Stream: Butte Creek is a nice intermediate run near Salem with hassle free logistics not far from Highway 213 between Molalla and Silverton. It is rain dependent, but does hold onto water for a few days after a rain and can be enjoyed at a wide range of flows without changing much in difficulty. Aside from the put in and take out rapid (both can be skipped) the run consists of a few stand out class III-IV- rapids and loads of busy class II-III with small surf waves and jib rocks scattered throughout.
At the put in is The Butte Crack, a narrow rampthat is nothing like the rest of the run.
.If you are not interested in starting the day with a rapid notably more difficult than anything else on the run, put in below via a number of fun seal launch options. The first set of ledges is not far below the put in, they are easy but be sure not to get pulled into the narrow cracks that steal the flow at low water. Being right is usually the safest bet.
Seal launching in at the put in.
After more floating and just above a bridge is Splittin' Hairs, a ledge with two channels. The right side can usually be run down the center of the channel, keep that nose up! The left can be run at medium flows, but gets pinny at low flows.
Cruisey water is later broken up by Knuckle Buster, the most notable of the class IV's. This is a two part rapid that is worth a scout your first time down. The first part ends in a small hole that is backed up on the right side, run the left side of the final ledge in this tier.
Priscilla carving into a neat pocket-eddy at the bottom tier in the first part of Knuckle Buster. 550 cfs
A small ledge hole separates the two parts of Knuckle Buster. Below this hole, eddy out right to scout the second part of Knuckle Buster, which sometimes collects wood at the bottom. There are many lines through this part of the rapid, but all of them are a bit odd at low flows. Take a look, pick your route.
More easy floating waits below, with a few more enjoyable rapids and a ledge that can sneak up on paddlers best run just to the right of a mid-stream bush. A nice, but short section of bedrock rapids along a basalt wall on the the right are a prelude to Scotts Mills Falls. The creek pools up above the drop (next to a grassy park) at an obvious horizon line. At low flows scout the rapid left or right, as flows increase it becomes more necessary to scout left.
Scotts Mills Falls at low water.
Brandon Bloomquist: 260 cfs
Just below Scotts Mills Falls is a series of ledges, at most flows the center of the ledges is best avoided. Eddy out after the last one on the left and walk a short trail back up to the road. The closer you get to the bridge in town, the harder it is to get out of the creek.
It is possible to continue past Scotts Mills down to Cascade Hwy, where there are numerous surf waves at high flows (1500+) and rocky class II at lower flows.
Flows: 200-1200 cfs for a class III-IV trip. 300-1,000 is most common. Use the Butte Creek @ Monitor gauge. It's still runnable at 2,000 cfs but is more consistantly class IV, and Scotts Mills is getting on towards class V. There are also some sticky holes to avoid at that flow, but mostly just a bunch of fun waves to surf and boily hydraulics. The lines are in the same locations as at regular flows for the most part. Luke Spencer: Scotts Mills @1800 cfs
Access: The take out is in the town of Scotts Mills, about 20 minutes East of I-5. From either Silverton or Oregon City, take Hwy 211 (Cascade Hwy) to Scotts Mills Rd. Take Scotts Mills road to Scotts Mills. There is a bridge in town over Butte Creek, 100 yards upstream on river left is a city park where you park vehicles. To get to the put in, return to the bridge in town and cross over to river-right. Take the next right onto Maple Grove, then turn right again immediately onto S Butte Creek Rd. Follow S Butte Creek Rd 4.6 miles to a right turn onto a private road owned by a Boy Scout/Horse Camp. Immediately you cross over Coal Creek, which has been used as a put in before. There is one slide here that can be run far right, the middle lands in bushes. To get to the normal put in continue down the private road to a grassy area where the camp allows kayakers to park and use as a put in. Do not park along the private roadway.
You can try calling these numbers with access questions.
Original Write-up
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Jeff Hartley and I ran Butte Creek today. The run was pretty uneventful but still a good time. We had enough water that we kept moving along and there were enough rapids to keep us entertained. Did not run the put-in drop but I plan on doing so next time.
Stream: Following a spur road to a trail leading down a nose of land brings you to the creek just below an old log-deck, appreciated amongst kayakers as a catch-all for debris floating downstream that otherwise may have gotten stuck in the gorge. The whitewater starts right away in the form of some small ledges and slides. They are not quiet large enough to warrant hopping out of your boat to scout, and you can go pretty much wherever, but it's nice to follow someone down the first time to get the cleanest lines. Less than half a mile after putting in you reach Hagen Daaz, the first named drop which can be scouted right if you are showing yourself down. There are a few line options, but the most common line down this 15 foot drop is to start center right, driving back to center over a smooth hump of water and down a bouncy ramp, avoiding a narrow hole in the top center of the falls.
