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