It is a really fun creek. Super fast and continuous and about three miles long. Beautiful alpine valley. There are no real "drops" just a fairly conituous, Class V-. I usually try and take three cars up there and leave one at the take out and one at the beaver ponds between the second and third gorges. The first two gorges are the most fun so we run them twice and then run all the way through the third gorge. The third gorge is not really worth running below 250cfs or so and the creek just gets more fun the more water there is. I would consider 200 the minimum flow although I know it has been run as low as 75cfs.
I agree with all that Mike wrote -- except that it was paddled below 75cfs I ran it a few years back at around 60, and it was still fun. At 250 it was pumping, and it was a pretty fast and somewhat scary ride at some points. You can see what it looks like in the photos I took:
I wanted to add that a guide would help a lot. It's really tough to scout effectively and it's pretty continous. If you're a V+ boater it shouldn't be a problem though.
JC, i don't mean to be argumentative, but i tend to disagree. i agree it's continuous, but V- boaters can certainly get down this run after an adequate scout of the first and second gorges on the shuttle. i thought the Bible described the locations of these pull-offs fairly well.
the other thing is, yeah snowmelt is snowmelt, but the water in this creek is f*ing cold!
I'll head up this week as soon as it passes 200cfs (my standards are lowering every drought year) it is still too low. 150 or so is pretty scratchy despite what Tom and his psycho crew are willing to tolerate.
Harvey, gimme a call when you are headed up there. Always up for an afterwork run to CC (once it gets to a "reasonably low" 200).
To others.....the creek is definitely 5- read and run. If you can catch small eddies in relatively swift but low volume current with a few moves here and there (and youre a slodi 4+ or 5- boater) you should be good to go bro!
This is a good intro to creeking run for people who are READY to take that step.
I ran it a few years back at around 60, and it was still fun. At 250 it was pumping, and it was a pretty fast and somewhat scary ride at some points. You can see what it looks like in the photos I took:
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