Jake Brown and Scott Michael accelerating out of Hagen Daaz.
Downstream the bedrock transitions into cobblestone and small boulders, when you pass to the right of a medium sized log pile on an island in the middle of the creek you are close Euphoria so grab the next eddy. As the stream makes a hard left bend just below look for an eddy on the right at the base of a micro tributary. Catch that eddy and watch out for bugger rocks trying to deflect you back into the current. Scout Euphoria on the right. I find the crux of this two part rapid is the lead in and try to stay as close to the island in the middle of the channel as possible until I enter the first slide just to the left of an obvious rooster tail. The final ledge in Euphoria is proceeded by a small hole, I like to hit this hole center driving right and sliding down the right wall with right angle but other options exist. There are some neat eddies to challenge yourself with in this rapid. Alex Hymel approaching the final ledge in Euphoria, center driving right. Photo: Nick Hymel
There are two small ledges below here and before the confluence with the NW Fork Washougal, run both of them center-left.
As you approach the NW Fork Washougal an obvious horizon line presents itself just downstream of the confluence. Stay right as you exit Hagen Creek and eddy out on the right to scout this powerful drop. The standard line is to run the top slide on the right with left angle to make it back to center for the bottom drop, which is usually run through a seam threading between two powerful hydraulics. At high flows I have seen some wild lines through here, but everyone who hits the seem blasts through into the pool below. Too far right or left and the outcome is less certain.
Nate Merrill riding out Teakettle.
Photo: Lucas Reitmann
The only rapid of note between here and the finale is a benign looking rapid that has a weird chute down the left side. It is best to scrape down the right side of the channel or you risk getting parked in a squirrely eddy. This is another one when it's nice to follow someone as it doesn't look like much from above.
Once past there be ready to grab a shallow eddy on the left within the next five minutes. The final drop would be easy to get blown into if you didn't know the run and were not paying attention. Standard procedure is to get to the left bank at the end of a stretch of class II just as the river starts to bend ever so slightly back to the right.
Scout left along a convenient shelf and if you decide to portage you will find a crack leading to a seal launch over there as well. The line is obvious, but intimidating. While the second drop tends to command everyones attention, the top drop also demands respect. The launch pad slopes left and more than a couple people have ended up behind the falls which is scary for everyone involved. A couple of people have even gone too far right and landed in the disgusting crack over there. That said, the drop is easy if you pick your markers carefully and take it seriously. The second part, a narrow folding slot flips a lot of people but is not retentive and if you have a roll it's really not much to worry about.
Kory Kellum between the two drops
Photo: Brandon Lake
Downstream of this drop it's splashy floating to the take out bridge. If you don't get out of your boat the run can be done in under an hour. If there is lots of scouting or swimming plan on 2-4. If you have the time it's highly recommended to continue down to the Washougal and Mercentile take out. Aside from one portage a short way below the take out for Hagen, the run is class IV and mostly read and run with a couple quick scouts if it's your first time. Flows: Flows can be estimated, but you don't ever know what exactly you will have water-wise until you get to the take out and see the gauge.
The gauge at a friendly flow for Hagen. Teakettle lacked it's usual power, but people have run the creek lower. Oct 16, 2016
-7" is about as low as it has been run, you will notice how low it is. -10" is a worthwhile, but low flow. The main drops are all still fun.
-15" is medium.
-18" is getting pushy once you reach the NWF
Washougal, but still medium. - Over 20" is not a desirable first time flow for most boaters.
-The run has been done as high as 29/30" a number of times and possibly higher, this is the high end of runnable. Not recommended unless you already know the creek, have a grasp on the wood situation, and have incrementally stepped up to this level and can make class V decisions for yourself.
29/30"
Photo: Adam Edwards
Since you can't tell for sure what the water level will be until you get to the take out, boaters use nearby online gauges to let them know if it's worth driving up to Hagen. Some people use the Washougal Gauge and look for over 3,000 cfs, others use the EF Lewis gauge and look for over 2,000 cfs.
More
data points from people who run the creek would be useful
in calibrating this gauge for the community. Comment on this page or at the AW page if you care to help out.
