Thomas Creek: Pumpkin Patch

Each October hunting season rolls around and access to Thomas Creek is allowed.  Like a pumpkin patch you can go in just a short way and get a worthwhile reward, but if you want the biggest and the best you gotta go just a little further.

BETA

Stream: Walk down the short nose of land and put on to a Thomas Creek that has noticeably less water than where you left the take out vehicle.  A short warm up ends at an island, while most of the water goes right I suggest taking the left channel.  Immediately after the channels merge back together the whitewater gets rolling in the form of manky (if you are not on line) class IV whitewater that can and should be scouted.  There is an eddy on the left before the creek turns right and pinches down to half its size between a couple boulders.   It is important you catch an eddy right or left just below this pinch to scout the rest of the rapid, which makes a bend to the left and over "Pumpkin Spice".

Pumpkin Spice has a narrow hallway leading to a ten foot ramp that must be run right (without hitting the right wall) to avoid an atomic piton middle and left.  The line is straight forward, but don't mess it up.  Scout/portage the lead in and Pumpkin Spice on the left, safety can be thoroughly set below.

                                                   Ross George enjoying this seasonal treat.

A nice boof and a short bit of easy water lead to another island that is best run in the right channel (ducking a couple logs at the top in 2016).  Shortly below this island is a bridge, then some easy floating through some island and boulder bar style rapids before the whitewater builds again as the creek approaches and then passes under another bridge.  This second bridge signals that you are VERY close to Thomas Creek Falls, separated by only two short class III-IV rapids.  There are small eddies just above the plunge, that should be caught one boater at a time.   If you are feeling cautious or the water is high you can chose to walk down to the falls from this bridge along the road and then down a short trail.

The line on the 30-40' Thomas Creek falls is obvious along the right side and away from the log in the center.  The lead in is straight forward, the landing soft and the pool friendly.  The log is intimidating and would likely be disastrous to collide with.  Boaters around here typically assume if there is a runnable drop in the area it was likely run back in the day by Eric Brown or Dan Coyle.  Yet not knowing for sure, this drop did not see a descent for many years (the log was cited as the concern).  In 2010 Matt King demonstrated to our generation of boaters that the line is manageable for skilled paddlers.  Since his run, numerous others have followed.

                                                    Kory Kellum staring down the barrel. 

Thomas Creek Falls can be portaged via a thrown and go from the lip on river-right, or a sloppy up and around route on the same side.

Patrick Beville sans boat

Below the falls are a couple more III-IV rapids in a gorge before the stream flattens out for awhile.  Somewhere amongst these boulder bars you enter the Standard Stretch, and about 4 miles of beautiful and classic class III-IV whitewater later the take out.

Vaclav out front

  
Flows: We had ~1,000 cfs and dropping slow.  I'd guess 900-1500 cfs is a reasonable range on the USGS Guage @ Scio (and it's probably ok if the gauge is reading a bit higher so long as the flow is dropping).    If levels are lower you can still put in at and run the falls (down to 400 or so cfs).

Access: The take out is located less than 15 miles East of Scio, OR.  Take Hwy 226 to Thomas Creek Dr, following until it turns to gravel which is where the gate is.  If it is Cascade Deer or Elk hunting season, the gate has historically been open (call this number to be sure 888-741-5403).  If not, it will be closed and your only option is to find access through the Santiam State Forest via the Rock Creek drainage out of Mill City or hike a long way.

Assuming the gate is open, continue along Thomas Creek Drive 2.2 miles (past the Sheriff's posse) and make a right turn down to the take out bridge.

To get to the put in return to Thomas Creek drive and continue the way you were going 3.8 miles (stay right at 2 and 2.9 miles) where you will meet up with a more heavily travelled road, merge right.  2.9 miles past this merge (stay straight at 1 mile, drive through a yellow gate shortly after, then pass the road leading down to Thomas Creek Falls at 1.8 miles) you will cross over Thomas Creek, there will be notably less water than at the take out. Stay left on the road along the creek, 3/4 of a mile past this bridge you will reach another bridge over a tributary with an obvious parking area.  Walk down the nose of land to the creek to put in.

A mileage map starting at the take out.
It is worth cache-ing this area on your phone before leaving reception and using the GPS if you have that function.

click to enlarge

Notes:   My friend Jarred voiced concern about the right wall below the falls appearing undercut on a trip he took to Thomas, and thus chose to portage the falls.  I have been there at low flows and it was not an issue.  At the flow the pictures for this page were taken we had about 1,000 cfs and the wall proved to still be a benign obstacle.  Anything that flowed towards it was stopped short of the wall by the water rebounding off the wall short of collision, and subsequently pushed quickly downstream into the pool.  We were even comfortable jumping off the falls and swimming past the wall.  The clips below were put together to showcase how the wall can be...

