream is similar to EF Rock and has same elevation, even the same drainage shape.  50-100 cfs is probably the medium range to shoot for on that gauge.  The OK guys ran it at 100 cfs dropping to 50 cfs on that gauge and flows were good, then again at 70-60 and had good flows.  We had 90-60 cfs and it was in.













           -Jacob

Tube Scouting

I haven't posted anything for awhile, so here is some tubing.





   -Jacob

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County Teaser #2



   -Jacob

Little North Santiam: Opal Gorge

Photo: Matt King


BETA

Stream: Most people do this run as an extension of the Classic Opal stretch, but locals do it as a stand-alone run all the time if they are looking for a shorter trip.  Either way you start this section at Three Pools.  It is easy to walk up to the top of Thor's along a short trail to get some action in right away.

The stream exits the Pool at the base of Thor's and goes around an island.  At low flows both sides are rocky, right is the standard route.  The next mile is class II and gives you a chance to get warmed up.  The entrance to the gorge is obvious as the walls rise up and a rapid presents itself.  This is the longest, yet least challenging rapid of the section.  You can run the entrance wherever, though I like to stay along the right bank.  The lines converge near the bottom and a boulder in the center of the river creates a ledge.  At low and high flows it is best to boof off the left edge of this boulder (covered at high flows) and at medium flows it is fun to boof off the right shoulder of it.

This lands you in the calm pool above the Mystery AKA the Un/Un (unscoutable/unportageable).  The standard line is 6 inches off the left wall at the lip, pointed towards 1 o clock and letting your nose drop.  If you have the correct angle a shelf will shoot you out cleanly into the aerated pool below.  Angled too far left or right and you will likely receive a glancing blow from either wall before being shot out into the pool below.  
The right channel gets run too, but not as often.  There is even a middle boof at high flows as well.

                                               A right side run of Mystery AKA the Un/Un at very low flows.

                                                              Photo: Lucas Rietmann

There is a small ledge below here that develops a respectable hole at high flows before another calm pool.  The next horizon line is the Undertaker, as far as I know this drop has been run once at 5,000 cfs (by Willy Dinsdale) and portaged by every other boater who has ever run this stretch of river.  The left side portage is quicker, but there are about 5' of this exposed portage that are slippery and this keeps a lot of people who would otherwise enjoy the run from paddling Opal Gorge.  I don't want to tell people it's no big thing, and it's true that if you fell it would likely be the end of you, but lots of people have made the portage without issue and most of them are more than willing to repeat the trip.   The decision is always yours, and if you really get freaked out you can always attain back upstream to get to the river-right portage at med-low flows and below.  At 6.5' on the Elkhorn gage and above, the Undertaker should be portaged on the right. 


                                                                             Don't fall

                                                                       Photo: Matt King

                     Eric Foster-Moore is all smiles after passing the crux of the Undertaker portage.

                                                                  Photo: Matt King

There is another boulder just below the Undertaker (Tombstone Rock) that can be run on either side so long as you are driving strongly back to center.

The next rapid is Unicorn, a long Boulder Garden that is entered on the center/right and then run down the main/center channel the rest of the way.

A moving pool separates the runout of Unicorn from Henline Rapid which can be scouted from the right at normal flows and left or right at low flows.  Lines exist far right and far left, avoiding the center of the rapid (where most of the current funnels) at the top and bottom.  There is an undercut bottom-left that makes me squeamish here at low flows, but it is covered at normal flows.


                                                Brian Butcher runs left at Henline Rapid.

                                                           Photo: Lucas Rietmann

The next horizon is the Sierra Slot, which used to have a boof on the right but things seemed to have changed a bit and that line seems to flip people onto their head.  The new standard line is the same as the old, running the right channel driving hard left with a right stroke into a fold that can rinse out the sinuses but lands in a forgiving pool.

Below here you are free of the gorge, a half mile of class II leads to the last portage at Elkhorn Falls.  If you look at this rapid and decide it looks like something you may want to run (main line or sneak), first walk out onto the finger of rock creating a pinch in the outflow and see for yourself how much of the river actually flows under there.  The portage is ultra easy on the left.

                                Michael Freeman making the first move of Elkhorn Falls at flows under the            .                                                    recommended flow range (still a class V rapid).

                                                             Photo: Lucas Rietmann

A half mile downstream is the Elkhorn bridge with a staff gauge underneath on river right.  I generally like taking out at the Elkhorn bridge these days as it avoids another mile of class I and flatwater down to Salmon Falls, the other take out option.  

That said, Salmon Falls is a good drop, and if you have never paddled it before I would encourage you to paddle down to it and make up your own mind about whether it's worth the flat water or not.

Salmon Falls can be scouted thoroughly along a retaining wall on river-left, you won't be able to see much from river-right.   For me, if levels are below 1,000 cfs I choose to portage the lead in to Salmon Falls and seal launch at the lip.  Over 1,500 cfs the center to left line Rick Cooley demonstrates below is most appealing.  At 1,000-1,500 cfs I usually take out at the Elkhorn bridge.  

