| White Salmon — 1 - Cascade Creek to Trout Lake™ © |
Class III-IV(V)
8.4Miles
Avg Gradient 130 fpm
Max Gradient 180 fpm
River Mapplet
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GPS/GIS |
Maps |
| Zip Code : |
98672 |
General Area |
| County : |
Skamania |
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There is currently no Gauge Data on this stretch. Please Email us if you have details about a realtime gauge for this river.
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Minimum Recomended Level: 3.5 ft Maximum Recomended Level: 4.5 ft
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Putin DetailsUp FR23 from Trout Lake, a road branches off and goes down to a bridge crossing the White Salmon. Cascade Creek enters just downstream on R. Left. Put-in anywhere here. |
Takeout DetailsFrom BZ driving into Trout Lake, take the right fork at the gas station. Cross Trout Lake Creek and continue to where FR 23 branches off to the left. |
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Run DescriptionIf you really love the White Salmon like so many paddlers do, you've no doubt at least wondered about this section listed as "TRIP #1" in the Bennett Book. His favorable description lures the imagination to it, even though the opportunity to catch it during ideal conditions is somewhat slim.
The problem is that generally speaking, when there is enough water that high up at the base of Mt. Adams to make the stretch runnable, the snow prevents access in the traditional sense. If you want this run you can't wait for the roads to melt free so you can just waltz in and put on.
The run itself is a continuous incline with class II/III rock gardens and headwalls intermixed with consolidated chunks of slides and ledges. Unfortunately, this run seems to contain way more wood now than when Bennett wrote the original guidebook description. Our trip on Febuary 2nd, 2011 involved at least 27-30 portages, all related to wood. So indeed this is a novelty run, and Mt.Adams will make you earn it.
That being said, the whitewater we encountered was pretty nice. Most of those shallow slides culminated in a few abrupt drops a few feet high each, followed by a single riverwide ledge or flume to give the rapid a dramatic end. There also seemed to be a little more whitewater in there than the guidebook implies. Only a few of the drops were blocked by wood.
Most of the portages were in spots in between the more dynamic drops and rapids, so we got to run most of the good stuff.
We'd hoped to find this section cleared out by the recent high water, but instead were treated by a full day of hard won progress down the 8.5 mile stretch. Plan for a very long day (8 hrs) if you want to explore this run.
If you want to know more just hit me up.
-jP
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