Boofs & Blunts: Washouglal Drainage Double Header

Creek runs, play spots and fun class 3-4 river running the Washougal Drainage has it all! Hagen Gorge, Stebbins Creek, and the Washougal Hole are just a few of the world class spots to paddle.

The close proximity of the runs in the Washougal drainage make it possible to hit multiple runs in a day even when day light hours are short. The Washougal Hole is a great play feature and back to back with one of the other creeks in the area it makes for a super fun day! With a large storm pounding Oregon and Washington I eagerly followed the gauge on the Washougal hoping to nail a double header and paddle Hagen Gorge then have a play session at the Washougal Hole.

With the gauge on the Washougal reading about 2400 and gently rising I thought it was a bit of a gamble to get both. But the prospect of the double header had myself, Bryon Dorr and Ryan Young unable to pass up the opportunity, we were joined by Rob for Hagen Gorge. When we pulled up to the bridge at the take out for Hagen I was a little disappointed in the flow. But with the plan already in action we headed to the put in!

New wood in the beginning of the run
The portage above the gorge

We scraped our way down the first section to the portage, portaged then paddled down to the good stuff. Lack of water made it a little bony and anticlimactic, but with good spirits we arrived at the first falls. We took a quick scout for wood and all ran the falls. It was surprisingly clean for low water and we paddled out of the eddy with smiles!

Bryon Dorr Running the first falls.

Bryon Dorr Euphoria Falls

After Euphoria Falls we paddled down to the confluence where Skamania Mines Creek confluences with Hagen Creek to make the NF Washougal and were delighted to have more flow!

Bryon Dorr
Teakettle Falls

Teakettle is one of my favorite drops on the run, it looks a little burly but it always goes! Last but not least was the double drop. This is probably the hardest rapid on the run. With a kinda tricky 12 ft boof into a walled out mini gorge, then a tight exit through a narrow slot drop. With the lack of water the entrance boof was a bit tricky. The boys were a bit concerned but were stoked to see me probe it. After I hit my line Ryan and Bryon stepped up for there shot and fired it up!

Ryan Young
Double Drop

Ryan goes deep at the slot Bryon Dorr The Slot

After we were done Hagen Gorge we drove back down to the takeout brideg for the play run where the little mercantile is and sampled some of the local fare. Ryan went with a dog and all the fixin's and I choose a pizza stick! We warmed up with a little coffee since we were still in our paddling gear, ate, and headed up to put in.

Now I have been coming to the Washougal hole since Bryan Fields, Ken Pita and the old Playboating NW crew showed it to me about five or six years ago and I've always been keen on the spot. What I have come to learn over the years is that the Washougasl Hole is one of the premier play spots in the NW. No B.S. from 2500-7000cfs this spot is rock'n! If yo don't believe me then that is cool I will continue to have the hole to myself. However I encourage paddlers to check it out, I could use the extra rest in the eddy! To get to the play spot paddlers have to park at the pull out on the right side of the Washougal R. road just on the other side of the NF Washougal bridge. Then walk back across the bridge and bushwhack down to the bedrock shelf on river right on the N Washougal. Put in and paddle down to the confluence with the main Washougal and continue a short distance to the Washougal Hole. You will not miss it, as it is very obvious when you get there. It is less then 10 minutes from the put in to the play spot and if you are lucky there is a warm up spot on the NF!

Bryon Dorr
Rat Hole

This is Suicide Hole, directly below Rat Hole and is the window shade special if you are not careful! With high water this turns into a epic play wave!

Suicide wave is on the surfers right shoulder of the Suicide Hole. Paddlers can either drop in after surfing Rat Hole or make the tricky Suicide Ferry across the hole and onto the wave! The Washougal Hole changes at different levels but in my experience has always givin up the goods. So don't be surprised if it looks a bit different when you are there!


Enjoy!
Happy Holidays!

