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!

Bring on the Lochsa!

2009 Lochsa Pics & Vid.!

Over the last few years PDX Whitewater Junkies have been making the Memorial Day pilgrimage to the Lochsa River in Idaho, 2009 was no different. It is always a great time, with amazing whitewater and loads of fun! Boaters and non-boaters looking for a good time post up at Lochsa Falls with cold beer to watch and catch footy of the carnage. I followed their lead and caught some of my own shots. ENJOY...

Lochsa River around 8 feet.

It is always fun to hang out at Lochsa Falls, drink cold beer, and get a little footy. We probably should have been out chasing class 5 rapids on some creek, but we weren't, so enjoy the media.

The crowd waiting...

Rafts

Creature Crafts
Catarafts


Oh YA!

2009 Memorial Weekend "Lochsa Falls Carnage!"

LOCHSA CARNAGE VID CLICK HERE!

An Afternoon on Rock Creek WA.

Rock Creek, CRG Washington

Rock Creek is one of my favorite runs close to home. Boulder gardens and waterfalls keep paddlers busy. Unfortunately the 09 winter was not kind to this run and when we showed up in the Spring we were a little disappointed. While some of the rapids cleaned up others got worse. The first good drop on the run is a clean 10 ft boof. The drop had two new small trees in the river right side of the pool below the drop, but they were easy to miss.

The 10ft ledge with the logs on river left

The logs in the bottom of the drop

The biggest disappointment was at Heaven & Hell which had a tree broached on the boulder in the landing zone. Heaven & Hell is a series of drops. It starts out with a 12 ftr that banks of the right wall, then through a pool and over a 3 ft ledge. The small ledge puts you in the pool above the main falls where most of the drop slams into a under water head wall creating a nasty hole that blocks most of the entrance. There is a clean slot about a boat width wide on the left. Paddlers boof the slot then slide 15ft to a sweet 15ft auto boof. After a close look at the final drop I decided it would go and headed up. I had two paddlers set up safety on the log just in case. I ran the first drop and eddied out. My good friend Chuck was shooting pics at the falls. He motioned the final drop was a no go. The safety crew below thought it was to dangerous so I ran the small 3 ft. ledge, eddied out and seal launched back in below the hazard.

The first drop of Heaven & Hell

Me at in the first drop on Heaven & Hell The log creating the hazard on Heaven & Hell

The rapid just below Heaven and Hell was also a portage. We portaged on river left and continued down river.

The next portage just below Heaven & Hell Steep Creek Falls

Steep Creek Falls has been run at high flows. After passing under the bridge paddlers will continue through a couple of miles of class 2. When the river pics back up a bit you will know Three Swim Falls is just around the corner. This is always portaged on river left. Be careful the eddy above Three Swim Falls is fairly small and can easily be missed if you are not paying attention. At high flows a small hole forms that makes it harder to make the eddy. A good friend of mine swam it and did not enjoy the ride. You can read about the swim on Jason Rackley's site www.oregonkayaking.net

The Eddy above Three Swim Falls
Looking down at Three Swim Falls

From the view here the line looks fairly straight forward if you boof the 2nd to last flake on the downriver. Unfortunately it isn't as easy as it looks, I don't know anyone who has run it.

A better view of the flake from downstream, with the runnable flake just upstream of the pillow

After portaging the main part of Three Swim Falls the boulder garden run out will be waiting. Paddlers that aren't into running the boulder garden can portage to the bottom and skip it.

The bouldergarder below the main falls

Stomp'n boulder garden

Chuck Taylor

Chuck Taylor running the boulder garden below Three Swim Falls

Spring Road Trip: Part 2

Road Trip Part 2:

Clear Creek Cali., and South Fork Umpqua Campbell Falls Section

After a great time on the Cal. Salmon we headed North towards home, but we could not pass up a trip down Upper Clear Creek! We had hooked up with Dan out of Ashland Or., to show us the lines, he had told us that the run was a fun class 4-5 classic! We were excited to check it out. After hard rains the sun popped out, we were stoked to see it after nearly continues rain over the last 3 days. We arrived at the bridge over looking a small gorge on the run. Dan had told us we could check the flows at the bridge, and when we peered down into the gorge his face lit up with a smile! "Looks like a great flow", said Dan.

