Hagen Creek

Photo: Matt King

BETA
 

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.

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Original Write-up

Hagen/NW Fork Washougal/Washougal/Bonus falls
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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

-Jacob

riding out the storm

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.

Rock Creek(Lower Clackamas Tributary)

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.

-Jacob

Truss

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.

Little White 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

First Time on the LW from Ryan Morgan on Vimeo.

Name Change

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.

and this is the Upper falls the day we ran it.

all photos by Aubrey Russell

Quartzville Creek

                                                                  Photo: Pete Giordano

BETA

Stream:  This is one of the best runs in the Willamette Valley portion of Oregon's Cascade Mountain Range.  With good flows, it is not stop class IV action for 17 miles.  I like to start at Greg Creek and groove through the culvert before walking down to Quartzville Creek, but more commonly people put in a mile upstream at a bridge over Quartville itself.

Just below Greg Creek the rapids kickoff with TD, a boulder garden leading into an 8' ramp.  This sets the tone for the difficulty level of the trip, if you are having a good time here you are in for a great day of boating.  The next two miles are referred to as "Upper Quartzville" and everything can be run down the main channel read and run style if you are comfortable with some reactionary boating, or you can scout the horizon lines if you prefer to plot things out.  This section is fantastic, and people often drive up here just to do laps on it.

The end of "Upper Quartzville" is at the Wrapped Bridge, the remains of an old road bridge taken out by a flood that has been strewn along the right bank just downstream of the replacement bridge.

Below the wrapped bridge you enter "Middle Quartzville", the least commonly run section.  In here is more great class IV, but also two notable rapids that need to be scouted and likely portaged.  The first is Pick-Up-Sticks, a small rapid that collects huge amounts of wood.  This can be portaged, and sometimes run right.  If you get suckered into the inviting eddy on the left just above the logs, the portage is more difficult.  Yet the eddy on the right is smallish at high levels, and you don't want to miss it.

An easier section leads to Double Dip, the most dangerous rapid on the river downstream of Pure Hate.  The eddies above this rapid should be scouted during the shuttle, there is a pull out and rock outcrop 1/4 mile upstream of a bridge from which it is easy to do this.  Double Dip has two powerful ledges, and the hole in the bottom one is dangerous.  This drop is almost never run, and can be portaged along the road.

Downstream the fun continues, easing off a bit until the confluence with Canal Creek.  The next section is where the big ledges are, usually accompanied by large holes.  There are class IV lines through them, but if you are in the wrong spot you could be in for a dangerous beat down at high water.

 Photo: Lucas Rietmann

Downstream of the ledges the rapids ease off as you enter the lower section.  This section cruises along with only occasional class IV rapids, but it's prime time for boof and hole hunting.  The rapids down here tend to be long boulder strewn rapids, with the occasional large hydraulic.  At low water this section is class III.  The final set of rapids comes below Dogwood Recreation site, with the crux coming in a gorge at a left hand turn.  Here you want to stay right through the bottom, as a large hole guards the center of what is now a river at the bottom.  Once through the gorge, take the right channel at a log strewn island and it's bee-bop down to the reservoir.  At 3,000-4,000 cfs give or take this is currently my favorite day of class fun kayaking in Oregon.  At these flows, you are really missing a treat if you pass on the opportunity to do the whole 17 miles.



  
Flows:  Quartzville has it's own gauge, and a wide range of flows.  If levels are between 1,000-2,500 I prefer just doing laps on the Upper Section.  2,500-4,500 is prime for the whole enchilada.  Over 6k the lower section is some of the best big water boating around, but the ledges in the middle section are huge and the upper is class V.  10k is not too high for a soft class V experience, and has been playboated at that flow.

Access:  Access information

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Trip Report
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Matt, Nate, Bobby and I ran Quartzville on Friday. ~1400 on the gauge led to a good spring flow. Last time we had over 2000 on the gauge but at 1400 we had more water in the creek. So the Oregonkayaking description holds true again in regards to spring requiring less water than winter or fall. No snow at all and a super nice day. scouted the first time down and took some video. Bobby threw an interesting version of a freewheel off Grocker that involved a piton/bow stall, but it was pretty sweet looking! Actually Bobby had a lot of super cool moments including an upside down low brace that should not have worked plus held on for a beat down in Movie Star that he was able to work his way out of.

