Yaquina River

We did an exploratory run on the Yaquina river this weekend.  It is near the town of Summit, OR within an hour of Corvallis.  The run started out with a nice 7 ft ledge that deflected off a ledge at the bottom.  We ran this ledge, then began a long scout/portage on the left.

           Eric was going to boat scout this next section, but we decided to take a look and this saved him from a blind send of a 40' vertical falls into a pool with a highly suspect depth.  This falls may be runnable, but it was hard to see with all the brush. I might go back in the summer to check out the depth of the pool (A Summer scout a few years later confirmed a pool of marginal depth).

Following this were two more large waterfalls, the first landed on rock and was about 50' tall, the second was a slide to vertical that looked good except for a log across the lip.

Below the waterfalls the creek was all bedrock for awhile, blind and twisty class III/IV slides and ledges.  There was wood present, but I'm not sure if we had to walk anything for awhile.  After this I figured the run was over and would be flat till the end, but whenever I thought this was the case we would find another section of class III-IV bedrock slides.  The longest drop on this run below the falls would have been challenging to scout, but with the low levels we were able to just walk down the creek bed for a look.

Eventually we were portaging a log and saw a horizon line downstream, we scouted on a trail on the right side and saw that there was a nice waterfall here!  It was about fifteen ft with a short ledge just above.  The main drop was smooth and Chris dubbed it "Muddy Boof Falls" because he dried out in the center of it and hit some plant matter/dirt in the center of the drop and that caused the falls to be muddy for a couple minutes.  Also it was a nice boof at the bottom. If this was a run that was going to get repeated very often we might have whipped out the Thesaurus, but I doubt this run is going to get much future traffic outside of adventurous locals.  Below here I don't recall any rapids and the logs started piling up.   There were probably just under ten in this section.  Overall we were approaching twenty portages.

            We had low water.  Just enough to be considered kayaking.  This run would probably only be a true run if everything was just sort of flood, and preferably some of the wood near the end disappeared, even though these lower portages were not difficult.  When Sweet creek is too high, this probably goes.  We had 450 in the NF Alsea, 1500 SF Yamhill, and 2500 in the Luckiamute.  You would probably want around 1000 in the NF Alsea, and 2500 in the SF Yamhill.  At flows higher than this, the fun factor would go up, along with the stress factor.

Thanks to Chris Arnold, Eric Arlington, and Josh Grabel for carrying their boats through the woods with me, along with kayaking a bit.  Also to Chris Gabrielli for helping with shuttle and helping us figure out portage routes.

Put In:  44.7123, -123.5922

Take Out:   44.687, -123.5963 or wherever you can find.



Headwaters of the Yaquina River from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

-Jacob

Bridal Veil Falls

Jeremy kayaked Bridal Veil falls this last week.  He was followed shortly by the first ever raft decent of the falls by Dan Mccain.   Here is a teaser of the event taking place on the final day of my winter break.  Full footage will be in Ryan scott's new NWVS that will be coming out before too long.  More information on this can be found at gorgehits.com  

Check out www.ptnature.com for a great picture of Dan running the falls by Paul Thompson

Enjoy the clip 

 (but pardon the whistling, its an inside joke)

Bridal Veil from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

-Jacob

Henline Creek

Ran Henline creek today with Chris Arnold and Ryan Cole. Level@mehama was ~3300 dropping to ~2900. This was a good level, but we could definitely have used more water. I think 3500 and rising would be perfect and not too hairy, definitely cleaner. We all had great lines up top, with some collisions with rock occurring farther downstream. Scout the entire section ahead of time. The best part in my opinion is from where we put in, to the drop just below the bridge. I would just take out there and do another lap if I were to run it again.  Though it was nice to see the entire section of creek.        If you go in there, you might want to bring a small handsaw for the put in drop, especially if there was more water, but we had no problems at all getting through there. Really no wood to be cautious about at this time, although it might be convenient to get rid of a couple branches here and there though. I had a blast on this small creek. If the levels are similar to what we had, you might want to bring your rock boat. Scout everything before you put on (not hard to do), and hike out on a trail on creek right (though this is not the best place to scout from below the bridge). Pretty tame hike to the put in on Creek right though, and you can scout on the way up. -Jacob

Ohane/Roaring River attempt

This last week I was able to head North to the Mt Rainier area with Ryan Cole, Chris Arnold, and their friend Shawn (didn't catch last name, sorry). We were able to spend two days running the Ohanepecosh river from secret campground down to the Clear Fork confluence. The first day I loved the river, and by the second day, it had become one of my favorite runs. It is super clean for the most part with a plethora of great boofs and boulder drops.

Nothing mandatory was super challenging, but if you wanted to get your gnar on, their is definitely a couple drops that fit the bill, with one definitely being a class above the rest. Even the seal launch at the put in was awesome and a great way to start the day. Also, with no boring sections, I couldn't have asked for much more.