TR: Eagle Creek, Clackamas R. Drainage

There are two Eagle Creeks within close proximity to Portland. The more famous of the two is in the Gorge, the other is a tributary to the Lower Clackamas River. When most people talk about Eagle Creek you hear about the hike in, large waterfalls, and challenging rapids in a walled out gorge! However you may also hear whispers of fun class 3, with a couple of waterfalls, and a few log portages. This tributary to the Clackamas is in various NW guide books however the descriptions were written ages ago, with one dating back to the 80's. So I figured why not get some new info out there. The creek is broken up into three sections. the first and upper most section is above the fish hatchery and is rarely run. The book called the run fast class 2-3 with a waterfall just above the fish hatchery. The fish hatchery has a electric line in the water at the fish hatchery to detour fish from going upstream to spawn. I do not know much about this so if you intend to run this stretch make sure to find out! The second stretch is the one described in this trip report. We put in at the fish hatchery and ran down to Eagle Fern Park then continued aprx. a quarter mile or less to the falls just below the park. We took out on river right by climbing 20 ft up the bank and to the road. The third section is from Eagle Fern down to the park above the confluence of Eagle Creek and the Clackamas River.

Dave Bakkum enjoying fun class 3 in the upper stretches of the run

Eagle Creek is a nice intro for paddlers looking to dial in there creeking skills that want to tackle some of the NW's best creek run. Its tight class 3 read and run nature, the portages and the waterfalls make a great entry level creek run. It starts of with fast moving class 2 which quickly leads to a few portages. I believe there were about 4-5 all at river level, and requiring no more than a few minutes to get around. Don't get discouraged it won't be long before a nice horizon line shows indicating that you are at the clean 15ftr!

Dave Bakkum running the clean 15ftr

Fun class 2-3 precedes the toughest rapid on the run, paddlers will know they are there when the go past the small youth camp on river left. The rapid that follows is the toughest of the day. A fun class 3+ that ends with a small ledge!

Class 3 above the the 3+ rapid

The class 3+ with the small ledge at the bottomBelow this is more class 2-3 and unless paddlers are going to take on the second falls the worst or best is behind them. Immediately after Eagle Fern Park is a 3ft weir with a easy line right down the middle. Once you have passed the weir keep on your toes it is not long until paddlers hit the second falls. The second falls is a bit tougher than the first the book called it a class 6, this is definitely not the case. A good class 5 at most with a nice class 3 sliding entrance that leads to a 6ft boof on the far right up against the fish ladder.

The second falls below Eagle Fern Park

The boof is in the far left of this pic, it is not the obvious dark flake but the one just left of the nice looking flake banking of the concrete wall. The obvious dark flake falls into the bedrock coming in from the middle of the falls.


Till next time!

Unlocking the Mystery: Fly Creek, WA.

Fly Creek is a tributary of the classic Canyon Creek run in Washington state. It confluences with Canyon Creek at the old put in for the Lower Canyon Creek section. Often at the Canyon Creek put in I would wonder what was up Fly Creek Canyon and why no body ever paddled it. As far as I could find out nobody had really paddled it since 1992. I confirmed that Mike Olsen and Bill Bowie had paddle it as well as Phil Unsworth but wasn't sure if they were on the same trip or not. After reading the description in the back of Jeff Bennett's book, "A Guide to the Whitewater Rivers of Washington" under "Other Runs and Adventure's" I understood why. The write up opens with "If you are itching for a day of epic self-inflicted punishment but the bondage gear is off at the dry cleaners. then this run is for you. This river is a masochist's dream: a solid serving of class 5-5+ drops interspersed with logs, big unrunnable waterfalls and portages." It wasn't till I had explored many of the other quality NW runs that I really got the itch to try and tackle this one. Another reason this run has remained in such obscurity is access issues. The put in lies on Warehouser property and the gate to access the put in road is only accessible during daytime hours in the hunting season. With our curiosity getting the best of us a crew of three myself. Chuck Taylor and Andy Lichtenheld decided to give it a go. After some good fall rains with the Canyon Creek gauge reading 900 and dropping we headed out on what would surely be an adventure! I would to pref is this trip report by revealing our lackadaisical approach to such a challenging run. Are morning went like this, I woke up about 15 min. before I was supposed to meet Chuck and Andy. As I gather my creeking gear for the first time this season I realize I can't find one of my creek booties, Urr. This puts the group behind by 30 minutes. We head out fueling up and grabbing essentials along the way gas, coffee, and food. We stop again at the Chelatchie Prarie store so we can drop of any extra pounds left over from last nights dinner. We also decide to stop at the bungee bridge to check out the log jam on Canyon Creek. This leads to an long conversation with the developers of a new adventure tour area that is being constructed at the bridge. We set shuttle and like amateurs we neglect to leave dry clothes at the take out, DUH! We then set off for the put in hoping we can find it with out wasting any more time. This of course does not happen as we get lost and end up in the out skirts of Yacolt. We head back locating the spot were we decide to drop into the canyon. We first take a quick scout and quickly descend to the river bank to confirm we were where we wanted to be. When we got to the creek we were stoked with what we saw ok flow and bedrock!