Some data points:
Access: The most straight forward route is to take Hwy 14 on the north side of the Columbia Gorge into Washougal and turn North onto Washougal River road (signed) at the stop light. There is a gas station where you can fill up shortly after this turn, on the right. Follow Washougal River Road just over 10 miles to the intersection with Canyon Creek Rd (another access option) at a small store called The Washougal River Mercantile or "The Mercantile" for short. If you are paddling down the NW Fork Washougal you leave your car here. If you are doing just Hagen continue the direction you were headed along Washougal River Rd half a mile and turn left on Skye Rd (the obvious steep and winding road). Follow Skye Rd for 3.8 miles and turn right on Skamania Mines Rd. There is a small, white road-sign but if you are not paying close attention it can and has been missed. Stay right just after and follow Skamania Mines Rd down to a bridge over the NW Fork Washougal, this is the standard take out for Hagen where you can confirm the water level is appropriate. To reach the put in continue the direction you were heading along Skamania Mines Rd for 1.4 miles and turn left (right is gated and leads to the put in for Wildboy Creek). Take another left just after and follow that road for 1.2 miles (crossing the NW Fork Washougal at 0.8 miles) to a decommissioned spur road heading off to your left. Park here. Hike down this spur road, staying right at the Y. Shortly after this intersection take the faint trail heading off to the left. Follow this to a nose of land heading down to the creek at the put in (dropping down early will result in an extra portage around the log deck). And a short video of the highlights.
Last week Matt King and I ran Hagen Gorge, met up with John below Teakettle, then ran the rest of the NW fork Washougal run. We hooped and hollered down to Euphoria and hopped out for a quick scout, there is often so much energy when someone is seeing a run for the first time! I had not scouted the lead in thoroughly last time and ended up hitting a rooster tail when I was farther right than I wanted. This time I didn't want to let that happen so I scouted the lead-in... It happened again. Hitting the rooster isn't so bad, but it is an ugly way to run such a beautiful drop. Since this trip I have kept out of the main current and closer to the island in the center of the lead in and had no more encounters with the rooster.
The good news was the log that has always been right below the second drop was gone. The bad news was there was another one in exactly the same spot that spanned the entire river! Doh! We reconvened below Euphoria and dropped the last couple ledges before the NW fork confluence. Before this day, Teakettle was the only hole that had ever stopped and surfed me. I knew the mistake I made last time and remembered the drop, so with some butterflies in my stomach decided I didn't want to scout and psych myself out. This time I was where I wanted to be and blasted through upright. Matt came next and greased it as well!
Below here was a small drop that messed with both of us, then we arrived at the double drop/crack. I had said if there was no snow I would consider it and the banks were dry so we started scouting. In the end we decided that even if you didn't have a good line you would flush so I gave it a go followed shortly by Matt. In the videos I had seen of this drop it seemed people struggled to get left. I over-corrected for this, then took a piss-poor stroke. The result was as one would expect from a bad line.
Matt said my boat came completely out of the water and pitoned the wall before landing upside down!
Matt came next and landed against the wall on the top drop.
He worked his way off and had the best line on the bottom I had seen up to that point. He stayed dry and I could see him holding his paddle in a way that indicated he was waiting to brace, but it never happened and he just sailed through with his paddle out of the water. Iv'e since adopted Matt's line through here; taking a right stroke through the bottom drop and leaning ever so slightly left into the pillow. Below here it was a short ways until we met John, who was waiting at the next bridge (we were surprised and appreciative that a kayaker showed up early!), and continued downstream. We had fun with the seal launch around Bowey Falls, then headed downstream. Not too far below Bowey is a series of small sliding ledges. I came down pretty casually and got stuck in a little hole at the bottom. I was in there for a few seconds before working my way out. We cruised down the rest of the run, too much fun. We got onto the main Washougal and Matt surfed the waves below the confluence for awhile. Eventually we made it to the surprise drop. Which is a little waterfall coming in on creek left that i easy to lap. It is shallow but it wasn't a problem.
John comes down
We each dropped down it every which way a few times before we made it to the take out and did shuttle.
Matt surfing the hole below the falls just for fun
Nick, Alex and I took advantage of the recent snow and snowboarded as much as we could around Gresham. Then Nick and I took it further and went to Utah (where his college is located) and boarded down there for three days. On the final day we hit the rail gardens in Salt Lake City. We made a quick video of what we had done over those couple of weeks. Here it is.
