A few of us from Utah and Montana are planning on paddling in the Olympic Peninsula the first week of March.  We are all solid class 4 paddlers.  I am looking for some local knowledge on what class 3-4 runs might be running (4-5 runs are OK if there aren't too many class 5 rapids and they are portagable).  We will be camping and can travel to different zones during the week.  We typically like to paddle a different run every day of the trip.  Thanks for any advice!!!

Thanks for the info!  Got Gary's guidebook and several tarps. 

Yup. I'd say Bigwater is one of your very best "go-to-guys" for OP beta. I've run most of the stuff out there too that you'd likely want to target, and would be happy to throw in my 2 cents (and everyone around here who knows me knows I'll probably add two bits, and maybe some wooden nickles- but if you're already armed w/ the Korb book, you should be ok.). I'd do your home work now by cross referencing the info in the Korb book w/ our much more freshly updated database. Our rivers pages are actually pretty good these days, and relatively current. Make a list w/ some contingencies, and then adjust accordingly as the dates get close. W/ the OP, it'll come down to the weather patterns the week of, likely. If this thread gets buried between now n then, just bump it back up to the top w/ a fresh post. You know how opinionated boaters are: PPeeps will chime in to tell you all about stuff...

My recomendations will echo James somewhat, but here goes:
Humptulips: dude, do an overnighter. Class III, but its good to be a class IV boater in there. The beauty in there is not to be missed, so don't let the "class III" deter you. You may be looking for class IV, but the Humptulips is magical. Well worth it.
Matheney: Pick your poison w/ three sections to choose from: (Top to Bottom). You could easily just spend a whole weekend here and be content.
Upper:IV-IV+ (gets harder the more water you add of course)
Middle:III+ quickly diminishing to II+
Lower (from bridge down): III+ (I only ran it when it was REALLY HIGH, and I probably was too.) Seemed like very solid IV then.
Middle Frk Satsop (Fool's Canyon): straight forward IV, but make sure there's no wood. It was clean Thanksgiving weekend, but then we had an ice storm followed by high winds. I'm not sure of the status now. The thing with this is to plan on doing three laps. Its short. Don't even fu*k w/ Baker creek, the trib upstream.

Mosh Pit on the Soul Duck, if playboat'n is yer thang. If you are lucky and the Nasselle is in while you are, hit up Mr. Bigwater 4 sure cuz that just may be one of his favorite spots on the river planet.

The Grays: if you want a gnarlier class IV that has class V flavor, hit this one up.

All this stuff I mentioned, except for the Soleduc, is in the South West quadrant of the OP, and where most of the best "Boater's Geology" is concentrated. The Sitkum is awesome, but definitely leaning more towards class V. The East side of the OP has a lot of runs but isn't as sweet, geologicly. The whole OP is beautiful. You'll lament the damage done to your drysuit (a wetsuit may be the way to go if you're worried about preserving your drysuit: portaging/ hiking through the woods tends to happen more often than not), and you may get abducted by bigfoot, or at least the surroundings will convince you of such a possibility when you aren't hallucinating and seeing 'wood nymphs' or Ewoks or Ents moving out of the corner of your eye: it's awesome. But, the east side geology tends to be kind of "junky" rock. Give it about 5,000 more years and I'm sure those streams will be on their way to becoming "Whitewater Classics". Read the geology essay on the OP in the beginning of the Korb book. Several times. It is likely the most valuable beta included within those pages, aside from his hand drawn maps, which continue to be quite reliable.

The Elwha is a whole other animal. I'm not sure what the status of the Whiskey Bend Trail access will be when you'll be here (the removed the dam(s) last fall). But this is rightfully treated as a very comitting, 2 day class V expedition w/ an 8.5mi hike. A few uber hard core class V boaters do it in a day, but arguably they could stand to "stop and smell the roses". To each their own. But the Grand Canyon Elwha is the holy grail of OP runs (fu*k you, Water Wacko: I know what you're thinking. I'm talkin 'bout the Korb book here, not the more modern "hike-in-class V classics". Take me in there first before advertising it to the out-a-towners, umm-kay? )

Thanks everybody for all the input!  Sounds like we are in for a great trip!

I did not mention the S.F. skok specifically because of the first rapid in the second canyon. No portage, and while it is not full on class V it is virtually impossible to scout and pretty technical in nature, ie specific spots you need to go and don't want to go. 

Since we're on the topic of the OP - how does the gradient/character on Sitkum compare to FITW or the Cooper? 

Well I was really interested in the Sitkum until that last little bit of beta.  Too bad, sounded like a fun run!

Hulkster, your updates coulda easily been approved by Jed, joe, or James. The fact that all of our names start w/ a "j" is but one of the many stringent qualifiers that make us Rio Banditos. I haven't been back to that page in a bit, but I'm sure your beta is there...

Let's check...