Back from the Chetco.  Wowee! 

10 mile hike in through Biscuit Fire carnage.  Putin at Curtis Creek, about 3 low volume miles above Slide Creek.  The run was quite good, chock full of IV with III anytime a corner threatened to pass without a rapid.  Little wood.  Pretty deep wilderness.

day 1: drive to Selma, OR.  Run shuttle to Brookings. 
day 2: 10 mile hike to Curtis Creek confluence via babyfoot lake trailhead
day 3: 6 miles to taggart bar
day 4: 6 miles, out and past first big IV gorge
day 5: ~8 miles to Boulder Creek
day 6: out to steel bridge (putin for conehead/candy cane gorge)


Hiking through the Biscuit Fire carnage


Lush wilderness canyon


The first standout IV rapid


The big V in the upper gorge, usually a portage


boat scouting a tight chute


Goodies in the inner gorge


Brace for dear life!


Ledgey Goodness


Perhaps the tightest bedrock pinch in the canyon


loungin' poolside

This looks awesome. I need to get my Alpacka up in this!

Looks amazing in there... but I bet that there was very little industrial waste in the eddies and probably no overpasses with bum camps. Brian probably just had a few extra vacation days so he tried to find another river that could compare with his backyard stretch.... While I don't think he succeeded it would appear that he still had a good time.

Any fishing done on that trip? Chetco is pretty well known for it.

Cool bear sighting! I saw 7 the day I was up on the Queets on Memorial Day.

I wouldn't, but then, I don't eat fish. 

For perspective this was a close second to the Lil NF Clearwater.  I don't think anyone fished more than a half hour any given day, and 2 fatties for dinner were available anytime. 

consensus was take 2 more days, using fish to extend the food supply. 

Cool bear story, NZA, I think my record is 8 bears ... in a whole year!

No doubt. As usual, Professor Slick brings back for us a stellar report of adventures pursued well.

Looks like an awesome trip, Brian!

And by a bit more I assume you mean multiples of 8?

the gent who ran the pack train in for us had paddled it before -- he spent a month in there.

I'm doing it all wrong!!! lol

Chetco....so hot right now

Will do.  Will likely try again next season. 

I started working on making this trip happen in 2003.  That's how long it has taken to suss out the logistics.  Unless you go super fast or uber light, it's pretty tough to self-pack in all the gear.  And the trails are in a terrible state for stock, and there are almost no licensed packers in the area.  It ain't an Illinois class II logistics situation.

Plus, all of the access trails were essentially hosed by the biscuit fire.  Zach took 12 hours to go the last 4 miles to the river -- on his SECOND day of hiking in last year. Logistics matter.

In future, a comfortable trip will depend on the trail maintenance work done by the Siskiyou mountain club.  There are hundreds of snags per mile waiting to come down on the trail, so the work needed to keep it open for horses or hikers is extensive, and will need to be repeated annually at least.

As to the troll comment about the chetco being hot, well, like I said it took me 9 years to pull this off.  but yes, it is a lame totally known run even duckies can run, not special at all -- so please STAY OUT OF THERE!  You're welcome to go back to debating whether a class II+ wave on the wenatchee has changed or not ...  keep it core, core boater.

SHAP!!  welcome to qp!

too low, runs into june, and I'd think so.

but it's well worth planning for another year.

I think you want to be in there as late as possible to minimize the risk of being hit by a big storm and being in serious peril.  There really is no way out from the vast majority of this run.  The river was running from 475 at put in down to about 375 cfs at takeout (lower Chetco River gage).  I think this is hte lowest minimum flow for a mostly "in boat" IK trip. You would want more for a hard boat for sure, but I am not sure how much more.  This year, this flow range occurred or was slightly exceeded for about the 1st  two weeks in June, then for another week latter June after the river dropped and then came back up a bit, not it is too low.

Edited by shap - 11 Jul 2012 at 8:42am