                                                                     Photo: Matt King

Then there are those who try the far left lead-in to Salmon Falls, some of these people even manage to go over the main drop upright. 

                                                             Photo: Lucas Rietmann

  
Flows:  400-2,000 cfs on the Little North Fork Santiam Gauge is the range I am comfortable with; ideal first time flows on the Elkhorn Gauge are 5-6'.  At 6.5' and above the Elkhorn gage, the right side portage at Undertaker should be used.

If you are a well-traveled class V boater, I have heard 3,000 cfs and stable or dropping is a magical level to do Classic Opal through Opal Gorge.  Though I can't recommend that flow to anyone who doesn't already know the gorge.  At this level Mystery is run center, and the Undertaker needs to be portaged on the right.

Locals have done the run up to 5,000 cfs, some of them have regretted that decision while others have had a great time. 


Access:  Take I5 to Salem and head East on Highway 22 towards Detroit Reservoir.  In about 22 miles turn left at a flashing yellow light onto N Fork Rd. 14 miles after turning off Hwy 22 you pass Salmon Falls, which is the lower take out.  To use the upper take out continue upstream 1 mile and park your vehicle at the intersection of Elkhorn Rd (which leads promptly to the take out bridge) and N Fork Rd.  At the end of the day you can walk to your car and drive it down to the bridge to load gear, but locals don't like boaters leaving vehicles at the bridge all day. 

From either take out continue upstream on N Fork Rd to get to the put in, after a few miles the road turns to gravel.  Just under 2 miles after this happens you will make a sharp right onto a road marked by a kiosk and some boulders that leads downhill.  Just under a mile after making this turn, pull right into the paved Three Pools day use area (not signed in 2015).  Stairs at the far end of the parking lot lead down to the put in.

Notes:   Iv'e been asked a couple times how to scout Mystery before putting on, since it can't be done once on the water.  This is how Iv'e done it.    
 -    After crossing the bridge over Henline Creek, the road will go uphill slightly for a couple hundred yards or so, when it switches to going downhill look for a place to pull out on the right near the crest of the hill.   Walk perpendicular away from the road straight towards the Little North Santiam, you will reach some cliffs overlooking the gorge.  If you poke around for awhile, you will be able to see whether the left side of Mystery is clear.    44.840054, -122.332117

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Original Write-up
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Well, Matt and crew seemed to have a lot of fun on Opal Gorge a couple weeks ago, so Nate and I decided we would head back for each of our second runs down this PNW classic. I had to be back to class that evening, so we met at the Swiss Village restaurant at 10am. I was a little apprehensive about the drizzle (the conventional wisdom in 2010 was not to do the gorge if it was raining). Nate had done the left side portage before and was confident it would be manageable. Plus, if it was really that bad, we figured we would just do the right side portage.

We put in and putted around the put-in pool for a couple minutes, then were on our way. The class II went by quick, then we were at the first boulder garden.  This boulder garden is a good skill check, if you feel comfortable on this drop the rest of the run will be within your ability but maybe a half class harder.

This put us in the pool above the Un-Un. I didn't feel like hanging out here thinking too long, so caught the final eddy for a peak, didn't see much, then dropped over the left side where a quick reconnect propelled me into the pool below (don't boof).  Nate joined shortly after with a similar line.

After the next small drop we eddied out on the left above the Undertaker. When I had portaged on the right side, the drop looked runnable (as in Tyler Bradt or Eric Boomer runnable). This time I got a better look and I no longer think that.

*This drop has been run, at around 5,000 cfs by Willy Dinsdale a flow high enough for the sieve to get partially covered*

When we got to the portage, Nate and I walked the route first without boats to suss things out.  Instead of the friction climbing, mountain goat, totally gripped tightrope walk I was expecting, we found a manageable, if exposed, portage route. We did pass the boats to each other at one spot to be safe. The issue is definitely the fact that IF you were to slip and fall, you would have very close to zero chances of living.

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At the time this video was shot (a time before GoPro!) you can tell we were taking the portage awfully seriously.  After finding it a manageable affair even in the rain on this trip, the stigma of the portage was broken for me.  While I still take the portage seriously, I am no longer apprehensive about it and have returned over 25 times to paddle through what has become one of my favorite gorges.

Level was about 650 in the video, which is a friendly level.

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Opal Gorge from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

Here is another video half a decade later that shows the left side portage route at Undertaker, with the gauge reading 500 cfs or so.

After the run we scouted access to Evans Creek, a nearby waterfall studded creek that I have concluded after a return trip to canyoneer is not something I need to kayak other than maybe the last 1/4 mile for novelties sake some day.  Then it was back to class, Opal Gorge is a place to see if you are a boater in Oregon.

-Jacob

Little North Santiam: Upper Opal

Photo: Priscilla Macy


BETA

Stream: Upper Opal is similar to the Classic run, but a little more serious and involves a hike instead of a walk to the put in.  The full run begins in Jawbone Flats, though sometimes people get tired of carrying their boat and put in at Sawmill Falls/Cascadios Los Ninos.

