Are you from Ohio? Long story.

Early July can be great in WA / OR! Your best bets will be White Salmon area with numerous II/III runs nearby - Leavenworth area with a few II/III runs but so many other things to do (climbing, mtn biking, hiking)
It will all depend on levels and how the spring melt goes, but there will be a lot to do if you are somewhat flexible with your plans.
Cheers

Brian outlined a great trip but I would put the McKenzie, Umpqua on the way up because they don't hold late season water, yea it might not be a big difference but if you check them out on the way up you can at least cross them off the list with better water or just not do them and save the time in your trip for more northern rivers.

Apart from all of Brian's suggestions I would suggest you plan your trip for June since you will catch more quality water in that time.

Also just a thought but while you are that far north consider going into canada and hitting some of the favorites up there. Chehalis, Chilliwack Capilano etc.. if nothing else you can visit Vancouver BC say you boated in canada and add a little flavor into your trip. Bring the passports though.



Edited by James - 09 Mar 2012 at 9:31am

Hmm. How to contribute to the points already made? Pretty much going to be echoing everyone else's comments, except Tobin's (Tobin: the last comment at the bottom of my post is for you).

Listed in order of importance:

1. Get a copy of Jeff Benett's guide to the Whitewater Rivers of Washington, 2nd addition, and a Wa state gazetteer.

2. Try to bump your dates upstream the calendar, into June if you can. More water, as PPeeps have previously stated.

3. I agree w/ James: consider hitting the southern stuff first on your way up, better timing. The northern stuff can wait for you to arrive. Of course, you're best advised to plan this on the fly to some extent.

4. Slick's "stay off of I-5" advice is good, as are some of his basic route recomendations. The "97 north" plan looping around over Hwy 20 or Hwy 2 is also basicly a good plan. But you can't go wrong in Leavenworth, especially if you're packing Toyboats. Great play on the Wenatchee. But Peshastin creek may be gettin too low in july. Depends what mother nature does.

5. MUST STOP DESTINATIONS:
Hoody McRiver
--White Salmon/ Klickitat/ Wind
Cispus Zone (FR 23 should be open in july, and its great road trip camping up in there)
Leavenworth
--Wenatchee/ Peshastin/ Chiwawa (its ok, just including it cuz its class III and right there
Index
Skykomish. Maybe some upper tribs will be running like Miller or Beckler, but july makes those prospects doubtful.

Other runs...
The Tilton won't be running, but the Green may. Again, july is late to be catching it, but you never know. Same w/ the Middle Fork Snoqualmie. But it's right off of I-90 on the west side of Snoqualmie Pass.

The Sauk is a beautiful drainage but again I wouldn't count on lots of water in it in July. Maybe. Lots of braided channel gravel bar class II+ with some junky class III rock gardens. Best to cover that up with higher volume flows.
Methow ain't a bad destination. It should hold water decently in july.The Skagit is a class I float with one easy class III- rapid. Its pretty tho. If you make it up to Bellingham you could check out the North Fork Nooksac.

Kirbz, just check back in when you're on your way up.

Tobin, Tobin, Tobin. Look, I know you had a demonstrable bad experience w/ that ONE GROUP from Ohio, but the cold hard truth is this:
I feel extremely confident stating that 50% or more of all of the paddlers in Ohio are more skilled and experienced river runners than you are. This includes many class II canoists as well. For realz.To be fair, many of them are also sober and pilot their own crafts. Sorry man. Had to balance that comment out a little.

Thanks everyone for the great advice! So much more than I expected! Unfortunately, due to work, I don't think I can push up the timeframe. But it'll be right at the beginning of July so hopefully that'll make a difference. We'll be leaving June 30. :-) I can't wait to come up there.