Chuck making his way to the put in

We geared up made our way back to the river and headed into the unknown, the time was 12:00pm.

Andy at the put in
Looking back at the put in rapid

The creek was initially class 2 with a few 4-6 foot ledges. We soon came upon a nice 15ft waterfall and jumped out to scout excitedly!

The ledges above the 15ft falls

The 15ft falls above the first portage
Chuck Taylor on the first falls

Andy Lichtenheld running the first 15ft falls Shortly after the first falls the river gorged out a bit and after a short class 3 drop a large horizon line showed up. We eddyhopped down just above the lip and hopped out of our boats. The river dropped off a 30-40 foot falls landing on a slab and then dropped another 15 ft or so. We quickly chose our portage route on river left.

Chuck and Andy looking at the falls
Looking at the falls from the portage
The Falls at the bottom of the portage, what a glorious site!

After portaging the falls the river had some nice class 3-4 boulder gardens which continued down to the first walled in gorge. The first gorge had a couple of smaller drops that swept quickly into a death sieve, then a slide that lead to a clean 10 ft boof which exited into a large pool.

Boulder gardens above the first gorgeWe were moving along at a good pace when we eddy hopped one eddy too far and found our self's walled in. We were lucky to have been able to portage the death sieve at river level. If the water was higher this could have been a really bad move.

The entrance to the first gorge.
Scouting in the 1st gorge
Looking back up at the entrance drops to the 1st gorge

The death sieve in the 1st gorgeThe portage around the death sieve through the blow down


The entrance rapid above the 10 ft boof drop

Chuck Taylor about to exit the 1st gorge

Andy Lichtenheld taking one last look at his line

The nice boof looking back up stream

Hopes were high at this point but it was short lived as we rounded the next bend and set eyes on a second gorge that looked equally challenging. This gorge was named Three Bone Gorge by the crew that went in in 1992. It consisted of a small slot entrance, a second larger slot style drop and what looked like a 15 or twenty foot large slot drop.

