Encampment - Fish Creek - Trip Summary

[alexhenes]

On Friday night Chris(aka X-Factor), Kelly, Jason, and I camped at the mesquito infested takeout of the Encampment River.

On Saturday morning Kelly (who recently anounced she is prego... right on Chris!) graciously provided shuttle. We put on around 10:00 finished 4 hours later.

Encampment is a beautiful wilderness run that builds from class III to IV to -V in Damnation Alley then back to IV and then a relatively long II paddle out. Damnation Alley is big... much bigger than it looks from shore... Jason showed off his playboating skills. The class IV on this run is great. It is definitley worth the trip if you have not done the run.

On Sunday Chris, Jason, and I ran upper and lower Fish Creek. The put in is at the foot of Fish Creek Falls... a 100ft spectacular waterfall. There were about 50 tourists watching us put on... it was quite the scene.... "hey honey... I wanna stick around and watch these guys die."

The creek has about +/-500cfs in it and stomps from the moment you put on to the momnet you take off. There are very few eddys on this run and the ones that do exist hold 1 or 2 boats. Sometimes you have to hold onto the bushes/trees so you don't fall out of the eddys.

There is only one notable drop on the run which is not scoutable or portable. It is about 1/4 mile into the run... you run it on the right.... I entered right and exited left.... although right was better... left was fine too... just more pin potential.

There was one almost river wide log on the upper section that all but Jason walked around.

The Upper/Lower Fish Creek combination is a classic run... definitely get on it if you get the opportunity.

[erdvm1]

Any more encampment info. Which is more difficult Fish or encampment.

[wycoloboater]

Ran Encampment on Friday, definetely have to agree with Alex, beautiful run, really cool wilderness experience. I have not run upper fish but have done middle and lower and I wouldn't really compare fish to the encampment. THey are different runs, the encampment is more eddy hop boulder gardens with several drops, one of which, damnation, is really big but super fun. Fish is a fast river with no eddy's to speak of and no real big drops, it is just a super cool rollercoaster ride. Anyways, I recommend both fish and the encampment, it is really cool and remote. Have fun and be safe.

Never really figured out which exactly was entrance falls on encampment, have a good idea but not sure, damnation is easy to find if you are heads up, it looks just like the picture in CRC2, scout from either bank and run it right down the middle. At the level we ran it at, 400-500 at put in and 800 at take out, damnation was really fun and straight forward big drops, super fun. Other than that, it is pretty much read and run eddy hopping.
Enjoy.

Zach.

[alexhenes]

I just posted some pictures of the trip in the 'Paddling' section of www.merelyafleshwound.com

Enjoy.

[badkins]

I ran encampment Saturday also, with team noon. We got a much later start than Alex... I think entrance falls is the rapid just upstream of Damnation Alley, it looks burley from upstream but it's not worth scouting. The thing I like about the encampent is that the steeper the rapids get, the more likely the line is right down the gut. I have been considering dragging some of my sicker paddling friends down there for a no scout descent. The long boring paddle out does suck, my right leg went to sleep so bad it was tingling for 3 hours after the takeout!