Jenny Creek

Stream: Jenny Creek starts off flat, gradually easing into class II-III boulder gardens with a stubborn presence of brush.  This brush becomes part of the game and by the end of the trip you hardly notice it is there and strokes are naturally adjusted for its presence.


                                                                  Joseph Hatcher early on

There might be a rapid or two that could be called class IV in the first portion of the trip, but every thing above the entrance to the gorge was boat scoutable.  The entrance to the gorge is an island where the creek drops away to the left.  The left side of the island has a sieve, while the far right channel was manky but can be bashed down.  This island lands a paddler in a short gorge with a small ledge visible as soon as the corner is turned.  After running this ledge eddy out above the obvious horizon line.  At normal flows it is not hard getting out above on the right one at a time while the other boaters wait in a more generous eddy on the left or upstream.

Joseph Hatcher with the portage route above him, it could be done without ropes but we took the cautious route and pulled the boats up after us.

 The horizon line is that of Jenny Creek Falls, which had a futuristic looking line, but has major consequences and was nothing we were interested in.  We ate some food and enjoyed this spot, which is one of "those places" that makes you appreciate where kayaking can take you.

After eating we made the easy walk on the right and scouted the lower falls, dropping back down to the base of the first falls through a nice gully.  Just downstream of Jenny Creek Falls is a narrow alleyway through towering walls, there is a small ledge at the base of this chasm that is best boofed on the right.

Exiting the short alley is Lower Jenny Creek Falls, an easy boof on the left or a cascade on the right.  We went left, beware a shelf in the landing if you are too far left.

Below the falls the whitewater picked up to class IV, it was a little tricky with all the brush but everything went minus one glaring exception.  Along the right side of a steeper island a landslide had recently deposited some debris in the creek that made for a nasty sieve, one I don't think you would come out of.  We were tempted to read and run that channel before we knew this, but made the right choice to take the prudent route and scout.  We paddled down the left channel as far as we could and then portaged back into the right channel below the sieve once we saw it was over there.

Below the sieve are two miles of busy whitewater, there are a lot of rapids in the lower part of the run.  It's class IV, but the low visibility and brush can make the rapids feel half a class harder than they are, though there were no wood portages in 2017.  Every now and then a rapid is more channelized than the others and creates fun hydraulics.  There are a couple small slides and a lowhead dam (runnable) near the end of the section.  We didn't stop much so I have no photos from this part of the run, check out oregonkayaking.net for more photos and info.   Note:  Do not use the directions on that page for shuttle.  That route adds almost 2 hours onto a shuttle that can otherwise be done in about 20 minutes.

Access:  Follow Interstate-5 to Hornbrook California, take exit 789 onto Copco Rd.  Follow Copco Rd 15.3 miles along the north side of the Klamath River and Copco Reservoir to where it crosses over Jenny Creek.  There is a large gravel parking area on the East side of the bridge that serves as the take out and a place to gauge water level.  41.9765, -122.3987

To get to the put in, continue East on Copco Rd 3.5 miles before turning left onto Fall Creek Rd.  Follow Fall Creek Rd 2.7 miles to a point where large and obvious powerlines cross over the road.  Park under them:  42.0176, -122.3414

Hike:  You can follow the powerlines down to the creek, lowering boats a few times near the end.  Or, take the route we did that is shown on this map, breaking away from the powerlines before the going gets steep.  Our put in:  42.0232, -122.3584


                                                       Click photo to enlarge

Notes:  

• Just North of the powerlines there is a private gate on Copco Rd.

• I made the shuttle in my Subaru with dry roads, but there were a couple spots that required attention.  A commuter car might not work.

• From Joseph: "This is a flat, very easy walk and greatly reduces shuttle. Even turn it into a bikeable shuttle. Recommend bringing a gps or phone with map loaded for hike in, there was some other faint roads in there that could get you confused."

Flows:   I believe the following two gauges can be extrapolated to give you a good idea of what is going on with the flows on Jenny Creek.  This is what I would look for on a return trip, based off two data points.

