Salmon River Gorge; SRG

Beta

Stream:   This is one of the better adventures in Oregon.  Oregon Kayaking has a good history of the run that makes for interesting reading.

Exploring the Salmon River Canyon prior to the first descent

Salmon Canyon, fourth known descent

Salmon Canyon; First no portage descent

Salmon Canyon; Complete Guide


It is well described there, so I'll keep my info concise.

Either hike up from the bottom six miles or run shuttle and hike two miles.  The two times I ran SRG I did the shuttle.  The ideal situation is the shuttle with a shuttler driver.

Either way, hike to the meadow at this location and traverse the bottom of a small cliff to pick up a faint trail down the ridge-line to the stream.  The first drop is Split Falls and is the most straight forward drop on the run.  It's a fun and stress-free drop.

Portage the next small boulder garden on the left (though it has been run), then catch the next available eddy on the right for a seal launch portage.  Below the seal launch there is a fair bit of class II until you arrive at Little Niagara.  Scout on the right, run center finishing left with a strong boof to avoid a shelf in the center and a cave behind the drop on the left.

Just downstream is Vanishing Falls, which gets portaged more often than ran.  Usually via a throw and go on the right, make sure you jump past the shelf into the deep water in the middle of the channel.  Be organized here as just downstream is a sticky ledge you don't want gear or people floating into.

Matt King has a good line off Vanishing Falls

Scout the exit ledge on the right, it's a sticky hole and the safety situation isn't perfect.  However if you are right and keep your nose up it's pretty easy to clear the hole.  I haven't heard of anyone having issues here even though it's scary looking.

A short bit of easy floating and a couple small ledges lead you to a narrow and beautiful hallway leading up to Frustration Falls.  What an incredible place.

Scout the first tier of Frustration in the middle if the log bridge is still there, it falls off to the left harder than it might appear.  If flows are good its a great boof.  The channel on the left just below the landing zone exits via a nasty sieve, don't go over there.

Scout the second and third tier's from the right side, usually done before running the first tier but not always.  The second tier has a reputation of being weird and hard to run well, so some people seal launch in right above the final 30-40' drop.   The wall downstream is undercut, but no one has run into trouble there yet.

Looking over the lip of the final drop in Frustration.

Exiting this pool is the limiting flow factor on the run.  The far left channel lands in the narrow exit to the pool.  It can be a challenging fight at normal flows, and impossible at high flows.

It is possible to portage Frustration Falls on the right.

Next up is a twenty footer usually run leftish.  Then catch an eddy on the right to deal with Final Falls.  There is a tiny tree some people repel off of, or you can jump.  People jumping from the repel point have hit bottom before, so I like to walk down to a small perch closer to the falls and jump into the boil at its base.

Matt takes the jump from the small perch.  

Final Falls has been run a few times, here is a video showing  lines.

Flows:  Flows are tricky on this one, they are visual but people who haven't done the run don't really know what they are looking for.  From the take out bridge, it should look barely floatable. There used to be a rock that people looked at, but the streambed changes yearly so that is now outdated.  If it looks like healthy flows you won't be able to escape the pool below Frustration and the Vanishing Falls portage would get sketchy.  Hopefully someone figures out a better visual metric in the future.

To decide if it's even worth taking a look, you can use the Sandy River @ Marmot gauge.  If there is a visible diurnal, look for between 500-1,000 cfs.  800 is good, 500 is really low.

If there is no visible diurnal, look for between 1,000-1,500 cfs.

July 4th, 2009 was a pretty standard flow for the run.

Access:   Take Hwy 26 towards Mt. Hood, just passed the town of Welches turn right onto E Salmon River Rd next to a Subway.  Follow this 6.7 miles until it crosses the Salmon River.  This is the take out and where you assess the water level.  To hike up, follow the trail up on river right for 6 miles to this  45.2302, -121.8725  meadow.  Enter the meadow, veer right and traverse around a small cliff band.  Then follow a faint trail down the ridge line to the stream.

To do the vehicle shuttle return to Hwy 26 and head towards Government Camp.  Just shy of 23 miles turn right onto NF-42/Oregon Skyline Road.  1.1 miles later turn right on to NF 4290.  2.5 miles later turn left onto NF-2660. In 0.9 miles, this becomes NF-58/Abbott Rd as you stay right. Stay right again in 0.6 miles onto NF-240. At a split 2.1 miles later stay right on 240. In a half-mile stay left at another split in the road (this road is small and is becoming overgrown), follow this road to it's terminus near Linney Creek Campground.  There is a trail taking off from the end of the road, it quickly crosses the Salmon, then about 2 miles into the hike (you will be able to hear Stien Falls when you are getting close) is this 45.2302, -121.8725  meadow on your left.  Enter the meadow, veer right and traverse around a small cliff band.  Then follow a faint trail down the ridge line to the stream.

