Scouting Update: Upper Butte Creek, OR.

Butte Creek Falls, ORFor most paddlers Upper Butte Creek remains nothing more than a 25ft park & huck. However just down stream are some very large scenic falls. For paddlers that push the limits of extreme kayaking this may be an ideal short section of hucking paradise! The short section boasts 4 falls in close proximity to one another. Reminiscent of the drops on Oregon's Salmon River Gorge or Washington's Upper Lewis River Falls, this short steep piece of falling waters will certainly wet a hucker's appetite! Other than the 25ft Upper Falls the lower falls have not been paddled yet, probably due to their large size. However people have run Butte Creek down to Scott's Mill and portaged this section of river. It starts with a clean 25ftr known as Upper Butte Creek Falls (this has been run).

25 ft Upper Butte Creek Falls A short distance below the upper falls lies the true hucker's paradise. A nasty ledge with a log blocking the right side lies less than 100 ft from the lip of the aprx. 75ftr

The nasty slot drop with the horizon line of the 75ftr just down stream

The 75 ftr "Big One"After the 75ftr lies a large pool which flows right and over a 10ft broken ledge.

The 10ft ledge with "Big One" in the backgroundThe 10ft ledge

Less than 30 ft from the 10ft ledge lies what I call "Split Falls". The majority of the water is pushed down a narrow right channel that drops aprx. 30-35ft and is aprx. 4 ft wide.

35ft Split Falls Below this is a large pool. The creek then tumbles over some class 3 takes a right bend and heads out of sight. People have paddled the section below this and reported mostly class 2-3 with some manky class 4 rapids. My focus was scouting the falls so I will leave the rest for others to explore and report on!

till next time.....

Lindsey Creek TR Part 1: 1st D Turns into Park & Huck!

Lindsey Creek, Oregon
All Photos by: Willie Illingworth

Like the majority of these kinds of missions you never really know what you are gonna get. This mission was know different. With any ultra steep micro creeks, which is how I like to refer to creeks of this size, it is a gamble. You never seem to get a good grasp on how the water levels go up and down. The water rises fast and falls even faster! It was 3 days after a huge Oregon rain storm and warm weather along with warm temps had NW rivers and creeks going crazy. Myself and the rest of the crew were a little skeptical after watching gauges plummet the day before our mission. But we decided to give it a go and myself, Chuck Taylor, the Herbecks, Ryan Scott, Willie I., Tony S., and Scott Baker would take a gamble. We arrived to find what we all thought were marginal levels for this creek. We hiked up to check out the final gorge, which is stacked with falls, small ledges, shallow landings, and log hazards. With what looked to be less than 100cfs (visual gauge) some of the drops were runnable and others still needed more water. The upside is that the biggest drop of the section seemed to be at a runnable flow. While some of the group scouted the final gorge others continued upstream to check out the first gorge and the 40ftr I call Heaven's Gate. This drop is the exit to this short extremely steep canyon that consists of 4 or possible 5 drops all in a matter less than a few hundred yards and a hundred or so feet. It is hard to tell exactly how many vertical feet are lost but believe me its impressive! The mini gorge which I have dubbed "Satan's Gulch" was lower than ideal for the 40ft. exit drop and we agreed to come back with more water. Click here to see Heaven's Gate Falls. The last gorge aptly named Apocrypha Gorge was still lower than most of us wanted and after talking with the crew only me and Chuck were gonna suit up. Chuck and I decided that the 25ft. falls was looking good and after being there a half dozen times I did not want to walk away with out bagging at least the 25ftr which I call Anathema Falls. This named seemed appropriate after I swam on my 1st attempt and our 2nd runs didn't end up much better.

Pics from my 1st run. You can see how I take a stroke turning my boat and landing parallel to the hydraulic and pushing me into the cove where I swam and Chuck Taylor is in the final pic of this series.

Anathema Falls Lindsey Creek OR.

River left or Chuck's paddler right of this rock point is where I swam. The point creates a river left cove and the waterfalls hydraulic makes it hard to roll up if one is upside down and againts the wall. Honestly I probably need to work on my offside roll. OOPS.. My 2nd, the better of my 2 lines off Anathema Falls.

Chuck Taylor's descent of Anathema Falls

till next time......