Jordan Englert, Rob Cruser (my dad), and myself ran Rock Creek near Happy Valley after a recent high water event. Rock Creek flows into the Clackamas near the turn-off to Barton heading east on highway 212. The take out is actually right under the highway where Hwy 212 and 224 branch off. We set up a rope before hand to help with getting out of the gorge at the end. Driving up to Sunnyside road, we put-in behind a neighborhood that was being constructed. As of 2017 a park is being created further down that might be a better option for a put in. We carried our gear down through the woods and put in on the brown creek. From the get go we were dodging wood, but nothing sketchy. We had a couple easy portages and one encounter with a barb wire fence! We got to our first rapid(class 2-3), and it had wood in it so we portaged and I climbed up the wall to scout downstream . I could see a horizon line and knew we had arrived at the falls (where the park is being built) I had seen while scouting in the summer. We took turns running the class 3 lead in to the falls and scouted on the left.
When I had scouted the creek in the summer there had been people working there no trespassing signs were up so I hadn't taken a thorough look at the falls. We took a longer look this time and all had success on the left side, though its not especially deep over there. The right side looks like the way to go but there is a rock just under the surface that can only be seen at summer flows. I went first (far river left) and hit bottom slightly, but upright and it didn't hurt. My dad went next and stayed off the bottom in his IK. Jordan then went and while he hit his tail on something, it was all smiles. More water would allow for a cleaner boof off the left and the landing would be less of an issue. We continued downstream from here into the unknown part of the run for us.
My dad running the waterfall
There were a couple fun class III-IV bedrock rapids in here. In the best drop below the falls ( a small ledge drop), was a log/stick/hole combo in the landing, Jordan and I drove right to miss the wood and were successful, while my dad crashed into the stick and broke it off, cleaning up the drop significantly.
We continued on from here moving along quickly and portaging the occasional log jam. The walls were vertical and remarkably committing in places considering we were between neighborhoods, but everything was portageble at river level. There was at least one time where we portaged straight over a log jam, but most of the portages were pretty quick. There were a couple times when it was nice to have my dad in an IK since he can just hop out of his boat onto obstacles, no eddies needed!
There was one more ledge at the take out and a difficult eddy to grab, then we roped ourselves up the hill to our cars. If I went back I'd continue into the Clackamas and down to Riverside County Park where there is an easier take out.
Despite the challenges (or likely because of them) I enjoyed the trip, it was a novel adventure and a fun gorge to check out. It is only 1.5 miles long, so can be done quickly if the portages are not abundant.
The closest gauge is the Beaver Creek @ Troutdale Gauge. It needs to be above 7 ft. to have enough water to check out, 8-9' is better. Not sure how high you could go, wood and eddies would be more of a concern than the whitewater at high flows.
The first mile can be scouted from the right bank, the last 1/2 mile from the left before hand or from the creek most of the time. Down at river level it depends on where the wall is weakest.
After this adventure Jordan and I ran from Revenue to Dodge at 15 ft on the Bull Run gauge or so. Big water, the usually flat first quarter mile was class IV, and the rock with wood on it visible downstream of the put-in was of concern with water pushing hard into it. The entire run only took about 20-30 minutes with wood floating down the river the whole way and rocks heard crashing along the riverbed below us.
Paul Guinea, Eric Arllington, Matt King and myself all ran the Truss last weekend. It was Matt's first time running it, and he did really well. It was a little exciting seeing him surfing a hole in the first rapid! But he worked out and had a flawless run down the rest of the river. I walked Lower Zig-zag and BZ, while Paul had a no portage descent of the run. I ran Big Brother for the first time, which I was happy about. I had a clean line, upright and away from the cave. Double Drop was at a fun level. I think everybody made it through that upright. We didn't scout so Matt had a blind first run of Double Drop. The rest of the run went great and was fun but not super eventful. Paul and Eric ran lower Zig-zag which doesn't look very bad right now. Here is the video.
This is the video from Ryan Morgan and my first trip down the fabled Little White Salmon. The level was 2.5 feet which was a clean level for everything except Island and a drop right above it. Spirit also looked very clean at this level though we didn't run it. The left side of Chaos did look a little weird but the right side line didn't look super retentive, and you could still make it down the left. Here is the video
I changed the name of the blog do to the fact that I am no longer in high school. I have started college at Western Oregon University. I don't know if the new name fits, but it is going to be the new name. I also think the picture fits. Credit goes to Aubrey Russell for the picture.
Here are some pictures of Lower Lewis falls at low water and high water.
high water taken in June
low water taken in September
And Upper Lewis falls. They have both been run this high, though the Lower looks a lot worse to me at this level.