             Scariest part of the day was Matt got pinned under a log in the middle of a slide near the put-in and had his skirt implode, leading to his first time out of a boat in almost a year as he floated downstream with a boat full of water. (this log is no longer there)   Nate also had an impressive safe in Movie star with an iron fingers move holding onto the wall as the hole tried to suck him back in, Matt came to the rescue there. The take out ender hole looks cool, Matt and Nate both went for some old school tricks and Matt came completely out of the water while Nate went for the loop. Second lap we just bombed and that is always so fun on this creek. Did the run in 40 minutes, could have been 30.


Quartzville creek from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

We then loaded up and raced the failing light to get to Mcdowell for a park and huck of a clean 8 footer. It was squeeky clean and I threw two freewheels off it. We thought we saw a horizon line a ways downstream, so we ran the next slide, which falls onto a shelf but is actually a smooth transition, just watch out for the wood on the left. Then dropped a small ledge slide, followed by a class two shelf. Below here was a small slide into some wood that looked pretty sketchy so we looked for a way to portage, none. Then a way to get out of the mini gorge, none. So we put some effort into attaining/ wading our way back upstream, then groveling up the brushy bank. We took different ways up, some of ours more efficient than others...

I then made the long drive back to Gresham, and slept well after a great day of kayaking.

-Jacob

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Both pictures by Pete Giordano

        Two weekends ago I got to run Quartzville creek with Matt King, Pete Giordano, Paul ?, Jason Rackley, and James Bagley.  I had high hopes from reading Jason's description of it and I was not let down.  The run is every bit as fun as could be hoped.  It is class IV-IV+ with a minimal amount of time spent not running a fun drop.  We did two laps, with the second definitely being the funnest, as we didn't scout, just flew down the run.  My favorite drops were Grocker and wooden wall, they were both low stress boofs, with short, but requiring focused lead-ins,

          The run starts with TD, a boulder garden with a pin spot that is easy to miss if you know where it is, followed by an 8 foot slide that Matt went for the gut on both times.  It looked fun, but for some reason noone else was up for it, the rest of us boofed left.  Right around the corner is Grocker, it has a narrow lead in to a small hole that is the crux, deciding where you line up for the final ledge.  If you are in the right spot, you take a couple strokes, then launch off the rock center right, if not the consequences are minor.  Some fun, easier drops lead to Wooden wall.  I wasn't really looking forward to this drop because it looked like an uninteresting drop with high consequences.  It turned out to be much funner, much less consequential, and more interesting overall than I had imagined.  The move came down to one critical stroke, but it still took some effort to get lined up

 correctly.  Once you hit your boof, you bounce up and get pushed right and passed the log.

The log is just out of the shot on the left hand side of the picture 

I was told it used to be much more difficult, I am glad it has changed to what it is now 

        Some mellow water leads to David From Behind, this was next on my list of fun rapids.  Most of us snuck on the left side, where you had to boof right then ferry hard to miss a rock.  Again, low consequence, but interesting.  Pete decided to try out the much more complicated right side, and ran it perfectly.  After some smaller rapids, we arrived at Corkscrew, which was the most anticipated drop for me.  We can be thankful that there are people who are willing to cut logs out of drops in the summer, because this one would be unrunnable without the help of "Spider", who cut a log 43" in diameter out of this drop.  This drop was a super fast mini S-turn with no hole, again, low stress family fun.

What I remember most was flying into the eddy at the right to a whoop from Jason, who was leading the cheering squad on this day.  I have never boated with someone so excited to be on a river! He mustered up a cheer for every boater on every major drop!  It's nice to a have that kind of enthusiasm on the river. 

   Next is Movie star, this had a big hole that James, Matt and Pete ran down the gut on the second lap, while the rest of us boofed right.  

   Below here are some fun boulder gardens, then a small ledge before the take out, Matt went for the ender and got popped completely out of the water! This is the same ledge on the Oregon Kayaking trip report for the creek.  

      After this we headed to Canal Creek to do the falls to falls run.  It was too low, but Matt and I did it anyway.  The upper falls had wood, making it what I would deem unrunnable. 

      I would like to say thanks to Matt for the invite, and the whole crew for showing me down this very fun run.

   

  -Jacob