A) avoided
B) a non-issue if you are pushed toward it

That said, analyze the situation for yourself when you are there.  Especially if the flows are up.

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Trip Report
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The day before Emile and I had checked out Thomas Creek from the top, exploring 7.5 miles of stream I knew nothing about aside from what I had seen on maps and a tantalizing picture Pete Giordano had sent me.

It was a fun day of adventure, though we had portaged the rapid Pete sent the photo of.

The next day a group of boaters wanted to go to Thomas so we planned on giving the rapid a better look before continuing through the falls and Standard Stretch.

A couple boaters in the group were uncomfortable putting on this high so planned to meet us at a bridge above Thomas Creek Falls.  We walked down to Thomas Creek near a confluence and quickly worked our way down to where the whitewater picked up.  The scouting and safety setting took some time, but eventually Priscilla decided to go first.  We felt that because she was in an IK on this trip it gave her more margin for error with the padding those craft provide.  She ended up getting spun at the lip and dropping over backwards but came out upright and unscathed.

Ross went next with a perfect line, with Kory and I following not long after.

  It took us a little while to get down to the bridge to meet the rest of the team who were pretty worried it had taken us 1.5 hours to run that section.  They decided that since it was now 2pm and it would be dark by 7pm they were not comfortable continuing on for fear of running out of light, we wished them well and continued on downstream.

There was a section of easy floating before the whitewater picked back up as we reached another bridge.  This signaled we were near the falls so we proceeded cautiously down the next couple of short rapids.   We caught the eddy on the right above the falls one at a time and set about scouting or portaging Thomas Creek Falls.

Kory went first, followed by Nick, Ross and myself.  The others chose to save this one for another day.

Nick hopped in the IK for this one.

We continued on through the classic Standard Stretch, having a blast and arriving back in Albany before the sun faded.   Aside from Ross getting lost on the shuttle the day went very smoothly.

  -jacob

Thomas Creek: Upper

Photo: Lucas Rietmann


BETA

Stream: A fantastic intermediate trip in the mid-Willamette Valley that is only accessible during hunting season unless you are navigationally savvy and willing to put in a long day.  Keep an eye out for wood the whole day, but in Fall 2016 there were no portages.

There is some easy floating through boulder bars to warm up in before the Runaway, the first rapid.  In Runaway the current is forced against the right wall creating a rapid that ends in a short plunge into a powerful hydraulic.  Run this final plunge on the left side of the right channel with a strong right stroke, staying away from the right wall.  You can scout/portage this rapid on the left, but it's also easy to find yourself past the eddies before you realize you are in the rapid.

Runaway

                                                              Photo: Lucas Rietmann

More easy floating is below here before this section of Thomas really reaches its prime as bedrock begins to line the stream and the green walls are in stark contrast to what is turbid water if the flows are not low.

Sustained and enjoyable pool and drop class III begins to become the norm.  

As flows rise past 1,000 cfs the difficulty creeps up, never reaching class V (even at 8,300 cfs) but as flows approach 2,000 cfs the eddy situation gets loose and people have reported floating downstream alongside flotsam in a class IV environment.

                                    Photo: Lucas Rietmann

The last three rapids are the most exciting, and come in quick succession.  The first (Firebox) comes after a right hand turn, and is rowdy at flows upwards of 1,000 cfs.  I like to start right, working back to center and hold steady through a violent but forgiving bottom hydraulic that empties into a large pool.  At some flows you can sneak more center/left, and scouting is always possible from either side.

Firebox

Shoo Fly is next and pushes into the left wall if you run left, but has a line to the right of a folding hydraulic that allows for easy passage.  It can be scouted from an island just upstream of the rapid.

Shoo Fly

After another pool the creek enters the final set of ledges at Caboose Juice which make for a terrific finale and can be run right down the tongue, just keep that nose up.  

Caboose Juice

If you are looking for more action, put in a little higher to tack on the Pumkpin Patch, which has some IV (V) and a beautiful 30-40' runnable waterfall.
  
Flows:  This stretch can be run as low as 400 cfs, but ideally look for 800-1,500 cfs for a class III-IV trip.   USGS Gauge Thomas Creek @ Scio.

Access:  Directions from Anthony Boesen.  

If it is Cascade Deer or Elk hunting season, the gate has historically been open (call this number to be sure 888-741-5403).  If not, it will be closed and your only option is to find access through the Santiam State Forest via the Rock Creek drainage out of Mill City or hike a long way.

