Chetco
Printed From: ProfessorPaddle.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Whitewater Forum
Forum Discription: Open Discussion Forum. Whitewater related subjects only
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12214
Printed Date: 18 May 2013 at 12:02pm
Topic: Chetco
Posted By: slickhorn
Subject: Chetco
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 8:47am
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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) /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7231">  Hiking through the Biscuit Fire carnage /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7237">  Lush wilderness canyon /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7232">  The first standout IV rapid /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7233">  The big V in the upper gorge, usually a portage /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7235">  boat scouting a tight chute /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7238">  Goodies in the inner gorge /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7234">  Brace for dear life! /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7236">  Ledgey Goodness /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7239">  Perhaps the tightest bedrock pinch in the canyon /media/photoview.asp?File_Id=7240">  loungin' poolside ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Replies:
Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 9:04am
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woah, looks rad.
------------- The line will become apparent 978-273-7723 |
Posted By: The NZA
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 9:04am
| This looks awesome. I need to get my Alpacka up in this! |
Posted By: JoesKayak
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 9:07am
| Don't know why you bother with this crap when you got the Duwamish in your back yard. |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 10:02am
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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. |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 10:30am
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yup, lots of fresh trout being pulled. better luck with the spinner than the fly rig, but that may have just been effort. tons of newts too. and had a brown bear swim the river right in front of us, then watch us for about 5 minutes from the bank. ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: The NZA
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 10:36am
| Cool bear sighting! I saw 7 the day I was up on the Queets on Memorial Day. |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 10:44am
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Brian if you went back would you be willing to pack no food and live off the river? That is how I determine if the fishing is off the hook so to speak. |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 10:46am
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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! ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 11:50am
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my record is a bit more than 8 beers in a day.... oh wait bears... my bad This little chetco might have to go on the hit list for another year... |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 12:18pm
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No doubt. As usual, Professor Slick brings back for us a stellar report of adventures pursued well.
Looks like an awesome trip, Brian! ------------- Somebody has got to take the unpopular stances and voice the flipside of the coin. Its not that I want that job, but someone has to do it. |
Posted By: not-very-clever
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 2:46pm
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what do you get when you cross a bear with a deer? a beer |
Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 3:16pm
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Originally posted by James my record is a bit more than 8 beers in a day.... oh wait bears... my bad And by a bit more I assume you mean multiples of 8? ------------- The line will become apparent 978-273-7723 |
Posted By: justin
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 3:40pm
| Man, I wanna retire and go boat that. |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 4:41pm
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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 ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 5:41pm
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oh, and also, there actually is a little chetco. you can chopper in to camp emily and run it down to the main chetco. confluence was 1.5 miles above our putin. private inholding allows the chopper access in the wilderness.
I'd go back in a heartbeat, anytime. The real question will be access, it's touch to carry enough gear and food in solo for a nice long trip. Thus, the horse packing ... but hopefully that's now available with the good folks who helped us out. If not, I think low flow + packraft + fishin gear is the ideal toolset. but I'd like to see it with more flow. ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: SPerillo
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2012 at 7:01pm
| Chetco....so hot right now |
Posted By: The NZA
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2012 at 12:40pm
| Hit me up if you ever go back there. Doing rivers/canyons like this is exactly why I bought an Alpacka! |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2012 at 2:31pm
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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. ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: shap
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2012 at 2:51pm
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I was on this trip, I can vouch for its badass-ness! Access is the long term problem. |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2012 at 2:55pm
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SHAP!! welcome to qp!
------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: awskitc
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2012 at 8:50pm
| This is something i'd love to do! And I have time now. Whats the level like, how long does it stay running, and do you need more water for a creeker rather than a ducky? |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 10 Jul 2012 at 9:37pm
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too low, runs into june, and I'd think so.
but it's well worth planning for another year. ------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: thad2000
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2012 at 4:34am
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Great pics.. fodder for fantasy. :) The hike, aside from the bush beating, sounds like it was nice too. I say sail in on an airship made of IK's filled with helium. :)
p.s. any eucalypti on the trail. (obscure joke with self regarding a glorious way to die.) the trip looked increadible... beautiful water. ------------- why not! |
Posted By: shap
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2012 at 8:40am
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Originally posted by awskitc
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.
This is something i'd love to do! And I have time now. Whats the level like, how long does it stay running, and do you need more water for a creeker rather than a ducky? Regarding the fishing, tossing a spinner or spoon, you pretty much catch a large cutthroat in very nice pool on your first cast, but only one. Then you have to move to the next pool. I caught dinner 2 nights in a row, catching a couple nice fish in about 10 minutes both days, then fished another 20 or 30 minutes for fun to see what else might be lurking.
|
Posted By: The NZA
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2012 at 9:52am
| I will reiterate: totally hit me up if you do this again. I think this is number one on my tic list for next year, if I can find other (if not more, since I am still a greenhorn myself) competent boaters to do it with. The Alpacka defiantly does great in low water like this, so this time of year seems perfect. I may know some other packrafters who'd also be interested. |
Posted By: shap
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2012 at 10:18am
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Originally posted by The NZA
To shed a little more light on the character, this is not really a place for 2 green horns alone to go exploring whitewater:
I will reiterate: totally hit me up if you do this again. I think this is number one on my tic list for next year, if I can find other (if not more, since I am still a greenhorn myself) competent boaters to do it with. The Alpacka defiantly does great in low water like this, so this time of year seems perfect. I may know some other packrafters who'd also be interested. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 +/- rapids in the Class III to IV range, with maybe 25% Class IV, being primarily steep technical long and blind boulder garden drops. Class IV was most concentrated in the Slide Creek to Granite Creek area, but scattered thought the run in ample supply. The last rapid before our takeout at the Steel Bridge was a long Class IV. . All I will say is that there is a lot of scouting to be done of long blind drops, especially between Slide Creek to Granite Creek. Allow plenty of time for this section, but scouting will be done at many places along the entire trip. Although wood was not a problem, there are a number of nasty sieve hazards at low water in which you could kill your self. I would not want to do this trip with less than 3 (safety factor) or more than 6 people (camp size/horse pack logistics). At low water, you want top notch gear, because you will be smashing/squeezing through a lot of rocks. |
Posted By: shap
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2012 at 3:33pm
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Master Slickhorn at work: |
Posted By: slickhorn
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2012 at 4:09pm
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nice! that was a great little drop. seemed to stand out at the time,
but really, there were a ton of drops like this on the run.
------------- -Brian Vogt http://www.wwik.org/ |
Posted By: shap
Date Posted: 21 Oct 2012 at 5:42pm
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a few more vids:
Slickhorns POV of the same rapid video above:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIu1deXFAKM&list=UUT3SXMZRCX6x7qvLeIgVA0Q&index=2&feature=plcp my run of the same less cleanhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtKsG_yVS_Q&list=UUT3SXMZRCX6x7qvLeIgVA0Q&index=1&feature=plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgXrk86F4jw&list=UUT3SXMZRCX6x7qvLeIgVA0Q&index=3&feature=plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffm3XHYeHJk&list=UUT3SXMZRCX6x7qvLeIgVA0Q&index=4&feature=plcp can't figure out how to have the vid embedded in the post, but I only got my first cell phone this year, so what can you expect |