Sierra Summer

Abe finally got around to editing some of his GoPro footage from last summers tour of the Sierra's.

Footy includes clips from the NF Yuba, Pauley Creek, Middle Fork Feather, and the South Branch of the Middle Feather.

Can't wait to head back down to California this summer.

If you're planning a paddling trip to Ecuador, be sure to check out Boof Sessions!

http://www.ecuadorpaddling.com/

-Nate

Surgical Strike: The Box

SURGICAL STRIKE:  (Noun) an attack, usually without prior warning,

intended only to deal with a specific target.  

A few months back, when flows were low across the Pacific Northwest, and the summer flows of the Little White had faded along with the color in the leaves, I was searching for something to run, and willing to go a long way to get it.  My buddy Chris Totten, who lives up in Seattle, happened to be on his way back from a fishing trip with his dad in Idaho and stopped in La Grande for a beer break.  We got to chatting about what to boat, and remembered that there were releases on the Ashlu into the fall.  So we made a plan to get on it the final weekend of scheduled releases, which happened to be the next weekend!

After doing a little bit on interneting, I found the website where you request flows for the Box, and was able to talk to representatives from the hydroelectric company who assured me that flows would be available, I just had to make the request.  Check it out here:  www.innergex.com/kayak/

So I made the request, finished up work on Friday afternoon, and hopped in the rig, and thus began the Surgical Strike.  The next morning, Chris and I met up with Adrian Wigston, another friend from seattle, rearranged the gear, made sure we had our passports, and set off to Canada.

We went straight to the put-in for the box, got out of our car, and were immediately given beer and other goodies from some new Canadian friends that showed up a minute after us.  They were just cruising about the woods having a good time, and wanted to make us feel welcome.  Gotta love those Candians, aye!

Stoked to be at the Put-in!

Amazing scenery and a super stout drop

 We walked on past 50-50, and dropped into the epic canyon.  Chris had been down before, so we were just tailing him through every thing.  The Ashlu is one of the most beautiful and impressive places I have ever been, and I'll let the pictures do the talking from here. 

 Sequence of Adrian and I dropping in

One of so many perfect drops!

Once you leave the boxed in part of the canyon, there's still more, it opens up into huge boulder gardens.  The highlight is this killer double drop, depicted below.

One.

And two.

But the rest is still pretty dam good.  The following shots are of Chris and I at the same move, one from above, the other from below.  Nice little rockslide boof in the middle of huge boulders.  Perfect.

And then there's more. 

Totten on one of the final boofs.

After we got off day one, we headed up to Whistler for some Saturday night raging.  By the time we left the club, where there was plenty of dubstep and dance-pop, we were all soked in sweet and went and crashed in the Whistler parking lot.  We awoke at 7 AM when the guard came by and wrote a ticket for camping in Lot 4, so we headed back to the Ashlu, grabbed some z's on the forest, and lapped the box a couple times before heading back.  We were in Canada for less than 36 hours.  That's what they call a Surgical Strike!

Signing off,

Matt

Ducky Fun

A couple more videos involving the IK.


Pat and I visited our friend in Rainier for a weekend. I decided to poke around on the maps and internet to see if there was anything worthy of exploration. I came up with this backyard adventure involving a 2.5 mile hike into a forgotten park. A short but rewarding gorge was the ticket for the day.



A seven and a half mile hike into Thomas Creek was the perfect adventure for last weekend. The next day I found out how to drive all the way to the falls though!




Map to drive to the falls.



Happy viewing,

-Jacob

The Bomb Dry suit

Paddling in the PNW can be cold!

Photo: Nate Merrill

Last year we went on a trip where 3 of us were forced to hike off an exploratory trip in the snow.  We hiked for 8 hours, 4 of which were at night.  Two of us wore dry suits, one was in a dry top and shorts.  The person in a dry top experienced hypothermia and none of us had any illusions about his chances for survival if we did not make it out that night.  The dry suits were the difference and we all learned valuable lessons on that trip.  

Lesson learned, the correct gear on the return trip.

Photo: Keel Brightman

You can kayak in this drysuit.

Photo: Melissa Fowler

Kayaking makes me smile, especially with the warmth of a new drysuit.