There were a couple portages. There are three, and they all kind of sneak up on you if you aren't scouting. The first is the log slide, you cannot see the log until you are directly above the ledge, and its not an easy place to get out at that point. If you haven't done the run before, be watching out for a slower section at the downstream end of secret campground where you are running a few hundred yards of class two. When you see a headwall downstream and a small horizon, get out on the left. Another is in what I have heard referred to as "Triple Drop" You will see some wood piled up, portage on the left. Below this a ways is a shallow drop with a small slide on the right that piles into a boulder. The next boulder garden has wood clogging the bottom. Make sure to catch an eddy on the left to scout, and probably portage. It looked like far left would have gone though.

The hole above the falls produced one flip, but this flip pushed the boater left and he was able to have the best boof of the day off the left side slot on the falls(noone else was able to make it left). At this level gutting the hole was the only way to make it left, but there was enough water to take the sneak route as well (~1000 cispus@randle). The final drop has changed noticeably. Definitely worth a scout now. We all ran the main line the first day, but the second day Chris and I decided to try the right side because it looked pretty fun. It was, but unfortunately Chris pitoned on a hidden protrusion in the first drop. If anyone tries this side, make sure you stick your nose on the right wall and keep it there as you slide down while keeping you bow up. The left side goes really well too, just don't get stuck in the hole dominating the center of the river.

Last week we tried running lower Roaring River, we never found the put-in even after three attempts. The upper would have still been accessible in the right vehicle, but that is probably no longer the case. The lower is probably even snowed in for awhile at this point. Here is the video.

Ohanepecosh and Roaring river attempt from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

-Jacob

~1000 Cispus at Randle

just over 2000 cowlitz at Randle

Slick Rock Creek

Photo by Nate Merrill

Nate, Matt and I ran Slick Rock Creek off highway 18 on the way to Lincoln city back when we had water a few weeks ago.  I had found the creek by chance last year and had wanted to go back to check out what was in there.  Strangely enough, you can drive right to the put-in for this creek on an old forgotten looking gravel road.  The take out we used was right under highway 18.  At the put in there are boulders on bedrock, and immediately enters a section with gorge walls.  We put in and were swept downstream quickly through many class four boulder gardens.  We boat scouted all the boulder gardens, so we didn't get many pictures except where Matt hopped out once.

(photo by Matt King)

Somewhere in here was an island with some bedrock.  We took the left and it was a fast slide ending in some mank, but the right side looked better with a slide and ledge.

       At one point I was in the lead and came across a steeper drop with bedrock on the sides of the walls.  I hopped out to look while Matt and Nate caught up and bashed through some devils club to see a nice double drop.   I signalled Matt through, and Nate went next off verbal beta, then I came down.    It was a nice break from the boulder gardens.

Myself in "Twist off"

(photo by Matt King)

Nate coming through the bottom hole in Twist Off.

(photo by Matt King)

Reason for the name from Matt- "cause it's sometimes nice to get a beer that you can crack easily, but them easy crackin' beers don't taste as good as others."  It also was sort of a twisty drop.

 Below here there were two spots we portaged for wood, and eventually the creek tapered off down to class II-III for the last quarter mile.  In this section Matt found a rope swing and tried it out, in the video it is obvious to tell it was created for low water use :)

            Before too long we passed a building with "park ranger" or something like that on the side.  I decided to hike out here because I was jogging the shuttle, according to a local the guy in this building is only there in the Spring.  Nate and Matt continued downstream and reported more class III and a surf wave on the way to the highway take-out.  

          The people in the area were very friendly and were interested to see kayakers.  I jogged back to the car, evaded our car alarm (Oakland the dog), and headed back to the highway within 5 min. of Nate and Matt arriving.  The video is not very indicative of the drops, as we have no footage of any rapids except the class III+ stuff at the put-in.   At high flows this run would be rockin'.  Really its a mini version of lower Roaring River.  It's about half the length, the shuttle is 5 min. instead of over an hour, no hike, and the wood situation is better.  Maybe a good way to warm up for Roaring River.

             level of the SF Yamhill should be around 2000, a boater could probably paddle all the way down to 1000, but I wouldn't recommend that. Not sure how high you could go safely.  We had about 1500 and there were a few F.U. rocks.  From Pat Welches site. we ran it 11/18  

A couple weeks ago Ben Sigler and Dan McCain fired up the put-in drop on Butte Creek Oregon.  There used to be wood in there but its good now.  The rafters cleaned up on "The Butte Crack", so I guess it goes.  Here is a video from these two trips.

Slick Rock Creek/Butte Creek from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

And I forgot to credit it on the video, but the photos in the video are by Matt King

-Jacob


** Since we ran the creek, a gate has been installed along the access road.  This means a short hike is now required to reach the put in.

Rafting the Little White

I didn't get to be there today, but Dan McCain and Ben Sigler from ORT ran the Little White today.  They had a great trip, and cleaned almost everything.  They chose not to run Stovepipe or Island, but they went for everything else.  Including a clean run of Spirit! 

 Check out this photo taken by Paul Thompson of ptnature.com

More photos from this trip will be on that site in the next week or so.  As well as video on Ryan Scott's website http://gorgehits.wordpress.com/

          -Jacob

Tumalo Creek

Put in drop was fun.  Then we were glad there was usually a trail along the creek as we portaged our way down to Tumalo Falls.



The most runnable action was gained from a short side hike up the Middle Fork of Tumalo Creek.

The run would be exceptional without wood, but wood there is.