The entrance to 3 Bone Gorge

The 15ftr in 3 Bone Gorge

A quick scout sent us portaging on river right. It was on this portage that I started hoping there were no more gorges and that the whitewater as well as the portages would ease back. But as we portaged high above the gorge I could see large sections of white that seemed to be stout drops and falls. After portaging river right for too long we were forced back to the river by a tributary and roped our boats back down into the gorge. When I got back down to the gorge it appeared to have more stout runnable class 5. At this point I remember Chuck looking down stream and saying "What is that!" We hopped in out boats and crossed the creek to scout on river left. Below us was a 100ft falls. I would like to say I got a good look at it to determine its run ability but that was not the case. At this point it was getting late and I was wondering what time it was but I didn't ask because it didn't really want to know. We needed to find a portage route and get below the falls. This portion of the already too long portage was even worse. It started out easy and quickly became a test of will. Steep, logy, thorny, and unstable large lava rock, combined with the distance of this portage really took it out of us. When we finally got to the river again we were beat down and running out of daylight. The boulder gardens, steep slides, 100ft falls, and the gorge above the falls combined to make extremely high gradient and the heart of the canyon. back at river level was a nice looking 30 ft slide and another small portage. We put in, then portaged the next small log jam and were re leaved to see some flat stretches and small rapids. We paddled for less then five minutes before we heard a roar. Our hearts sank as dark was closing in on us. We had hoped to at least make the bridge over Fly Creek on the road that we had driven in on . This would mean that we could hike the 2 miles to the gate and be in the clear. A scout revealed more unrunable rapids. I asked Andy what time it was and he told me it was 5:15. I told him we needed to call it and start hiking out of the canyon. Andy wanted to portage around the next rapid and I reluctantly agreed. We made it about 50 yards and with one look down the river we all knew what our next move would be, hiking out. We stashed our boats and started out of the steep canyon. The hike started out extremely steep and tapered back as we neared the top of the canyon rim. We soon hit a unimproved road which gave us a small sense of security. The rain started coming down at this point but we continued in hopes that we would hit road 8300. A few washouts later we hit road 8300 and started going in the direction we thought would lead us to the bridge. As we started descending in knew we were going in the right direction and soon came to the bridge. Tired, dehydrated, and hungry we all took a sigh of relief even though we were still about 3 miles from the car. As we finished the hike out it started to thunder and lightning and the heavy rains resumed shortly after. Rounding the last bend and seeing the refection of the car was an amazing feeling. We loaded up and headed out but we all knew we would be back sooner than we wanted. We had left not only our boats in the canyon but Chuck's truck was locked behind the gate in warehouser land.

The next day I took Chuck back to retrieve his truck and that night we all agreed the following day we would go back for our boats and finish the run.

Hiking back into Fly Creek Canyon

The whitewater of Fly Creek far below

Thursday we drove back to Fly Creek, drove as far as we could, then started our steep hike back in to the canyon. Once we made it back to river level and our boats we continued to portage. Andy ran the first double drop and the class 3-4 rapids right after but we were all forced to portage do to logs and steep chunky boulder gardens. One of the sections had a 5+ pinch that dropped in steep chunks barely two boat widths wide.

The double drop that Andy ran


The chunky pinch



The boulders that help create the pinch
The nasty looking falls just aroound the corner from the pinch
A nice drop below the chunky stuff

We were finally able to put back in and the river eased back to class 3-4. This gave way to some fun class 4-5 slides and one class 4+ boulder garden. After the boulder garden we rounded the corner to see the bridge! At this point I felt a sense of accomplishment in completing the run despite our challenges from the previous days. We continued down stream through about 20min. of class 3-3+ until Fly Creek hit Canyon creek where we paddled onto C.C. and our take out!

The slides just above the bridge

Chuck Taylor
Andy Lichtenheld
The boulder garden around the corner from the bridge

Till next time!

Snake River / Hell's Canyon Section

Hell's Canyon of the Snake River

Hell's Canyon of the Snake is a wonderful multiday whitewater trip. The Wild & Scenic section is truly wild & scenic and if you have been there and taken it in you know it is much more than just another multiday whitewater trip. Not unlike the Grand Canyon, Middle Fork Salmon, and the Wild & Scenic section of the Rogue these places hold a page in history. It can be all too easy for us to get wrapped up in the adrenaline of the whitewater and miss what is truly unique. We can easily pass through these wild canyons and never see how truly special they are. I can not catch the canyon's true beauty in these pictures, so it is up to you to go and see for yourselves and explore nature's beauty!

After a long 7 hour drive the adventure starts here at Scotty's.

At Scotty's you will be treated to free coffee while you set up your shuttle which will cost $150 per vehicle. They will check your oil and make sure you are full on gas then have you leave a few extra dollars for gas.

The dam is about a 30 min. drive from Scotty's
The put in, just down stream from the dam

Snow on the top of the canyon

Once on the river the scenery is amazing. Here is Willie dwarfed by the canyon walls. October usually has mild temperatures but it was a little colder than usual. You can see the snow capping the very top of the canyon rim.

