Rattlesnake Creek (Naches trib)
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=12159
Printed Date: 10 Jul 2025 at 9:01pm
Topic: Rattlesnake Creek (Naches trib)
Posted By: BRoss
Subject: Rattlesnake Creek (Naches trib)
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2012 at 5:17pm
Has anyone run the Rattlesnake this year? Interested in the current wood situation and whether the pain to pleasure ratio is worth it. Reports from last summer from AW make the wood sound like a mixed bag, but the run looks beautiful.
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"That boated a lot better than it looked." "It always does until it doesn't."
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Replies:
Posted By: FLUID
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2012 at 5:24pm
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Jon Almquist and crew I heard ran it recently. It's an Awesome scenic remote feeling run and very beautiful. You should go no matter what, wood is part of the adventure. Amazing basalt canyon........
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Posted By: TomMarley
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2012 at 7:06pm
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we ran it a few years back and portaged 9 times (1 super sketchy). SOOO worth it! Definitely recommend class IV creeking skills and high wood alertness.
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Posted By: JD_G
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2012 at 7:38pm
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Ran it with Jon 2 weeks ago and it was in good shape. I think there were 4 wood portages and one log boof in the canyon to watch for. Good to go. Have fun and hit he American too. It's also in good shape.
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Posted By: BRoss
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2012 at 8:32pm
Right on, thanks for the word. Sounds like a great run - I'm surprised this isn't on more people's radar. Maybe its in that nebulous zone of not being the "gnar" but having enough issues that it isn't a good beginner/intermediate run.
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"That boated a lot better than it looked." "It always does until it doesn't."
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Posted By: BRoss
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2012 at 9:16pm
JD, are you referring to the 3-4 section of the American?
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"That boated a lot better than it looked." "It always does until it doesn't."
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Posted By: jalmquist
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2012 at 6:34am
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There were three wood portages - one above the canyon and two after you exit the canyon but before you hit the braided run-out. Only one seems to "sneak up" on you - it's hidden around a right bend. But once you see it, there's a nice eddy RL which you can catch for the step-around portage. There are also a few "dead ends" that can avoided if you're paying attention - the first of which is just a couple of corners below the put-in where the river braids and bends L. At this corner, take one of the smaller (L or C) channels, as the main R channel to the outside is wooded out. As JD noted, there's also a log boof in the canyon. We ran this stretch twice over a three day period, and interestingly, this "boof" changed noticeably between runs. On our first run, the cleanest option was to boof the log as left as water level allowed. But two days later there was a good size depression on the upstream side of the log on this left side - my guess is that gravels had eroded out from underneath, allowing flow to go under the log on this side. This was a surprise, but we just stayed further right without issue. There's an upstream RR gravel bar (at normal flows) onto which you can step out and scout the log.
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Posted By: JD_G
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2012 at 3:24pm
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BRoss, yes the 3-4 stretch on the American. You'll need to portage a couple different log jams a little bit below the first "head wall" where the river splits around a bedrock island. Looks like you can get out on RL and walk around both at the same time.
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Posted By: BRoss
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2012 at 9:55am
What an incredible place! One of the coolest canyons I've been in. Quite an adventure too: besides the river itself, we nearly stepped on a Rattlesnake while scouting, and made it through a portage while rednecks were shooting guns down into the canyon from above. Actually, I don't know that they were rednecks, they could have been liberals from Seattle, but who knows.
Thank you SO MUCH to the two friendly boaters from Billings, MT who ran our shuttle, saving me a hitch or the bike shuttle from hell. Major river karma points! Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Washington trip!
For the record, 1700 on the Naches gauge is ELF minimum for Rattlesnake, but we got down with enough water to make the rapids fun. Rattlesnake might be done for the year.
Thanks for the accurate wood beta Jon. I think we portaged river-spanning wood at least 4 times.
The log boof was an interesting place. No problem in a hardshell, but Sarah was in an IK and wasn't too comfortable with the log/undercut wall combo. I ended up running it, got out on the small river left gravel bar, she ferried across the current into the slower moving water above the log and I grabbed her boat and pulled her onto the gravel bar. In hindsight, that was dumb... probably would have been safer for her to just run it.
All in all, such a good trip. I'll be back next year.
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"That boated a lot better than it looked." "It always does until it doesn't."
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