SF Little Butte Creek : 200+ cfs   *This is the gauge I would be most confident in.*


Spencer Creek: 100+ cfs


Here is what those gauges looked like the day we did the run. 

SF LITTLE BUTTE CK AB SODA, NEAR LAKECREEK

SPENCER CREEK NEAR KENO, OR GAUGE

Here is what the creek looked like at the take out the day we ran it, the stream is going around an island here. We had a healthy low flow.  I would not be interested in trying this creek at high levels because of the blindness and branches.

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 Joseph returned to the creek with the SF Little Butte Creek gauge dropping from 145-120 and had this to say about there trip on 4/28/2019.

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We did not know about those gauges the day we paddled the creek, so we were going off some in-depth research and educated guessing Joseph had done. He used the following process to guesstimate whether Jenny would be running for our trip:

I looked at all of the gauges mentioned in this document.

https://www.oregon.gov/owrd/ pubs/docs/reports/sw04-001.pdf

Some of those with data in the 1920's are not online but some of them that are in the 1950-2000 are still online and if you look through the data can garner some benefit.  Yes, that was tedious but thorough.

I also know that the guys from Oregon Kayaking went on Memorial day weekend.  So I figured that was kind of on the late side and I should shoot for something earlier.

Ultimately, I think anything over 1000 cfs on this gauge would work.  I would **guess** anything over 3000 to be high.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv/?site_no=11501000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

I think on good snow years, this runs way more days than people realize.

I do see that there is a discounted warning on that guage website,"Turbidity data collection will be discontinued May 1, 2017, unless new funding partners are found.", but it is still operational.

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The nearest USGS gauge was Big Butte Creek Near Mcleod.  We were there on April 21, 2017.   We had a good snow pack that year and warm weather that week.  I am not confident the Big Butte gauge has a useful correlation to Jenny, but if it was the only thing available I'd go for 300+ cfs.

                     -jacob

Briggs Creek

Stream: Briggs Creek is a tributary to the Illinois River that enters on river right about 2 miles downstream of the standard Miami Bar put in for the Wild and Scenic Illinois trip.  It is accessible by road without a hike and can be done either as a day trip or tacked on to the beginning of a Wild and Scenic Illinois trip.  

Brandon lake, Ben Mckenzie, Emile Elliott and I ran Briggs Creek at the start of a 2017 "Cinco de Illy" trip, meeting up with 20 other boaters at Pine Flat on the Illinois River.  

The beta we had going in was that there was a rumor that while Ben Stookesberry had been going to school in Ashland he had run this creek.  He put on with high water and when he got to the final rapid, had found it too sticky to safely run.  He chose to camp out above it, waiting for the levels to drop overnight.   A good group of boaters had also gone in a few years ago and hiked out at the first rapid when it was determined the levels were too high (about 5k on the Illinois gauge).   I had also gathered from maps and satellite imagery that the run was steep and bouldery (250 fpm in the crux section), but looked like it had minimal wood issues.  One of the boaters who had attempted the run a couple years ago (Jospeh Hatcher, who had given us the only beta we had on the run) was planning to paddle the run with us and take out at the campground, but the morning of it looked like flows were going to be low.  He understandably decided not to take work off with a likely possibility of getting skunked.  The rest of us were doing the Illinois anyway, so figured Briggs would be worth a look for us.    

With the talk about the sticky final rapid, big holes at higher water and stacked bouldery rapids, we were happy to see low flows at the campground, but were they too low?

We decided to drive to the put in and if we could float our boats, put on.  Driving the few miles up to Brushy Bar, we were unhappy to see a plethora of poison oak in full bloom that lining the road.

We appreciated the beauty of the urushiol-free oak varieties though!

                                                  Classic Kalmiopsis water color at the put in.

Ben taking advantage of the facilities.

Priscilla saw us off and headed back up to the Swinging bridge to gear up her raft for the Cinco De Illy float.  We were planning on joining forces again either at the confluence with the Illinois, or more likely Pine Flat where the group was planning to camp.

