Scout Report - Rediscovering Christy Creek (1.22.11)

You'd think that after over 100 laps on The Miracle Mile I would have ventured down Christy Creek, which shares the same takeout and is only split by a single ridge. This is not for lack of interest, in fact I've been thinking about this creek for some time now, mostly based on the trip report Steve provided on Oregon Kayaking (here), as well as the few stories I had heard. The things that were holding me back were the committing nature of the run and difficulty. Further, one of the biggest drops on the run, Balls Falls (which is essentially mandatory) was rumored to have gathered wood in recent years. Finally, I had heard conflicting reports on what flow is best. Based on these factors I had somewhat put the idea on the back burner, until recently, and after my buddy Eric started bugging me about it.

Where is Christy Creek?

A couple of weeks ago, Roman and I were enjoying some laps on The Mile when we ran into Quin (a Westfir local) and Toby. After getting in a lap together, they gave us another shuttle before leaving. On the way up, I mentioned Christy knowing that they had both done it before and were actually the ones that had previously told me about the wood. Toby mentioned that he had hiked up the creekbed in late summer and was able to get all the way up to Balls Falls for a scout. Once again I shelved the idea after confirmation of the wood in that drop.

A week or so after my conversation with Toby and Quin, the Northwest got hit with a pineapple express, melting a good deal of the snowpack and flooding the rivers. Word broke out almost instantly of streams being cleaned of their wood. One of the biggest events was on Canyon Creek, Washington; the massive logjam (once thought permanent) blew out, bringing back to life one of the true classics of the PNW. Even local runs around Eugene had received a scouring, with some good news and some bad in its wake. It didn't take me long to start thinking about Christy Creek once again...

Fast forward to last Friday, when I talked with my buddy Shawn about firing up Christy the next day, which would include hiking in the short distance (or so I was told) to scout Balls for wood (hmmm...). Furthermore, the Mile appeared to be running around 2', and we weren’t quite sure what that meant for Christy, we just knew that it wouldn't be low. After making a couple more calls I was also able to rope Roman and Joe into it, and the plan was set.

The bridge gauge. Mainly used for the
Miracle Mile of the NFMF Willamette,
it's about 100 yards below their confluence.
Around 2' on this day.

The new new internet foot gauge,
located ~11 miles downstream.
It was around 4.4' on this day.

The CFS calculation gauge.
It was around 2,300cfs on this day.

Saturday morning arrived and we met up before heading to Christy. When we got there we checked the level on the bridge gauge and confirmed that it was indeed reading 2 feet. We passed over the NFMF Willamette and headed up the road a short distance before taking a side road that led down to Christy. We soon reached a small pullout (and camping spot) where we parked the cars and readied ourselves for a little bushwackin'. Luckily Shawn had brought his machete (he never leaves home without it), so he would be our tour guide. The plan was to hike up to Balls Falls, check for wood and the water level, then return to the cars to gear up and hopefully run it.

Our scouting mission. The dashed yellow line
is our GPS tracks for the day. The dashed red line
is the recommended trail for the put-in if your're
going to run the river.

Shawn wielding a machete, acts as our tour guide.

Please note that since we were hiking upstream, the drops would come in opposite order if you were running it.

The first part of the hike consisted of walking through a fairly open forest, with plenty of logs to hop over and around. We did have to cross a couple of streams and go up and over a couple of small ridges, but for the most part it wasn't too bad. At this point Christy was looking fairly mellow, but it certainly had plenty of flow. We did see one small log portage, but didn't seem too laborious to hike around. We continued on for some time before the creek seemed to pick-up in action and a couple of III+/IV boogie water stretches could be seen.

Near the first part of the hike

One of a couple creek crossings

The class II/III stuff down low

The class IV stuff a little higher up

We had been hiking about a mile (2 from the takeout) before the first of the "good stuff" could be seen. What lay in front of us in the distance was a large (and steep) boulder garden followed by a series of slides; it looked great and we all started to get cautiously optimistic. There was a log coming in from river left at the base of the boulder garden, but after closer inspection it seemed like it could be easily avoided.