The trail into Split Falls.

The Linney Creek road is on the bottom right of the map.

It should be noted that in 2015 the road down to Linney Creek campground was blocked by down logs, it is possible this road is in the process of being decommissioned.  

Notes:  Recently Andrew Morrissey opened up a new center line (4:05) on Frustration.  The landing is shallow here, but he found a way to get it done.

Some other trips into the Salmon River Canyon from the Into the Outside team.

From Matt

A raft descent

Canoe and Kayak article

Oregon Field Guide

Little Nestucca

BETA

Stream: The Little Nestucca is a fun roadside run near Pacific City, about an hour west of Salem.  There are three stand out rapids, and the rest of the run is class II with some surf.  It's a great place to perfect and then put your class IV skill set on trial before dipping a toe into low end class V.

Below one of the many bridges over the Little Nestucca, the run begins with about 100 yards of flat water to warm up in.  At the end of the moving flat water the run gets right into it with the busiest section of the whole river.  This first half mile of whitewater is is fast paced and action packed, with loads of crisp boofs and a variety of moves.  If class IV is your limit this section will be challenging and lacks recovery pools, if you are comfortable on class IV this will be a great time.  

There are numerous ledges to boof and only small eddies to re-group in, some of the best boofs are not obvious from above.  It's worth doing a few laps to dial in the fun lines and avoid the manky parts.

 

 In the middle of this section is one drop that requires some clever maneuvering, at low water bouncing off the rocks is part of the game here, and enjoyment will depend on your ability to control your bow.  There are numerous ways to tackle this rapid, pick your line beforehand from the road.

Priscilla shimmies through the rocks, it becomes easier as levels come up.

The majority of the whitewater can be scouted from the road, so take advantage of that to find the tricky spots, and locate some of the boofs you might otherwise pass by.  This section can also be fast at high water so scouting out some eddies beforehand ain't a bad idea either.

When I was going to college at WOU, I would come up here between classes and do laps on just this half mile bridge to bridge section that starts off the run.  There was plenty of action and a short shuttle made laps easy. 

There is one last fun boof/hole just above the bridge at the end of this first section that I like in particular.

It's easy to jog, bike, or switch shuttle drivers to get a few laps up here.  The more laps you do, the more fun it becomes.

 A bridge marks the end of this first section of whitewater as the stream eases into class II downstream, keep your eye out for places to practice eddy catching, ferrying and surfing below the bridge.  

This spot in particular was nice with three eddy-serviced hydraulics in a row.

Most of the river between the rapids looks like this.

Another bridge, followed in less than 1/2 mile by a small creek that enters from the left marks the proximity of Stella Falls, the largest rapid of the run.  This one can be easily scouted on the left bank downstream of the creek, or from the road during the shuttle.  It's a chaotic rapid, but flushes into a long pool without significant hazard.

                                                                                Stella Falls (2')

More easy floating leads to a class II section with bedrock, downstream it's important to pay attention.  The river gets next to the road again, and another creek will enter from the left.  The river is then diverted to the right by the next small outcrop of bedrock on the left.  The eddy to scout Upton Falls, the most serious drop of the run, is immediately downstream on the right, just above a fish ladder.  It is not inconceivable that a boater would miss this eddy if they were not looking for it.  If water levels are high, it might just be best to take out where the creek enters from the left well above the bedrock outcrop.

We interact with more non-kayakers while paddling this river than is typical for us, most very friendly, one decidedly not.  Below is one of the nice ones.

Upton Falls is a short anthropologically-altered ledge that has a powerful hole, backed up by another man-made ledge under the surface.  It is a straight forward move to boof past the hydraulic on the right at most flows, but the hole is backed up by a ledge under the water, so it is not likely a swimmer would get flushed deep and out.  Good safety can be set from either bank, but that's not to say a rescue would be easy or even very possible.  It's an easy portage on the right.  

                                                                              Upton Falls.

Just downstream is a class II chute visible in the following photo.  The take out trail is across from the large river-right wall, at the top of a small gravelly island on the left. 

  


Flows:  The gauge is on the downstream, river-right pylon of the bridge at the bottom of the first half mile section of whitewater.  2' is a good medium flow.  You can do the run down to the bottom of the gauge, but it will feel low.  You can even run the three main rapids a touch below the gauge as they channelize well if you are already there kind of thing.