Photo: Melissa Fowler

Being warm and dry inspires confidence when there is ice on the walls!

Photo: Emile Elliot

    -Jacob

Top of the Rock video

Ryan Scott edited a short video on this section of stream.  It can be viewed below.  His website has more pictures and a few words.   http://gorgehits.wordpress.com 



Rock Creek, WA - Headwaters Canyon - (Top of the Rock) from CRG Video on Vimeo.

Our trip report

    -Jacob

Little Luckiamute: In to town

BETA

Stream: This section has a write-up in the back of Soggy Sneakers but gets little attention.  It doesn't have the best whitewater, but it does have whitewater and is roadside.  I ran it a number of times while I was in college because it was close by and I could jog/scooter the shuttle between classes.  If you are a class V boater the drop below the take out might interest you.

I usually started at camp Tapawingo, but it is possible to start at the white gate at the take out for The Gorge section.  Below the Tapawingo bridge is a short bit of class I-II before the creek drops away through several steep and braided channels.  Sometimes the top had to be portaged.

Below here it's class III or IV depending on flow with some flatter parts.  Watch out for wood but there was never enough to bother me.  Before reaching a decommissioned park there is a steep rapid that is pretty intermediate at normal flows but on one high water trip it was not and the person I was paddling with took a heinous swim and lost their gear.  They were pretty shook up.  I'd rate the drop more IV+ that day with some real holes.

Below the park the creek eases off and it's splashy class III at high water and technical class II at low water until you pass under another bridge.  Below this bridge things build slowly back to class III-IV depending on flow and there are a couple ledges with solid holes at high flows.

Work right as you approach Falls City Falls, the eddies along the bank over there are plenty easy to catch but you wouldn't want to miss them and if you enter the lead in too far left you might not be able to stop above the Falls.  Fortunately it's easy to scout the take out before putting on from Falls City Falls park and I'd recommend doing that.

This is the end of the trip, but you won't be able to help but look for the line at Falls City Falls.  It's a pretty serious and messy drop, but if you decide to run it taking out at the foot bridge behind Fink's Market is easy.

  
Flows:  I take a look at Falls City Falls from the take out to gauge flows for the run, located here: 44.867172, -123.438568. 

Pat Welch has an online estimate, I usually look for 400-1,000 cfs for the Little Luckiamute to be in but have run it both higher and lower.  Iv'e paddled it a hair under 200 before.  If levels are rising I don't want to see that gauge above 500 or so though, in fact if levels are rising fast I usually avoid this stretch. This river doesn't get more fun, just more stressful at high water.  Rickreall or the main Luckiamute are better high water options that are nearby.

There are three rocks at the falls that can help you get an idea what kind of flows you have.  
-  If flows are going over the yellow (L) rock, you have enough water to paddle the river. 
-  If water is going over the blue (M) rock, you have good/medium flows.  
-  If water is going over the orange (H) rock, you have high water. 

Too Low

This was taken at a low, runnable flow. 

Photo: Adam Edwards

Medium

High water.  Iv'e put on at Camp Tapawingo twice at high water and it was stressful both times.  Priscilla had a life adjusting swim on one of those trips.  Using the lower put in makes this section more reasonable.  Watch out for some large holes in the half mile above Falls City Falls, and make sure you can stop above it.

I have not paddled the river this high.

Access:  Drive into Falls City Falls via Falls City rd, a short way past the High School and near the end of town is Fink's Market.  Pull in here to grab your food, water, beer, etc for the day.  Drive another 100 yards past Fink's and you will see a bridge, cross over the bridge and turn right. There is a small gravel parking area on the right in about 100 yards with some boulders and sometimes a port-toilet.  This is the take out, where you can assess flows and check out the eddy situation for taking out above Falls City Falls.

To get to the put in cross back over the bridge and immediately turn left, then veer left again in 1/4 mile.  The road becomes gravel, continue about 3 miles to a right turn into Camp Tapawingo/Black Rock Mt Bike area.  You will shortly cross the put in bridge where you will find ample parking.

* For a shorter/easier run once you hit gravel continue only 1.5 miles to what used to be a park on the right (but is blocked by boulders in 2018).  This can be used as a put in.