The river was running somewhere in the 20,000-25,000cfs range which was higher than usual for this time of the year. This flow created big volume rapids, large boils and fun eddylines. Wild Sheep was the biggest on our first day and the largest of the run. We camped a little ways down stream just above Granite the second biggest rapid on the run.

Wild Sheep Rapid as seen from the scout on river left

A raft dwarfed in the entrance at Wild Sheep A oar rig engulfed by Wild Sheep Willie in the left eddy below Wild Sheep Looking back up at Wild Sheep and the canyon aboveCamp 1: I believe this site was called Upper Granite Day 2 on the river started with Granite Rapid. The Green Room was not in but I heard about it. I was told the water was too high.

Granite Rapid Chris & Bruce Scouting Granite
Abandoned ranches lie silent in the canyon as historical sites

The lack of play waves kept us hunting for fun eddylines and whirlpools which we found in abundance. There wasn't much in the wave of quality play waves at this flow. I would be interested in seeing it at different flows, probably lower, to see if the play improved. However on the last day I found a nice wave that was catch on the fly. On the 2nd day just before we got to camp we paddled upon a absolutely amazing whirlpool. The depression made by the swirling water was probably 3-4 feet. When we caught good whirlpools we were getting pulled down so that barely our helmets were visible. This is the best swirls I've ever played in! The whirlpools were intimidating when they opened up and swallowed you in.

Willie playing in one of the whirlpools created by the powerful eddy

Camp 2

Camp 3 was at Kirkwood Ranch, where there is a flush toilet! Kirkwood is only about an hour or so from the take out. There are plenty of campsites around Kirkwood ranch but it was sure nice to stay at a site with nice toilets so we didn't have to get out the groover.
We got up early packed up and made quick work of the 4 miles or so of river we had left. We arrived at the takeout and derigged the raft then prepared for the 9 hour drive. On the way out of the canyon we got some parting shots and said good bye.

The take out

Parting shots with Hell's Canyon in the background

till next time...

Upper Upper Cispus River "Last but not Least"

Mt Adams

After the Little White drops, after the Green Truss is too low and when the rest of the NW summer creek runs have dropped below recommended flows... paddlers start heading to the Upper Upper Cispus! Bobby Miller a.k.a Zone Dogg showed up to have a little fun! That is Bobby in the blue/white NRS dry top. On this August day the gauge was reading about 650cfs. This is a nice flow, not too pushy and not too manky. When the water starts to drop the upper section of the run becomes manky and pinny.

Johny running the falls just around the corner from the put in.

Paddlers should think hard about running the falls just down stream from the put in, wood has gathered in the exit rapid that flows out of the pool below the falls. Most of the paddlers ran the falls on this day, while a few of us portaged. Some took the right eddy after running the drop, got out above the wood and portaged. A few ran the rapid and ducked the logs on river left.

The exit drop looking down stream

The exit drop looking back up stream from the pool after portaging on river left

There was a little bit of shifting or new wood in the stretch above Island Drop but nothing too bad. There is always a bit of wood in this run so paddlers need to keep on their toes for hazards.

Zone Dogg running a drop in the Mank Zone

The same rapid
*Warning p-ton rock, scout this if you don't know the line*

A new tree down in the creek, fortunately this one was not a portage

The section above Island Drop is a little manky, with smaller more technical drops. It is less solidified bed rock and more boulders. The section below Island tends to clean up and have more bedrock.

The photos below show some of the in-between stuff above Island

Zone Dogg in the in-between
This is one of the more manky drops in the upper section of the run

Another drop in the Mank Zone

This drop is easy but if paddlers are not careful they will p-ton the rock that is visible in the right side of the landing zone. A little left angle can save ankles and boats.

After leaving the mank zone paddlers will arrive at Island Drop. This is an awesome rapid with a great right and left line. The right line is a double drop with the first being the largest of the two at about 10ft and the second being about 4-5ft.