Peering into the gorge below from the bridge

As the rest of the group looked into the gorge we all were happy at what we saw. We jumped back into the van and continued upstream to the trail head. We arrived at the trail head and prepared our gear for the 1 mile hike to the river. It was a nice short hike up to a bridge crossing Clear Creek.

The Put-In

At the bridge we looked at the water level and what had appeared to be a nice flow now seemed to me to be a full or what I like to call fluffy! Dan took a second look at the flow and informed us that it would be juicy and probably as high as his first time down the run which was the highest he had run it! We put on and headed down to the first big section of rapids. Although Dan had been on the run a few times he didn't give us any guarantees that he remembered all the lines at this level. We approached the first rapid and eddied out. Dan told us to start left and cut right finishing on the right side. We peeled out and dropped in! I started working right and was pushed back to the the left side and over a 5 foot ledge. As I dropped over the left ledge where I wasn't supposed to be I noticed the reason why I was instructed to be on the rights side slot. A nice large pour over hole awaited my arrival. My complacency had awarded me a side surf in a big hole! I braced in the hole and struggled to work my way out. I hung on and eventually worked got out unscathed. I paddled down to the next eddy thinking to myself that I better step it up a bit. We regrouped and anxiously awaited instructions as to where the line was for the next rapid. "Start middle and work left", said Dan. Off I went following Dan, this time I was ready and had a nice line. We eddied out and looked back up just in time to see Tony flip and take a couple of nice head shots. Then came the next paddler who also flipped and took a few nice shots to the head and shoulders. Ouch I said and made the signal to confirm he was ok. He gave me the I'm ok and came down to the eddy. A bit shook up, he got his dose for the day and decided to walk out! The rest of us continued down stream and finished the run. Since we put on late and had a stout flow I concentrated on my lines instead of photos. There were to portages one around a manky rapid and the other around a flume style rapid into a huge hole. The first of the two was definitely runnable at the flow we had. Because of the high flows we started our portage an eddy above the normal one. The normal eddy looked a little risky. This made the portage longer and required us to rope the boats and do a little tricky foot work on the cliff. Total portage time was around 30min. After the portage the run continued to dish up nice read and ru rapids! We made our way down towards the final gorge with no problems! The finale gorge was also a bit intimidating. The only possible place to scout was on river left above the rapid. It was also not easily portageable according to Dan and I would have to agree. However this is an awesome rapid, despite its intimidating looks at these flows. The entrance was kind of a sliding ramp that lead paddlers down through a hole, some mank and then into a large horizon line. After the large horizon line we could see more stout runout and then a pool. This gorge was one that you just need to look at the line, then run it. No need to look too long! The gorge marks the end of the run and I would say it goes out with a bang!

After Clear Creek we headed back towards Ashland and toward P-Town. The next day we made our way south to the S. F. Umpqua where we ran a section from S.F. Falls down to Campbell Falls. This run is kind of a novelty run. A few big easy drops with not much else. I will say that this is a very scenic area and well worth a visit if you are in the area.

S.F. Falls South Umpqua R.

This section of the S. Umpqua has two waterfalls, a ledge, and a sliding falls/rapid. Not super hard, but fun and with low consequences. Paddlers put-in a S.F. Falls (pictured above) park.

Me at S.F. Falls

Christie S.F. Falls

Tye O.

One of the 4 rapids on this run Christie G.
The Slide Allan S.

Tye gett'n surfed at the slide

The final falls on the run is Campbell Falls. It is very straight froward and has at least two lines and maybe 3. The take-out is just down stream at the next campground on river right.

Campbell Falls



Me at Campbell Falls
Allan at Campbell Falls

Till next time!