tiziak's Submission - Entered on 6/25/2012 1:21:00 PM
Notes: 

Return to Current Rivers Page 1 - bl. Tunnel Creek to Rainbow Campground (Upper)
Big Quilcene Class V+ 2Miles Avg Gradient 165 fpm Play Rating (1-10): 0		County Jefferson Zip Code 0 Put In Longitude -122.9581223 Put In Latitude 47.7812767 Take Out Longitude -122.9204102 Take Out Latitude 47.7733612

There is currently no Gauge Data on this stretch. Please Email us if you have details about a realtime gauge for this river.

Minimum Recomended Level:  225      Maximum Recomended Level:  450

River Alerts	GMaps
Not used in Beta Mode	Putin | Take Out | Shuttle | General Area

Other Issues River Level: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/wrx/wrx/flows/station.asp?wria=17 Recent reports indicate 250-350, with 350 being high (Spring 2009). Gauge may be unreliable from year to year. Years ago we did a run at 550 on this gauge and it was not considered too high.

Fun Facts Some helmet cam footage of a raft run down the Big Q. After SF Sko footage. http://www.vimeo.com/24547235

   Run Description

* This beta is from a raft cockpit. The vid looked STOUT with that much water. just sayin'... * ~ Brett    

As of 11/8/09 things are good to go; with some wood in places. We had 290-270 cfs according to the DOE guage above (dropping). Level was low, but 100 cfs more would be a lot bigger. Effort to pleasure ratio is about even right now. A couple of the better drops are woody. When that cleans up it will be better. I'd say a good first time level would be 250-300 depending on your comfort level.
There is wood:
1. right above Casserly Cascade in the small gorge you have to portage then duck/float under. Scout/portage right.
2. at the entrance to the landslide drop (portage right). Rest of the drop goes.
3. at the top drop of the double drop (can portage entire drop on left or just the top drop right and run bottom.) Careful of sieve (with wood) at bottom of drop.
4. the BIG LOG jam. Last time I was in there we lowered off backside of log jam and ran the rest of the rapid. Rapid has changed. Looks like the left side goes, however, we opted for the portage route with fixed rope on right bank (sucks).
5. various other places...keep eyes open and you should be fine.

All that being said, the river shot up to over a 1000 the next day. All bets are off, wood could be somewhere else now.


New Beta as of May 2011:
390-400 on the internet guage seemed good, it was right around 2 on the stick guage near the end.
0. Small logjam right above Casserly's still there. Easy portage on right.
1. In a difficult to scout rapid after a narrow slot on the left wall there is wood in the right channel, left side fine.
2. There is a river wide logjam that is obvious if you are paying attention (you should be on the whole run) near the end of the upper. It is an easy portage on the left.
3. Shortly after above portage is a logjam on the right. The left channel drops into a terrible sieve, don't run it. Portage awkwardly down the right (there is a rope) and run the rest down the right.

The run is great right now. Effort to pleasure ratio is good. Get it while it's good.

New Beta as of 25Jun12:
Both major log jams are still there. Lots of pin potential in the 200-300cfs range, stay on your toes.

Stop and SCOUT! We almost bombed over the left side of the second major log jam because it looks good from upstream. ITS NO GOOD. The drop is fine but there is no way out of the pool except through a wood sieve at the bottom. Right side portage and put back in UNDER the logjam. Not bad at all.

This was a very fun run. Very continuous in certain places. Comparable to Elkhorn but not as fluid, drops can be a bit chunky.

We had an issue with level: AW website was saying level was 220cfs, the text service (41411) was saying 327cfs. I don't know which one was correct but it could have used more water. But not too much more...