Alex Kilyk running the top drop on the right line of Island

The trick is to keep your bow up with a boof so you don't melt the first drop. Then you will be ready to clean the second smaller and more retentive one.

Alex running the second drop right side of Island

The left side of Island is a 15ft slide. Paddlers try to do a sliding fade of the left wall to avoid the confluence where the left and right lines converge. The falls on the left feed directly into the second drop on the right line. If you look closely at the pic above you can see the current on the right side of the pic feeding into the drop that Alex is about to run. This is the current coming from the falls on the left line.

Ryan Young running the second drop on the right line

The pic below was my favorite photo of the day! I thought the shot really captured the moment. Lots of action and style.

Ryan Scott running the second drop right line of Island

The section between Island and the bottom of the boulder garden below Behemoth falls is why we do this run! There are a few nice drops and what is know as Landslide. Scout Landslide from river right. Paddlers CAN portage Behemoth but it is difficult and also a little dangerous. the first person down Landslide should be careful a swim here without safety is unfortunate. It is difficult to self rescue above Behemoth. Set good safety for paddlers descending Landslide and scout Behemoth on river left just above the falls. Beware of the hole on river right below Behemoth Falls it is very sticky!

Matt King running Behemoth Falls

Matt deep in the second hole

Below Behemoth is a very nice boulder garden followed by another smaller one. The first boulder garden has 4 distinct drops. Right all the way works but ideally the line goes like this right, right, middle, right.

Looking down stream at the boulder garden below Behemoth Looking upstream at the boulder garden below Behemoth, you can see the falls in the background
Lana Young running one of the drops in the boulder garden

Alex Kilyk at one of the drops in the boulder garden

Alex getting ready to run the last drop on the boulder with the paddler in front of him going deep

The group in the second smaller boulder garden

Then it is aprx. a 20 minute paddle out some class 2-3 to the bridge! This is a good visual flow. If it looks like this at the take out then your should be stoked.

A view of the level from the take out bridge
Till next time!

Bear Creek: Missoula Montana

Montana

About 45min. out of Missoula lies Bear Creek, a class 5 classic Montana Steep Creek. Paddlers earn their boofs with a hike in and a little mank, but are rewarded with some amazing whitewater!

The first rapid is a nice slide, this gets you warmed up for the super mank that we called "Walk In The Woods"!

The Put-In Slide

Ryan Young on the 1st slide

We had a paddler swim this section and it was ugly. Besides a broken boat and a bruised ego the he fared well. No more than bashed up legs. He was lucky! Look at the pics and you will understand what I mean.

The Mank!
My buddies pinned boat down below the Mank. That was the end of his boat. Maybe not such a bad thing, he was do for an upgrade!

After we unpinned the broken boat we made our way down stream to the good stuff. I can not remember the names of all the rapids but her are the ones I caught on my camera with the names I remembered.I believe they call this slide Tijuana Crack Whore and the hole below is Hotel California.

T.C.W.

Paddler in T.C.W

The left eddy just below T.C.W. seems to be the common spot to start the portage of the rapid just above Brave Bear Falls.

The holes below T.C.W

This rapid is just above Brave Bear Falls. I believe this one is a standard portage. With a stout lead in and some poorly placed wood a mistake here could have tragic consequences.


Bear Creek saves the best for last "Brave Bear Falls". Brave Bear is a long slide. But this is no low angle slide with a few inches of water running over it. Brave Bear is powerful long and challenging!

Brave Bear Falls

Till next time!

S.L.C. OR 2010 Gear Preview

Well Paddlers

There is some cool new stuff hitting the market for 2010! I do not have time to put it all up tonight but I will keep you posted. Here is a very short preview of some new Riot boats.

Riot has come to OR to show they are not going down with out a fight. They unveiled the Carbon Composite Astro and a full line of boats.

Riot/Ninja Surf Boat

Carbon Composite Atsro

Wavesport has come out with limited release graphics.

Stay Tuned, more to come!