The first of The Goods!

A large (and steep) boulder garden is
followed by a series of stepped slides

Above this boulder garden the fun didn't stop. There were a few more good drops stacked on top of each other, pretty quality stuff too. One in particular had a couple of sweet rock boof options to choose from, with the only issue being a rock sieve on the right side of the outflow. Boofing on the hard left side would have kept you far away from it though.

More goods just upstream of the big boulder garden

Looking downstream from the same area

The ledge with the multiple boof options. The far
river left one keeps you away from the sieve below.

The sieve below the multi-boof ledge

After a lengthy photo shoot, I started heading upstream again to catch-up with the others. When I reached them, they were sitting down talking, so I knew that we would probably need to have a quick discussion. Shawn quickly informed me that it was noon and we had been hiking for almost two hours. Knowing that we hadn't reached Balls Falls yet and time was burning, a decision needed to be made. One thing we all agreed upon was that we would not be running Christy due to time requirements. What we needed to decide was whether to continue hiking/scouting, or head-back and run the NFMF gorge. I quickly voted to continue on; I mean, we had come this far, right?! I had been wanting to check this run out for a long time now, and I knew that if we turned back now that we wouldn't have the beta we came for, and probably wouldn't return to do so. Without too much hassle, I was able to convince everyone to push on.

After a short bit we turned a corner and my jaw dropped as we came to a giant slide (30' to 35' tall) that looked clean and was wood free! I looked around to see smiles on the others' faces as well. The creek also appeared to be gorging up a bit, based on the mossy rock wall on river left at the top of the massive drop. As we walked to the base of the slide, a rather large hole became visible. It definitely had some hold, but safety looked pretty easy to set, so we hiked upstream to checkout the rest of the drop.

Our first glimpse of the monster slide

We now had the entrance tier in our sight, which was not a give-me. Further, the hole at the base of the slide looked bigger from upstream, so Shawn decided to chuck a couple of logs in to test its power. The first one he threw in was about 3' long x 10" in diameter. It took off like a rocket as it hit the water and went careening down the slide. As it made impact with the hole it stopped dead and got rodeo'd for about 60 seconds before finally kicking out. We looked at each other with clinched teeth for a second, before picking up some more logs to throw in. Some got surfed, some speared right through, but one thing was clear, a little less water might be nice for this one.

The top tier of the slide

The lead-in (top tier) of the slide

Shawn finds his victim...

Hammer time! This log got an extended surf at the base of the slide.

After we were done playing around, we continued upstream. We only had to walk around the corner before we saw the next monster looming in the distance. This beast was in fact Balls Falls...target acquired. This drop was truly a beautiful sight, the sun was beating down directly on it, as if it were a pot of gold. At this point it appeared that the wood that had complicated the line was now gone, and the only remaining piece was the large one hovering down from river right. That particular piece had been there since at least Steve’s trip report, which was more than 10 years ago, and the good news is that this log is essentially out of play! I was feeling almost as excited as I assume Steve and his crew were when they came upon it. I was itching to get a closer look, so without hesitation we moved in. Soon we were standing on the steep slope just above it. This is where we realized just how big this drop really was, cascading a total of 45’ to 50’! I was now pretty glad we had not put on the run without scouting first, the drop was clear of wood, but the water level would have been too high for my comfort level on this drop, it had some pretty big holes to contend with. It was also confirmed that the portaging option (or lack there of) would be an adventure in its own right.

The drop between Balls and the slide

Balls in all its glory. The top sliding waterfall drops about 25 feet!

Balls Falls from high above. Quite an impressive drop!

