January Butte Creek

Jan 13, Butte Cr is a small creek near Scotts Mills. Its mostly Class 2-3 but sometime it drops over twisty steep ledgy drops that end in stompy holes. Its kind of schizophrenic but in playboats it can be pretty fun! Three of us, Mike L, James B and I went out hoping to huck Upper Butte Creek Falls: a 30ish foot river wide falls you can see here but sadly, we got snowed out and just headed back down stream. I like to be short on the words and long on the photos so here goes! Thanks to Mike for the photos, check him out at www.michaellongphoto.com













Cheers,

EJ

THE Canyon Creek!

Here in Pac NW (as in many places I am sure), we are blessed with numerous Canyon Creeks. There's the Canyon Creek of the Stillaguamish, often over shadowed by its close neighbor, Robe Canyon. There is Canyon Creek of the S. Santiam Drainage.. but most importantly there is THE Canyon Creek in the EF Lewis Drainage. I say THE Canyon Creek because all other pale in comparison! I know the Corvallis Boys love their Cayon Creek on the Santiam but even they have to admit there is nothing like bouncing down a lap on CCWA.



What makes Canyon Cr so special you ask? Its not the hardest, its not the steepest, it doesn't have any big waterfalls.... but what it does have is a little bit of everything! Its got a waterfall, its got a technical boulder garden, its got some stompy ledges and its got a steep section with a couple quality boofs back to back that are pretty hard to beat. It even has a little mank for those of you who need to be punished!

Last Sunday, Casey, Chris K, Amy C. and I were joined by Dusty (a recent transplant) for a couple laps down THE Canyon Cr on a cold December day.

The creek starts out unassumingly under a bridge down a forest road near Amboy, Washington. The time honored UNIT is the downstream river left bridge pylon. With the water just at the bottom concrete pad its 'even with the unit'. Time was we looked at the EF Lewis Gauge but recently a Canyon Creek Gauge came on line. I haven't figured out the correlation yet but within a couple inches on either side of the 'unit' you are sure to find some goodness. Though its been run at least to -12" and much much higher

The run starts out with about a mile of class II before you come to the first drop called Swizzle Sticks. Its a crooked boof, followed by a constricted ledge hole followed by a 200yd long swirly gorge.



Next comes S-turn, a really fun drop starting with three lines between boulders, making a tight turn to the left and ending in a thrashy, steep diagonal hole usually run on the left. Macho boaters eddy out on the right in the short moving pool between the entrance and the left turn.

Now depending on who you ask, the hole at the bottom of S-turn OR the next constriction is called Terminator. Regardless of what you call it the hole has S-turn has seen its share of swim and you would do well to avoid it, especially at higher flows.



Prelude to Thrasher and Thrasher are downstream aways and they are both broken ledges with stompy holes. I have personally swum out of each and I recommend picking your own lines!

After the Thrashers is the Boulder Garden. Another variably named drop, but most people know what you mean. It can be fairly challenging to scout but it starts out class 2-3, builds into a couple sizable ledges and ends with a bang at a pretty mean hole. Its been run all sorts of ways, but being far left at the bottom is probably the most popular.



Swimming here is a bad idea as Kahuna is the next drop. Kahuna is the largest single drop by far. Keep your eyes on the right side for the last chance scouting eddy! This one is super fun and since the portage basically amounts to a throw and go, you might as well run it.





The Drop Zone starts with Kahuna, goes through the aforementioned mank an over Champagne and Hammering Spot: back to back 8 foot (or so) boofs that just can't be beat.





The only drop left is called Toby's. The site of a drowning a few years go. Usually I go for the sneaky slide about 15 ft off the left but at the right flows, there is a flying boof down the right side. I don't recommend going for the gut of this one.

Well this concludes whitewater but you still have a mile or so paddle out on Lake Merwin. Just make sure you turn left and paddle till you find the take out bridge.

This is the point where you wonder what happened to everybody, but without carnage it gets pretty boring to keep telling you that we all had good lines so I though I'd wait till the end.
We all had good lines. Good enough for everyone but me to man up and hit a second lap. Instead I just sat around the takeout and played with the photos.

Jason Rackley also has an extensive write up on this one here.
Its a popular run for us and its worth a stop if you are in the area in the paddling season! Hope to see you up there soon!

Parting Shot:



MORE PHOTOS

Three Days in the Valley

The McKenzie Valley

When it rains really hard, the McKenzie River in Oregon has some of the Northwest's best play boating and accordingly, boaters from the area come out of the woodwork. Some people came with me for another play clinic, others just showed up on their own but the people I ran into while boating on the Mack are to many to name here so look at some photos!