There was about a mile of class II to warm up on with a log duck before the rapids began in earnest.
The first big rapid (one of two class Vs at our flows), was unique and was just around the corner from the onset of the whitewater.  The crux move was an 8' ledge with a kicker at the bottom.  Based on how you interacted with the kicker dictated how you went over the second, smaller ledge.  We had a variety of bounces off the kicker, with everyone coming through the bottom ledge upright, and most everyone facing forward :)

Ben went first, right on the money in "Cavity Search"

For the next mile or two, there were a bunch of nice boulder gardens with plenty of variety.  At our low flows, there were short pools between all the rapids, I don't see that being the case at medium flows.  Because of the low water there was also some mank, but the fun and clean lines outweighed the rock bumps.

Here is a photo of the same rapid by Tyler Pohle, a few months later (Nov 17, 2017) at medium flows of 3,000 cfs in the Illinois.  They reported that this way an ideal class V flow.

Some of the rapids we shore scouted, most of them Emile boat scouted.  I bumped into a patch of poison oak on one of the first scouts, but we were able to avoid it the rest of the trip.  At higher flows, boat scouting would be more challenging as the rapids padded out.

We had a good time through this section of whitewater which made up the bulk of the run, all the rapids had their own flavor and came at a pretty relentless pace with enough recovery time below each to not feel stressed.  Most of the rapids were entirely comprised of boulders, but every now and then some bedrock played a role.

Near the end of the run we came across a landslide we had been keeping an eye out for, from the satellite imagery the rapid created by the slide looked like it would be a portage and signal the entrance to The Brig, the gorged in section where portaging stops becoming practical and from which one needs to run the sticky rapid we had been warned of to escape.  We scouted the rapid from the right and found that while it would be hard to style, it actually looked plenty good to go and pretty fun.  It just involved lining it up correctly, then setting your angle and holding on!

Even when you are pretty sure a rapid is good to go, you are never really sure until someone tries it out.                   Ben probes.

Brandon, most of the way through the whiteout.

Just downstream from where Brandon is in the above photo is another tier that delivers paddlers into The Brig itself, the walled in section that ends with the ledge Stookesberry was held prisoner above while he waited for flows to drop.

Emile and Brandon drop in.

 There are just a couple small rapids in The Brig before the exit rapid, which ended up being a 5-10 foot ledge.  As it turns out the final tier is not only unportageable, it is tough to scout.   The drop definitely appeared sticky from above, and the line was not obvious looking downstream.  The water split around a rock in the center; right seemed ominous, left looked like it might go, and boofing center like it might go.  Because of our low flow, Emile was able to tether into his cow tail and crawl along wall through the shallow water pretty close to the lip while we held the other end of a rope.  He came back with good news; he could see the left line and it looked fine.  The recycle was also not as bad as it had looked from above.  He agreed to go first.

Emile seeks freedom from The Brig.

He was planning to bank off the wall, but instead took a left stroke and that worked fine. 
  Brig - A place on a board ship used for temporary confinement, like a jail cell.  

 From below, he was able to see the rest of the drop and signaled Brandon and I off the right edge of the center rock (Ben had already followed him down the left side).

After seeing the rapid, we could all tell how this drop would get hellishly sticky at high flows.  The walls below it kind of bow in, backing up the flow and creating a bowl.  We felt that at medium flows boofing off the center would be something all of us would be comfortable with.  We did not see a way to set safety from shore, or portage.  It looked though like a skilled rock climber could maybe sketch his way out from above the drop without his boat, maybe.

Floating away from The Brig, the walls open up immediately, a true boof to freedom moment.  A few minutes of class II-III lead down to the take out bridge at the campground.

If you are doing this as a day trip, you are done.  If you are continuing through the Illinois you have one last obstacle.  Where Briggs meets the Illinois it sifts through a gravel bar, where some of the water disappears into the rocks.  Then, right where the waters merge a stand of brush has grown thick.  Ben read and ran the obstacle and we all followed.

Next time I might just portage into the Illinois :)

We waited at the confluence for the rest of our group for a couple hours.