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Original Write-up
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Plan B: Falls City Falls

One of the first things I did upon arriving to college freshman year at Western Oregon University was to go check out the waterfall that was in the neighboring town of Falls City.  Driving there and asking locals to its locale I found it looking pretty marginal that day, but maybe at a different flow it would go?

I have returned to that falls many times since that first trip at all variety of flows.  I had never felt inspired to run it.

Last weekend my roommate Pat and I were trying to get to the Valley of the Giants, but got turned back by snow.  I figured we were driving right by Falls City Falls on the way back so might as well take another look at it.

I knew right away that it was runnable on this day, the flow was perfect and I had the feeling.  All I had was the IK, but sometimes I feel better in that thing anyway.  I scouted for half hour or so then had Pat drop me off half a mile upstream to warm up and remember how the IK handled.

Arriving at the falls I scouted for a few more minutes and then headed to my boat.

The line went exactly according to plan and can be viewed below.  I never thought I would run this drop and it was surreal to paddle towards it and then away from it.  Another personal boundary breached.

I think the online estimate was about 700 cfs and stable or dropping.



   -Jacob

Silver Creek (Silverton)

This run was always on the back of my mind being close to school, but I had never gone for it thinking it was a big mission so as such it was on a large list near the bottom.  I may have been reading between lines that weren't there in the existing literature, but I was under any Winter trip to Silver Creek would be a fight against darkness.  Fresh off a different big mission and a sore hind quarters from a bad line off Cascada De Los Ninos Nate and I decided we were just fine with a moderate mission.  John Edwards thought that sounded like a good time too, Silver seemed the ticket and levels were there so went for it.

Kayaking was banned in the park at some point, but AW is in talks with State Parks to see if an agreement could be reached that would allow kayaking.  Stay tuned.  

We didn't see anyone else up there, maybe it was a weekday or something.  I don't recall.

The levels were not as high as we expected, more of a healthy-low.  The snow put us in a good mood as we walked and dragged our boats down the trail. 

 We may or may not have run Drake Falls, which may or may not be the funnest 20 footer around.  This drop no longer has wood in it.  Twin and Lower North were definitely wood riddled as of 2012.  

If you really want it there is a line.

Once we reached the confluence there was an easy slide or two before reaching Crag Falls.  We ran this on the right, the best line being as close to the tree as you are comfortable, too far to the right of the tree and you may find a chest level rock in the landing.

There was some tame water below here with some moderate scenery.  Eventually we caught the easy eddy on the left above Dobo Falls.  Dobo is a weird falls that saw three upright lines, but lets just say I’m glad the camera wasn't recording my descent.  

Nate gets it done.

Just below was a ledge we ran on the right with a more interesting looking line on the left.

Following that was a lengthy class two stretch before Dirty Falls that has a slide on the right that is smoother than it appears from the lip.

There was a bridge with a slide best run center left below here, then another extended class two float to Murrays Rapid.  This one had a sticky hole, and we were a bit lethargic after nodding off through the easy section and all snuck the hole either left or right.  

John takes a lefty on the right.

 This was the last drop and we were soon on the reservoir, with the take out on the far side.

Silver Creek may have a unique appeal:  John pointed out this would be a good run to take a newer boater.  Someone would need to be able to catch eddies and have some form of a roll, but there is a lot of good class two on the run to practice on with a variety of different types of the easy variety rapids, with a couple more interesting drops for the teacher to have fun on and introduce the newer boater to some of the more advanced techniques involved in kayaking (larger drops are easily portaged).  The most challenging moment would be Dirty falls where a wave hole guards the river right eddy.  A further up eddy can be caught before the lead in though.

3000 cfs on the Molalla seemed low and friendly, but the run would be floatable down to 2000-ish.  Also, while the run is 11 miles, we were on the water less than 4 hours.

I now use the Butte @ Monitor gauge for Silver Creek, I don't have it dialed but 400 cfs is a low runnable, and 1,000 is probably a filled in and padded med-high flow. 

It can also be run at flood level.

    -Jacob

post script:  There is a clean 50 footer above the put in that gets run.