Men of few words sometimes say many things.

The most popular stuff in Granite Falls is Canyon Creek Stilly and Robe Canyon on the Stilly.  I have no ambition to run Robe but if you want to run CC Stilly some time, I can lead that.  It's number 6 on James's list but personally, I think at low - medium flow, it's much easier than the Little Wenatchee.  I can't speak to most of the other because I haven't run them yet but they are on my list for this year.

I agree... The point I was making is it's hard to judge a run as big/small by it's name as some 'creeks' are bigger than some 'rivers'. It also depends on how high up in a drainage you go. Tye River is pretty good sized stream at it's confluence with the Beckler where it becomes the SF Sky... but up in the upper reaches of the Top Tye, especially above Deception, it's pretty small.

This is a great discussion - especially for someone interested in ideas on the easier end of the scale - like me.  I have no real interest in running IV+/V rapids - class IV is as much risk as I am willing to accept especially given my feeble skills.  The information on pool/drop and continuous is also very helpful.

It would be interesting to know if any of these creeks (especially some that I'd disqualify based on what I wrote above) would stay in the class IV category if there was a rapid or two that were the crux and the crux could be *EASILY* portaged.  So, for example, in the river world, most people start running the Sky and carry BD before running it.  In fact, many do that for their entire kayaking careers but they can be out on the river enjoying it with friends with more skills and/or more willingness to accept risk.

Class 4 creeking is one of my favorite types of boating. Here's my input on runs I know at least fairly well:

Peshastin Creek: Very busy, continuous but mostly class 3. A couple spots that are class 4. Fresh squeezed is a pretty stout class 4 IMO (I think some under-rate it) but it's easy enough to scout ahead of time.

Lower Icicle: (at low to med levels, I've done it at 3000-5000 on Wenatchee, and it's good at all those levels) Another continuous run, but most the drops aren't too difficult. Class 4 and under at these flows.... There is one hole in one of the first rapids where the creek splits around an island that can be an ass-kicker, but you can portage it. At higher levels you can run the other side of the island and miss it altogether.

Canyon Creek Stilly: This run is mostly class 3+/4 at lower levels. And you can portage pretty much anything except for one rapid (double drop) which is probably the funnest drop anyway and has a pool below it. There are 3 drops that rate 4+ IMO even at lower flows though... The first rapid, which you could portage, the double drop-already described, and the rapid below that, which you can portage partially or entirely...  This is a good example of a pool-drop high gradient run. drops are fairly close together, but have pools in between (at med and low flows). I recommend trying it out at 250-325 the first time. The gage isn't working right now, but on the SF Stilly gage that ususally correlates to around 4.8 to 5.2 feet.

EF Lewis Falls Run: Excellent pool-drop creeky run with class 3-4 rapids and two of the easiest waterfalls you'll find. Good levels to try out are around 700-1200 cfs.

Rapid River/Miller River: These are both continuous boulder garden types of creeks. Both are class 4 at lower levels (for the Rapid I just refer to laps on the lower mile, there's some harder stuff upstream). Lower levels on the Miller are usually around 4000-5000 on the Sky. Lower levels on the Rapid are around 6500-8000 on the sky during snowmelt, 8000-10,000 for rain event.

edit: another cool thing about the Rapid is the lower mile section is easy to do laps on with a bicycle shuttle and you can pretty much scout everything on the way up.

Out of all of these, for a pool-drop creeking run, I would say the EFL is the best for someone looking for not harder than 4 run.



Edited by JoesKayak - 22 May 2009 at 11:14am

Forgot the NF Nookie-- it's a great class IV. Short, but good quality, and if you push the levels up, or hit some auxilery lines along the run, you can start getting some simulated class V moves linked up in a few places.

Quite right... and don't forget to dingle the dangler... a smiling combo for sure aeh!

Great stuff and thanks, Joe, for your list.  I ran EFL earlier this year and thought it was super-fun - even though I had probably the worst line ever in Horseshoe Falls - at least I was in the middle slot! 

I'll probably be joining you Tom on Peshastin/Ingalls next weekend - looking forward to it!


Edited by arnobarno - 22 May 2009 at 11:08am

Thanks for the invite - trying to free up the time, and should be able to get over there for at least Saturday afternoon onwards.

If it works out, I'm definitely in for the Peshastin Trip.

Nice vids, definitely some fun looking stuff in there. Was that NTM in the Fall Creek video?

Lower Tye (AKA Blue Tarp run) is nice class III+/IV with a definite creek feeling. Don't forget to portage the huge tree in Mindbender (you can see it from the road)

Lower Foss + Lower Tye (where it comes into the Foss) is another of the same approximate difficulty, but the lower Foss is much more continuous than the first one I listed.

I like to do both these runs to warm up after a season of not creeking!

Check out Clearwater Creek in the MF Nooksack Drainage.  She always excites.  Even sandstone bedrock for you mid atlantic types.

http://www.bellinghamwhitewater.org/2007/10/27/c-water/
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/3583/

WOW, Hugo finally speaks using his real Alias!