Kim Russel at highwater Clover

Capo mid Donkey Flip at Clover

Julie G surfing low water clover for the first time

Aaron Goodwin mid Backstab at High Clover

Todd Baker getting some air at Clover

Have a look at some more This River Life Photos from the week.

See you out there soon!

EJ

Thanksgiving Photo Shoot

Before I was on the McKenzie, I was paddling on the Skykomish River in Washington. If any of you have been up there in the last year, then you know that the North Fork road saw some pretty heavy damage in the flood last fall. I had the good fortune to be up there the weekend it happened for some of the last runs BUT thats not important now. What is important is what it looks like now along with a some good paddling folks on the South Fork.



Another amazing day in the Sky Valley!

-EJ

South Eugene High School Kayak Club and Friends

After the Thanksgiving week of gluttony James and I met up for a play session on Neils Point on the McKenzie River and for the third weekend in a row I ran into the South Eugene High Kayak Club. These shredders were tearing it up out on the wave and I know I wish I had had the chance to be kayaking at that age. I am jealous

I have to apologize to those guys but I am terrible with names and I can only remeber a few but Quinn, Althia and Geoff were just a few of em getting it done out there.

See you guys on the river soon I hope!



Check out some more photos here

What do you get...

when you mix a bunch of women paddlers and one Dead Cow?

NO
AND A LOT OF

That's "No Ego and a lot of Smiles" if you failed 1st grade

11/11/2007-

I had the good fortune to team up with Kate Howell and the Willamette Kayak and Canoe Club
to teach a ladies only (mostly) playboating clinic out at Dead Cow Wave. We left Corvallis, bout 9 am picking up paddlers on the the way. Cate and I met in down town Corvallis and headed out to the infamous COP SHOP, a popular meeting area sandwiched between the local Adult Shop and the State Troopers post, where we met Kate and Kay. From there we headed up to Stayton Or on the N Santiam where we met Ashley, Grace and Dave (Dave was our token guy, besides me but I was teaching). Then up to the put in at Mehema Or where we met 4 more women, Rachel, Laurie, Lindsay and Courtney. ( I am so amazed that I can remember everyone's name).

After gearing up, a safety talk and a short warm up, we headed on down the river on the 4 miles of class 2 before the DEAD COW WAVE. The Dead Cow wave is the ultimate beginner wave. Its large enough to be retentive, small enough to be really non-threatening, fast enough to carve and throw small blunts, with a eddy large enough for 4 roll attempts and a swim! It has a smooth bottom and has about a 1000 cfs window on the North Santiam at Mehema gauge. You want between 2200 is getting low and 3500 is getting high. At one level at the higher end there is even as surgey wave hole where you can sling some ends and get some loops.

I recommend it to any aspiring playboater as a smooth transition to surfing if you're not ready for the Dries or Bus Eater!

ANYWAY,
I saw a few AHA's and alot of smiles on everybody's faces. Lindsay got some of her carves, Rachel felt what a difference a boat can make, Cate got to surf on her knees and a good time was had by all.

The only draw back to the Dead Cow is that its in the middle of no where, on Class 2 with a 4 mile paddle in and a 4 mile paddle out and the paddle out has a damn too. The damn is perfectly safe, there is a boat portage slide that's actually pretty fun!

I get as much enjoyment from teaching and watching people learn as I do from doing it so it was a great day for me too and I am looking forward the the next skill class I'll get to be a part of in Portland soon.


See more photos here!
UPDATE: Video that Kate shot!



Cheers
EJ

Class 2 is for you (and me)

I blame Cate for my pain. She brought the C1 devil to my attention and so I followed the crowd of WKCC paddlers out to the Deschutes for a little fun and found out a few things: I can roll a C1, I was worried about swimming on Class 2, its really hard to rescue boat on your knees and the pain doesn't go away in a day.

Steve Stuckmeyer in his 16ft canoe led a large, canoe strong, group of Willamette Valley paddlers to the East side for some fun. I though it might be a good time to come along, paddle Cate's Redline C1 for a kick. It was that indeed with the first day being about 14 miles and second being about 12. All I can say is that my life if fundamentally altered. My knees hurt, my ankles are still sort and I just spent about 7 hrs converting my cracked ZG to a C1. Good times.

Enjoy!

Photos by Steve Stuckmeyer