It's worth making the push up to Jawbone at least once, if just to check out out the town.  At the confluence of Battle Axe Creek and Opal Creek Proper (visible from Jawbone), the Little North Santiam River is formed and this is the beginning of the Upper Opal run.  There is some easy floating up here as the stream carves through one of the most beautiful portions of Oregon.  The whitewater quickly picks up and one seven foot horizon line (worth a look on your hike up) presents a fun slide.   

Less than 1/4 mile after passing under a bridge, the horizon line at Sawmill Falls/Cascadios De Los Ninos presents itself.  Most people scout on the left where there is an easy walking route if you wish to portage or do laps.  At first glance this appears to be a straight forward falls, and at medium levels and up it is.  However as levels drop you start to realize there are shallow spots all over the place on this falls so scout carefully.  Far right and far left are the worst.  The higher the level the less likely one is to land on a rock.

Alan Bergman right on target.  If flows are much below 1,100 cfs, there is a real chance of landing on a rock (under the veil in the photo) here too.  The boof flake marked by the orange arrow is good to go at all flows, though lining it up can be tricky so again, scout this drop thoroughly at all levels.

The whitewater picks up below Sawmill/Cascadios De Los Ninos though it never reaches true class V at the recommended levels.  At high flows there may be a couple rapids you would be forced to run blind that the typical Opal Creek boater would rather portage, so I'd stick with between 700-2,000 cfs unless you know the run well.

Below Sawmill/Cascadios De Los Ninos there is some scenic floating.  When things pick back up there will be some read and run and then a blind rapid with some large boulders that can be scouted and run on the left (second photo in this report).

The very next rapid is the nearly must-run Harvey Wallbanger.  Eddy out along the left bank (entering the island on the right side will dictate running the rapid blind) and walk downstream to take a peak for wood.  

                                       Looking down into Harvey Wallbanger from the scout.

There are no big moves in Harvey Wallbanger, just stay right and keep your boat pointed downstream.  There are two soft holes in the narrow bottom portion of the rapid, but I have never seen them give anyone trouble.

Jesse Shapiro lining up the two narrow holes.

                                                              Photo: Lucas Rietmann

Most people catch an eddy on the left just below these two holes and before the exit move.  For the exit move paddlers build up as much speed as can be mustered and ride a strong left stroke through a plucky hole into an alleyway.  It is possible to set safety here on the left side.  There is a large pool below in the event of a swim though for what it is worth, I have never seen anyone have trouble here.

                                                                  Ross George pulls through.

                                                                                Photo: Lucas Rietmann

The river gorges up again a short ways downstream for another fun rapid, both channels are fun, I try to stay off the far left wall though.   A short ramp below leads out of the gorge and attentive boaters will soon notice road abutments high on the right and get ready for Coyle's Boil.  The stream builds from class II-III along a river-right boulder bar here, as it turns back to the right there is a steep III+ rapid leading right into Coyle's Boil (portaged more often than not).  You must catch one of the eddies at the base of the III+ before going over the short drop that is Coyle's Boil.  People generally catch the river right one, then ferry over to river left to portage.

Eric Adsit ferries from river right to river left just above Coyle's Boil, with the III+ rapid visible just upstream.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

The line at Coyle's Boil.  

This one gets more runnable as levels increase above 1,000 cfs.

                                                                                  Photo: Priscilla Macy


The portage is short and easy on the left.  If you are the curious type, check out the mine shaft on river left.  You can make your way some distance back there.

                                                                                 Photo: Lucas Rietmann


There is a ledge just below Coyle's Boil that looks like it has a sweet boof on the right, do not take that line as it lands on a rock with face-rearranging capabilities.  Instead run center-right or center-left, it's worth a quick scout for the smoothest line if you don't have a guide.

A hundred yards of easy water lead to the final ledge.  If levels are up I recommend scraping down the shallow right side of the ledge.  If levels are lower check out the left side "Hypoxia Hole".

Take out in the pool below this ledge on the right and walk the road back up to the gate, or continue through Classic Opal.  Ambitious boaters with an early start sometimes try for Total Opal (Jawbone through Salmon Falls) by tacking on Opal Gorge.
  


Flows:  If you are showing yourself down this run without a guide for the first time my recommendation is 800-2,000 cfs in the Little North Santiam at Mehama.

5.3 on the Elkhorn Gauge is my low-end cutoff for Upper Opal.

Access:  Take I5 to Salem and head East on Hwy 22.  In about 22 miles turn left at a flashing yellow light onto N Fork Rd.  In about 15 miles the road turns to gravel, and at 21 miles you will reach a gate where you leave the vehicles, a location that has a $5 fee to park.  You will walk back to the this gate at the end of the day if you are only doing Upper Opal (this is rare, most people continue through Classic Opal).

If you are continuing through Classic Opal or Opal Gorge, refer to those pages for other take out options. 

To get to the put in from the gate, carry your boat past the locked gate up the gravel road about 3 miles to Jawbone Flat along a nice gravel road.  Put in wherever is clever in town, I usually choose to put in at the bridge over Battle Axe Creek.

Some people who tire of carrying their boat put in at Sawmill Falls/Cascadios De Los Ninos, which is an obvious feature about 2 miles into the hike.