Around 3PM we started to wonder if maybe they had actually gotten to the confluence before us, so decided to head downstream.  We arrived at Pine Flat and spent the next hour collecting firewood, reminiscing and avoiding the creepy-crawlies.

When the group did show up, the rafts were unloaded and Cinco De Illy went into full swing.

Flows:  To estimate if Briggs might be running, the Illinois gauge is used.  If the Illinois River Near Kerby, OR - 14377100 gauge is between 2,000-3,000 cfs Briggs Creek will probably be running at a reasonable first-time/medium flow.  Add or subtract 500 cfs from that for outlier flows.

Since that is just a correlation gauge, and flows matter on Briggs Creek I'll also describe the visual gauge that locals use located below the footbridge at Briggs Creek Campground (42.37809292765215, -123.80436982944379).  Just below the footbridge are two rocks that are used to make the call on running Briggs Creek.  These rocks are circled in the photo below.  This run hasn't been run all that often, so take this gauge with a grain of salt.  For medium flows there should be a small amount of water going over the "triangle rock", but if you could boat over the triangle rock without making contact with the rock itself, it is considered too high to run safely by locals due to the committing nature of "The Brig".

Photo taken at minimal runnable levels, that correlate to about 1,500 cfs on the Illinois @ Kerby gauge.  Most of the photos on this page were taken at this level.

May 5, 2017

Photo taken at an ideal first-time flow, on Dec 30, 2023 with the Illinois gauge climbing from 2,000-2,400 cfs.

A photo of the gauge from a trip Mike Goglin and Tyler Pohle did March 25, 2018 with the Illinois gauge dropping from 3400 to 3000 cfs, at a flow they dubbed "High side of good".  They felt this was the highest this run should be done, as with more water the entrance rapid to The Brig would become unscoutable/unportageable in addition to the exit.

Looking upstream the day the photos on this page were taken - May 5, 2017

Minimal enjoyable flow

 Medium flows

Access:  Briggs Creek enters the Illinois River on river right shortly below the put in for the Wild and Scenic section.  The same road that is used for the Illinois put in is used for Briggs, just instead of stopping at Miami Bar, you travel another 2 miles to Briggs Creek Campground.

The take out is at Briggs Creek Campground, the put in is at Brushy Bar.

All roads shown on the map below were drivable by a high clearance vehicle without 4WD under dry conditions in 2017.  Personally, I would not take a Subaru past Oak Flat.

A final couple of notes if you are doing Briggs Creek in conjunction with the Wild and Scenic section of the Illinois via self-support.

• If you are hiring someone to run your shuttle, it might be tricky to start on Briggs.  You may need to get creative in order to leave your vehicle somewhere a shuttle company would be willing to pick it up.  

• Stash your overnight gear near the campground so you don't have a loaded boat on Briggs.

• If you get to Briggs Creek Campground and flows are not good, don't fret!  You can just put in right there at the foot bridge and you won't miss anything on the Illinois.  Or backtrack 2 miles to Miami Bar

• If the rowdy section of road between Oak Flat and the take out concerns you, 4105 is a better gravel road that serves as alternate access.  This route takes you past the put in first.  4105 is accessed by veering right off the normal Illinois Put in road 1 mile upstream of Six Mile campground and day use area (9 miles upstream of Miami Bar).  This road goes up to 2700'.
  

           -jacob

Williamson River: Kirk, OR

 

BETA

Stream: The Williamson River exits the Klamath Marsh within view of the put in bridge with a tannin color that is unique for Oregon. 

Photo: Priscilla Macy

 The first hundred yards are bouncy class III+ before braiding around an island (right channel was clear in 2017).  The water pools in the braided channel, slowly gliding over what is marsh for most of the year(s).  While the beer colored water is too dark to see more than an inch or two into, dipping a paddle you can often feel the grass hiding just out of sight, and in places the tips of grass blades are visible dancing beneath the surface.  

Photo: Priscilla Macy

About the time you might start to wonder if you could have mistakenly put in on the wrong stream, boulders start poking up through the grass and along the banks. 