Crabtree Headwaters: Of rumors confirmed

 I was looking over some maps a couple of years ago as I often do, and came across a steep section in the headwaters of Crabtree Creek.  This upper portion of the creek looked pretty small, but like it maybe had enough water to be a boatable stream.  Anna Herring and I went up there to scout out access last year and while access looked reasonable the stretch we paddled in our playboats (between the section I was interested in and the guidebook stretch) was low, of so so quality with an intriguing bedrock rapid right at the take out under the bridge that is used as a put in for the regular stretch.  Not long after I got in touch with Pete Giordano about the area as he tends to have run, scouted, or knows of people who have the streams of the Willamette Valley.  He said that he heard that there used to be a run in that drainage that was once a favorite among the Eric Brown/Dan Coyle crew out of Corvallis many years ago.  After further recon I began to believe that this section I was looking at could possibly be that run.

This year the rains finally arrived during hunting season and the gates that usually block access to the drainage were open.  I was surprised when 10 people showed up to gamble that these whisperings of a forgotten gem might be true. 

Boaters: Ben Mckenzie, Brian Ward, Emile Elliott, Susan Hollingsworth, Adam Elliott, Jesse Shapiro, Pete Giordano, Ross George, Priscilla Macy and myself (Jacob Cruser). 

Well I take that back, 6 people were there for that reason.  Two more were there to run the guidebook stretch downstream and two more thought they were there to run the guidebook stretch. 

After figuring out logistics the full crew drove to the put in, 8 of us geared up, said goodbye to Priscilla and Susan (who were doing the guidebook stretch) and did the short walk down the decommissioned road to the put in.  Pete took the correct route on the walk in while the rest of us spent a few extra minutes portaging down a tributary.

Once consolidated, we set up parameters for doing a a trip of this nature at healthy flows and set off downstream.

I think at this point Brian had caught on, but Ross still thinks we have put on to the class III guidebook stretch.

Fast and fun splashy rapids quickly built into class IV and we found ourselves running some good whitewater.  My suspicion that my creeking ability had degraded after months without rain was confirmed as I missed a pretty straight forward eddy and subsequently ran a rapid I had been told to scout without doing so.  We talked later on about how this was a fun intro to the season, though many of us wished we had been more dialed in!

More fun whitewater led to a horizon line with some wood visible.  Here the right wall was sliding into the river and a straight away with some challenging whitewater lead to a right hand turn.  A long scout from part of the team and it was decided that most of the us would make the portage on the right. 

The straight away.

The scout had revealed that at the end of the straight away the river turned right and entered a class V set of boulder gardens.  The rapids were big and there were no eddies in sight.  Ben and Adam decided they were confident they would find a way to stop before they found wood.  I watched them turn the corner into the rapid we later named Browntown for Eric Brown, who was the first to run so many of the creeks around here, including this one. I then helped catch the rest of the team along the bank one by one for the portage.

Brian in the straight away just before things get serious, planning to crash into the shore where this photo was taken so we can grab him for the portage.

 

 Ben arrives in Browntown.

Us portagers attained the treeline where the going was easier and returned to the river near the end of the 1/4 mile long set of rapids.  After reading and running some serious whitewater, Ben and Adam had indeed found a way to stop when they needed to in order to scout the final rapid in the set.  We had not seen them run the middle portion, but they described it in this way.

    Ben:  It is the hardest thing I have run in Oregon
    Adam:  It's similar to the stuff on the Upper Little White, but harder.

 Adam enters the last part of Browntown.

Staring down the final boulder jumble before things ease off.

Waiting while the team regroups a rapid or two downstream.

Ben and Adam linked every piece of whitewater aside from 20 yards that was mistakenly portaged, so gnar dudes could feasibly do the whole run without any portages if the take out just below Birgus is used.

More class fun waited below downstream.

 Par for the course.

Emile and Pete head downstream.

At the end of the challenging whitewater is the finale, a fun ramp into a right turn and over another small ledge.  Just above this drop, it appeared that an attempt had been made to divert the creek.  You can see where the diversion returns in the picture below.  Maybe in a number of years that will be the main channel?

Birgus - Named for the only crab known to climb trees.

Adam drops in on the unique ramp.  

Jesse is all smiles below Birgus.

 
 Things tapered down pretty quick after this, now the creek was a series of splashy III+ rapids.  There was one log portage that we easily walked on the left, the road is also close here so this location could be used as a take out. 

The mandatory log portage, it looks like it was cut down to make a bridge.

We bee-bopped downstream some more and came to a place where the stream had diverted into the woods where a unique portage ended up being our last.

After that it was splashy paddling to the take out. 

Jesse's smile had grown even more by the time we made it to the end.

Ross' emotions were less discernable.

Looking upstream from the take out bridge.

Flows from Pat Welches site, we were there on November 1st, 2015.  

2.3 miles long

280fpm

1/2 mile drops 200 feet.

-jacob