1.25'

Nov 26, 2020, with about 1250 on the Nestucca gauge.

Many of the photos in this report were taken on this day.  The first lap on the upper rapid felt manky, by the third lap we had it figured out and it was flowy and fun.  Stella and Upton were at a good flow.  The in between was blah, and our favorite surf spot was too low.  I'd do it again at this flow, but wouldn't recommend driving far for it at this level.

This level was too low (we did not put on), 675 on the Nestucca online gauge March 4, 2019.

To guess what the foot gauge will be at, I use the Nestucca near Beaver gauge.  On that gauge a flow of 2,000 cfs correlates to about 2' on the gauge, and 1,000 cfs correlates to somewhere in the vicinity of 1' on the foot gauge. 5,000 cfs is too much for most boaters and I don't know what that is on the gauge.

Access:  There are a lot of ways to get there.  The river is roadside along Hwy 130 between Dolph and Pacific City.  

The take out (45.135902, -123.896382) is 3 miles upstream from Hwy 101, there is a mile marker on a corner here.  It's worth scrambling down the fisherman's trail to note what the take out looks like from river level while setting shuttle.

The take out.

The put in (45.110860, -123.852739) is at a bridge 3 miles upstream of that, or 4.2 miles downstream of the turn at Dolph.  The gauge, is the bridge 3/4 mile downstream of the put in, at the bottom of the first, long, rapid.

From Salem Highway 22 will get you to Dolph, but there is at least one non-intuitive turn so use your phone or a map.

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Original Write-up
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A friend of mine from the Earth Science program here at Western has been wanting me to take them out kayaking for awhile.  The first day I took her on an easy run and she seemed to do well and wanted to run something a bit harder.  I had wanted to get some pictures of the Little Nestucca, so decided I could take her there and have her walk the 3 main rapids.

The first section is my favorite part, its about 1/2 mile of quality route finding.

 I had done about 5-6 laps on it so far at higher water each time and like it more each time.

The entrance to the first bit.

 It keeps going solid for awhile once you are amongst it.

The trickiest part of the first section from the road.

There is some easy floating below this first bridge (great rapids for my friend to learn on) until the next main drop, Stella Falls.  This is a cool rapid.  Its short but kinda rowdy for what it is.  The bottom ledge doesn't look to have a dry line so I anticipated a plug.  I was surprised that it was possible to run with a dry head.

 Stella Falls

Same drop at 5500 cfs

More easy floating leads to the last drop, Upton Falls(~6').  This has been altered and is now a lowhead dam.  I suggest scouting/portaging from the right bank, and setting safety from either or both sides.  The hole is backed up and might not let a swimmer go.  The boof on the right was straight forward though, so paddlers confident in their boof stroke should have no issues.

It is worth noting that it would be possible to get swept into this drop unaware.  Once below Stella, there is a "fakey" gorge with some class two, once the stream leaves this section, the next bedrock you encounter is the formation creating the drop.  Immediately eddy out on the right to scout.  Cautious and knowledgeable (about the run) boaters should have no troubles here.

We finished up the run and I was impressed that Aqua made it down with no swims (a couple of T-rescues) and she seemed to enjoy it.

The take out used to be across from this cool old barn, just upstream of Fall Creek Bridge.

**No longer a legal take out option, see access section for legal take out**

This run is out of the way for most people, but if you are thinking about breaking past the class IV mark, this is probably a good stepping stone.  That first continuous section offers a lot of opportunity to perfect boat control, catching small eddies, moving back and forth in fast water, hitting boofs, crossing currents, etc. Stella is as hard/harder than every drop until Big Brother on the Green Truss, but lacks the consequences of class V.  Then there is Uptown Falls at the end, it isn't a good drop to work on your boof stroke, but if you are 100% confident you can hit the line, it's a good place to work on your mental game.  Just don't miss.

 If you are a Corvallis/ salem boater, that first quarter mile is easy to lap and fun enough to be worth the drive.  Its a novelty run, but all roadside and worth seeing.

flows -----  http://www.wkcc.org/levels/?f=cv
minimum   1500
max  4,000
I have yet to see it much over 2000, but it could hold a lot more water.  I actually think the first part and Stella would get easier, who knows...

The put in is at the bridge 3.3 miles downstream of the turn off from Dolph crossing and hwy 22. There is a hundred yards of flat water to warm up in before the whitewater begins.

This is about a three mile section, so about a rapid per mile, so its not a run for a constant bombardment of fun, more of a training ground with time to think between drops.

~1,000 cfs

Same spot at about 5,500 cfs (not recommended at that flow without previous knowledge of the run).

    -Jacob