LOST RIVER
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=15493
Printed Date: 28 Apr 2024 at 3:58pm
Topic: LOST RIVER
Posted By: Jarred_Jackman
Subject: LOST RIVER
Date Posted: 15 May 2016 at 8:54am
Anybody have any useful beta for the Lost near Winthrop, from the past couple years? Also, I'm having trouble finding a shuttle. The folks in that area don't seem stoked to make money for driving a couple of hours. Anybody have any contacts or friends up there who would be willing to drive shuttle and make some money?
Looking to make the trip Memorial Weekend I think.
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Replies:
Posted By: WhiteWaterWheat
Date Posted: 15 May 2016 at 11:50am
We ran it a few years ago. It is definitely an adventure. Absolutely beautiful! There were so many wood portages, I lost count. A really fun continuous class 4 section in the middle, just after the small lake caused by a cataract (portage). Nice camp on the upstream side of the small lake. The last few miles were some of the hardest, only class 2, but dangerous log jams with few eddies. We broke the hike-in into 2 days because the second half is all on scree, which makes it tough. All-in-all, it was worth the adventure, but be ready to work for it!
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You only get the chance to run a drop blind once.
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Posted By: chipmaney
Date Posted: 15 May 2016 at 5:04pm
we did it 4 years back. I remember the number...24 portages. 12 above the lake, and 12 below, but the 1 mile of classic class iv was totally clean! put in as soon as possible. bushwhacking downstream at the put-in to avoid portages was a heinous non-starter.
we ran our own shuttle. it was long and sucked. paying would seem the way to go; good luck with finding a contact.
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sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end
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Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 16 May 2016 at 7:45am
If I were to do the trip again I would do it like this:
Drop car and drive to the trail head and sleep at the trailhead.
Get early start and get all the hiking done in a day, the first 4 miles on the maintained trail are managable and we got done pretty quickly, the last two miles on the unmaintained trail are tough, down trees and creative route finding make it interesting.
Put on the river and paddle the class III down to the lake, camp on the island on the upstream side of the lake.
LAYOVER DAY: you just busted major ass to get to the lake, the lake is super cool, and is surrounded by huge cliffs and other rad sh*t. Do a day hike up to the ridge on river left.
Next morning get up and paddle to your car. All the whitewater is in this section and goes by real quick so catch your eddies and slow it down.
Keep your eyes peeled after the river flattens again. We lost one boot to a log jam (long story).
Super cool scenery, but you really need to earn your boofs for this one.
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The line will become apparent
978-273-7723
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Posted By: NateW
Date Posted: 16 May 2016 at 5:18pm
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Not heard anything on this, but there is Granite/Ruby in the same area. Not heard any beta on these, but they are runs that are typically done later in the year.
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Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 17 May 2016 at 2:16pm
Nate, the Lost is a hike in Multi day run in the Pasayten Wilderness Outside of wWinthrop Washington. Granite/Ruby is closeish but is on the western slope of the cascades and is a half day trip.
One other thing is that we ran our own shuttle on the Lost and it was not completely unmanageable like if some of the Idaho rivers. If does mean a couple hours in the saddle though.
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The line will become apparent
978-273-7723
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Posted By: itchy
Date Posted: 18 May 2016 at 1:53pm
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I don't know how feasible it would be to hike in, but Eureka Creek looks like it has ~3 miles of III-V whitewater in Google Earth, with the harder sections being about a mile long each and the III section in the middle. It gets steeper towards the confluence with the Lost as well, for the most part. The last few hundred yards look the hardest (losing a couple hundred feet elev. pretty quickly) and also the most gorged up/woody, so it might not be easy to get past that going either direction. But if I was there, bored, and possessing an abundance of time and food, I would check it out, maybe minus a boat...
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Posted By: UpNOver
Date Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 8:05am
I am making my summer list of rivers that I want to run and this one intrigues me.
The AW site is not showing a working gauge. Is there a more modern/different gauge and what levels would you recommend on that gauge?
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Gauge2/detail/id/43496/
Thanks for any info.
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Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 8:46am
We did the lost using the AW guage. Short of actually standing next to the river and getting a visual the AW guage is about as good as it gets.
we did it at 1100 and falling and it felt like a good medium flow. The section from monument creek felt like a steeper version of Ingalls creek. If I did it again I would do the hike and layover at the lake and skip camping at the drake creek CG. Also I would empty my boat of gear at monument creek and hike as far up monument as possible and boat that. You do a lot of hiking and suffering to get to the Lost so you might as well savor it.
Don't go to the lost for the whitewater, go for the adventure and wilderness. Of the entire trip there is really only 3 miles of quality river so spend your time wisely once you get on the river.
The writeup on the PP rivers page is pretty accurate
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The line will become apparent
978-273-7723
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Posted By: jalmquist
Date Posted: 01 Feb 2017 at 9:00am
I could be wrong, but I don't think there has ever been an actual online gauge for the Lost. The AW "gauge" is (was) what they called "virtual". It was a calculation based on watershed area of the Lost compared to Watershed area of the adjacent Methow above the Monument gauge. Using the Methow reading, you calculate the Lost discharge based on a ratio of the watershed areas. AW does have the watershed area of both listed, as well as some info on translating the stick gauge reading into CFS. So I suppose worst case is that you could do the math.
Or, go with the old fashion method of stepping outside, licking your finger, pointing it in the direction of the river drainage in question, and squinting your eyes while staring west into the setting sun until you get an epiphany as to whether the level seems good or not. Sometimes checking known river levels, snow pack, and weather forecasts within the vicinity of your target river helps with the above...
As for optimum levels on the Lost, I can't comment as I've never paddled it. But there seem to be a handful of trip reports that give opinion as to whether it's best at low, medium, or high flows. How does low, medium, and high correlate to cfs #? I have no idea. But you can probably make an educated guess as to whether it's low, medium or high based on the level adjacent indicator rivers.
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Posted By: UpNOver
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2017 at 11:36am
Jed Hawkes, that was the information I was looking.
Thanks
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