After admiring the drop for some time, we had reached another decision point, continue on, hike back the way we came, or try and hike out of the canyon straight up to the road and follow that back down. We knew that Rhinosex was just upstream, and was the largest drop of the run; however the word is that it has an easy portage so we figured that a decision on that one could be made from our boats at water level. The next drop above that is supposedly a long class V boulder garden, that like Balls Falls, is also essentially unportageable. Not sure how far up this drop was, and not wanting to run out of light, we decided to end our scouting mission. With little desire to bushwhack back the way we came, and maybe feeling a little adventurous still, we decided (as a group) to hike out of the canyon straight up to the road.

According to the GPS we only had about ¼ mile (as the crow flies) to the road, but it was also a 700’ vertical slog. As we started our climb we basically crawled on all fours around and over the various obstacles in our way. Soon, Joe yelled, telling us that he saw a clearing up ahead. Thinking that anything would be better than our current path, we headed toward it. What it ended up being was a massive rock slide, which served as a staircase to make our ascent. This greatly sped things up, but even so, we were glad that we didn’t have to haul boats at the same time. Eventually we reached what appeared to be a summit, and as I crested I was immediately stunned by what I saw, the climb ended and begin heading right back down with no road in site. Confused, I pulled out my GPS and still couldn’t make sense of it, “It should flatten back out for a bit and then there should be a road, WTF!” Joe came over to study the GPS with me, and determined that we were actually looking down into the Billy Creek drainage. Ahh yes, quite obvious now; “Thanks Joe!” Now knowing our position, we headed northwest toward the road, which we found after about 10 minutes. From here it was ~4 mile hike down the road to the car, long but much easier going than the bushwhacking on the way in. The road disappeared under snow a couple times during the road hike, and cougar tracks appeared here and there along the way. We laughed at our current adventure and talked about past ones; even though the hike was much longer than expected it was kinda fun just getting out and doing some exploring with the crew.

Roman hiking up our rock staircase

Shawn and Joe making good progress

Looking into the Christy Creek drainage from the hike out

When we got back to the car we had hiked about 7 ½ miles total which took around 5 hours. Feeling a little bad about getting my mates into this adventure, I offered to buy everyone beers back in Oakridge, which they gladly accepted.

In summary, the hiking was a bitch, but I believe that the effort was worth it. Although the conditions between the put-in and Balls Falls is still unknown, I feel comfortable putting on based on the conditions and quality of what we did see. As for levels, I would not want to jump on it the first time with the level we saw (2’ on the bridge gauge), due to the large hydraulics in the two largest drops. I think around a 15" would be a better level to go in at; for reference Steve’s trip report was around 1 foot on the gauge.

Hopefully this information will provide valuable information to those wondering about Christy Creek, or spark some interest in those who hadn’t. I plan to jump on the run very soon and will follow-up with a true trip-report once I do. Finally, if have done Christy and have any information to share, please do, there is not a lot of information out there.

For a trip report of our run down the following week, go here.

Upper Brice Creek (1.19.2011)

Brice Creek is one of my favorite runs in Oregon; it pretty much has it all: waterfalls, slides, ledges, and steep boulder gardens! After sky-high flows over the weekend I was pretty sure that the levels for the creek would hit the sweet spot by mid-week. Luckily for me it was my birthday, and so it wasn't hard to get the day off of work for some paddling.

The birthday crew (minus the birthday boy)

Brice is actually broken up into two runs, Upper and Lower, with each having a much different character from the other. The Upper has a gradient of over 200’ per mile. It’s very continuous and flows through steep boulder gardens, while dropping over a few slides and ledges along the way. There are really no pools to speak of (expect around the corner from Parker Falls), however small eddies abound depending on level. This run is a gas when the level is high, but it turns into a freight train which could result in a train wreck if you’re not on your game. Conversely, at low levels it’s much easier, but the trashy nature and sharp rocks just below the surface have claimed more than its fair share of boats.

The lower run is much different, and has more of a pool-drop nature. It is typically easier (~100fpm; class IV) but does pack a punch at higher flows. The first mile or so of the lower (to Lund Park) packs the most heat, and has four named ledges that can eat your lunch if you botch the line; the higher the level the meaner they get. Below Lund are some more good drops including Fun, Not Fun, and the grand finale, Laura’s. For a my trip report of the lower run at low water go here.