Pleasant floating

Photo: Priscilla Macy

After a couple riffles the whitewater begins at a class III-IV rapid that bends to the left.  For the next two miles the river incises into a formation of Basaltic Andesite from the Winema Volcanic Field.  The first horizon line is at a set of ledges the locals call Root Beer Falls.  We always found landing zones deep enough to boof into on the run, but there are many shallow spots in the landings too so scout thoroughly.  


                                                           The larger tier of Root Beer Falls.

There are rocks at surface level and just below in some spots, not only on this drop but throughout the run.  The line shown below worked well for this ledge.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

More fun rapids exist below Root Beer Falls. All the rapids are easy to scout (and I'd recommend taking a look at them all your first time down) from shore and there are large pools above and below many of the rapids that collect foam, bubbles and any potential free-floating gear.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

When you make it to the fun ramp pictured below you have reached the beginning of The Brewery, a set of four horizon lines separated by pools providing a whitewater finale for the run. These drops are more involved than anything else on the run.  Most paddlers doing the run will be interested in one or two, possibly even a third.  However if you are knocking down all 4 in a day you are probably a heavy hitter. 

 The fun ramp marking the entrance to The Brewery.
It's easy to walk up for laps on this one, and it has the most favorable fun:stress ratio of any drop on the run
 

Photo: Priscilla Macy

The rest of The Brewery is a step up from what has been seen earlier on in the trip.  Long pools separate these hazardous, complex rapids.  Be sure to scout thoroughly and make good decisions.  Scouting is still easy on these rapids, portaging a little more challenging but always an available option.  Three of the four I can confirm have been run, a 20' falls with a questionable pool depth is the exception.

Cheers to all the probes out there

*A few feet to the left of Emile off the horizon line ended up being the preferred route*

A few easy read and run sliding rapids below The Brewery deliver you to a beautiful high desert landscape with moving flat water and excellent camping potential.  This area is established in the climbing community.  Crack a root beer and celebrate your journey through the Williamson Gorge, once you pass the last riverside cliff you are either...

A) Done.  If you figured out access via the arterial roads its just a short walk up to where vehicles can be left.

B) Almost Done.  If you chose the less complicated shuttle route, there is about 1 mile of flatwater between the last cliff wall and Williamson Campground. 

  

Photo: Priscilla Macy

Flows:  This section of river only flows in healthy snow years when the Klamath Marsh Fills up.  When that happens it can run for a week to a month.  We found 400 cfs in the Williamson above Klamath Agency to be a nice flow, with plenty of room to go higher.  A group ran it later in the week at 360 cfs and found the flows similar and enjoyable. 
Access:  If you like logistics to be straight forward, take out in the day use area at Williamson Campground (42.6591, -121.8535) and put in where Kirk Rd crosses the Williamson River at the outlet to the Klamath Marsh (42.7407, -121.8341).  Most of the shuttle is done along Hwy 97.

If you are handy with a map and navigating unmarked roads, there are ways to cut out most of the flat water at the beginning and ending of the trip using arterial dirt roads on both sides of the river.

Click to enlarge, feel free to download

 

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Trip Report
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The Williamson has an intriguing description in the back of Soggy Sneakers, mentioning a run filled with unrunnable waterfalls and technical portages.  The description was from the 90s so I had some hope maybe those waterfalls would no longer be considered unrunnable.  Add to the obscurity of the river the issue that it rarely has enough water to paddle and I have reached over a decade of boating in Oregon and never checked it out.

Ben's birthday was coming up this Spring and he said he wanted to do a suffer-fest.  I liked the idea and tried thinking up a few ideas.  Last year we had done Box Canyon Creek (into the Chetco), so I didn't want to let him down this year with a run-of-the mill slog.

We considered going back into Gladiator Creek, but as the weekend approached the level was looking like it would be on the low side for that one.

I scrolled through the gauges on Pat Welches site and took note that the Williamson had water.  I mentioned it to the group and kept looking for other options.  However, the more I thought about it the more the Williamson seemed like a great option.  Of the last 10 years, the Williamson had only seen runnable flows during 4 of them and it was currently holding at what I thought would be a perfect first time flow of 400 cfs.  That was enough for Priscilla to be excited, a conference with Ben and rumors of this being a run Ben Stookesberry had once done before sold him, and Emile was down for whatever Ben wanted to do since it was his birthday... so all of a sudden it looked like we were headed to the Williamson.

We were in Eugene a bit past 7 but didn't leave until about 8am.  We arrived at the take out by 10:30 with a couple stops along the way including a couple level check.  Levels looked perfect so we stashed the shuttle bike and headed up to the Klamath Marsh.

With the favorable start time and a sunset near 8PM we were in no hurry, making sure Ben got a birthday rock as is tradition.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

We were pretty excited about the tannin color of the water spilling out of the marsh at the put in, something I had never seen in Oregon before.  We slid into the water at the ultra-convenient put in and bounced down a hundred yards of III+ before the stream settled down at an island (we went right) and eased into moving flatwater.

Splashy water below the put in bridge, the gauge is located 20 yards downstream of that corner.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

This section was intriguing as it is usually grassland, so in a kayak you are floating in shallow water over beds of grass that are just below the surface and occasionally visible through the dark water.

Easy floating early on

Photo: Priscilla Macy

About the time we started to tire of the flat water boulders started appearing along the banks, eventually transitioning to bedrock banks and cliff walls.  After a couple class II rapids we stopped at a place Ben wanted to try and do some bouldering.  There were a lot of options, at the best one we ended up scaring a Goose out of a nest.  We felt bad, so after taking a couple photos headed downstream sheepishly.  Hoping we didn't scare the bird from returning to her eggs.

 

Photo: Ben Mckenzie

Not far downstream the rapids began, we were unsure what to expect and had our expectations set low.  After paddling a fun class III-IV rapid and another small ledge we figured we had probably got our fun in for the day and got ready for some portaging.  Just downstream was the first horizon line, which turned out to be what the locals call Root Beer Falls.  We felt like we had lucked out when we found a runnable line off the first 5 foot tier center-right, then were sure we had used up all our luck when we were also able to paddle the second, slightly larger tier of the falls. 

 Second tier of Root beer Falls.

Photo: Priscilla Macy

More whitewater continued downstream.  After a handful of fun rapids we found ourselves splashing around in foam wondering aloud whether this might not turn out to be such a bad run after all.

 Jacob Cruser

Ben Mckenzie                                                                 Emile Elliott 

Priscilla Macy

  At the other end of this foam pool we ate lunch while Ben tried some more bouldering. 

Photo: Priscilla Macy

Not long after finishing lunch we came to what turned out to be our favorite rapid, a fast ramp between two rooster tales at the entrance to The Brewery.  It was fun enough that we did a few laps, Emile and Ben even gave it a go backwards.

Priscilla, back for another round.

The next few horizon lines were the toughest of the run, of the 4 drops making up The Brewery; Priscilla, Emile and I ran 2 of them, Ben ran 3.  There was a 20' waterfall with a questionable pool depth that we all passed on.

Ben, birthday boofing

Below here were a couple read and run class III slides before we found ourselves gliding through a gorgeous high desert scene that would be a pretty incredible place to camp.  Before long the current disappeared and we had about half an hour of flat water paddling before reaching a bridge with a small rapid underneath.  Another 5-10 minutes and we reached the Williamson Campground, pretty excited about the quality of this adventure!

I motor-biked the shuttle while the gang fished for mussels.  A scenic stop at the Spring River and some neckin' occurred before a quick dinner at the Chalet in Chemult (more enjoyable than the reviews would indicate).

 

We had 400 cfs, which is a good flow and I would absolutely go back at that level.  I'd also love to see it with more water.  If I saw it was flowing around 500-600 cfs it would probably be one of those drop all other plans and head to the Williamson deals because of how rarely it sees that kind of water.

We ran the Williamson on April 15, 2017

The Williamson Gauge was showing a steady flow of about 400 cfs that day.