The river gods were smiling down upon me and offered up perfect flows for a birthday paddle on this gem. The night before, I was actually afraid it would drop into the low end of the range for the Upper, however, some rain the night before stopped it from dropping and even gave it a little bump!

We had ~6.3' on this day. Typically you want
between 5.75' and 6.5' for the Upper Run, and
between 5.25 and 6.25 for the Lower Run. It
should be noted that since this gauge
is actually on the Row River, these
figures will only get you in the ballpark.




On this day we had around 3,100cfs; I actually don't
like to use this gauge except for the forecast since
I don't find it to be as accurate as the Pitcher Creek one.
However, If I recall correctly, you want between ~2,200cfs
and 3500cfs for the Upper Run, and between ~1,500cfs
and 2,500cfs for the Lower Run.

The birthday crew consisted of Shawn Haggin, Roman Androsov, Eric Emerson, Bob Lee, and me. I was super excited to have both Bob and Eric joining us; I hadn’t seen or been on the water with them in a while. Bob was actually just coming off the couch from shoulder surgery, props to him jumping on Upper Brice for his reintroduction! After we all had met up we drove southeast headed toward Brice.

On the drive up we noticed that the fields had lakes in them and the rivers were filled to the banks. Wondering if the gauge was accurately reflected, we knew we wouldn’t be without water… A quick stop at the bridge gauge (~1 mile downstream of Cedar Creek Campground) revealed that the level was ~14”, a solid medium flow for the Upper and high for the Lower.

The bridge gauge. Reading ~14" on this day.

Since we initially planned to boat both Upper and Lower, we got changed and dropped a car off at Cedar Creek Campground. From there we drove to the put-in at Parker Falls while stopping along the way at several spots to look for wood (from the flooding over the weekend). For the Lower, the only new wood we noticed was in Lower Trestle, making the drop essentially unrunnable in its current state.

The new wood in Lower Trestle. Bummer...

As for Upper, both good and bad news, a couple of pieces of bad wood had been blown out, but a new one was brought in just above the entrance to Orthodontist’s Nightmare, one of the best drops on the run. Fortunately you can put-in just below the log and still run the drop.

The tree blocking the entrance to Orthodontist's Nightmare

Since we hadn’t run the very top part of Upper Brice in years (due to wood), we gave an extensive scout of this section (between Parker and the first bridge) prior to putting on. There was still some wood to contend with, but it would be fairly manageable to deal with from river level. After unloading the boats and putting on our last pieces of gear, we headed down the steep trail to the top of Parker Falls.

The lead-in to Parker Falls (as seen from the road).
Parker Falls itself is what drops out of site.

Parker Falls is one of the most exhilarating put-ins I’ve done. You basically pull out of an eddy into a flume of water, bust through a couple holes, make a sharp left bend down a slide, and drop over a waterfall! It should be noted that there are logs sitting at the base of the falls with water pushing into them on the right; this is definitely a good place to have safety setup. Another amazing thing is that I've never run Parker. This is because by the time I was ready, wood had clogged the gorge below, making it not worth the effort. There is still at least one wood portage and two maybes, but, after some recent storms Parker is now open for business once again! Since Bob’s shoulder was still in recovery he opted for putting in below, setup safety, and working the camera. Shawn and I were fired up to run it and Eric was still contemplating (also coming off the couch after not boating for a while).

Shawn adjusts his boat at the put-in eddy above Parker

Because it was my birthday, I had the honor of going first! I strapped into my boat, slid into the eddy, signaled I was ready, and dropped in. Immediately I was on my stick and powered through the first two holes. Next, I rounded the left turn as I dug for the inside corner to ensure a clean line off the falls and away from the wood. As I came over the falls I knew I was where I needed to be and caught flight for a brief second before landing in the boil below. What a great drop and helluva way to start the run! Soon after, Shawn and Eric came over the drop in similar fashion, each with an exhilarated look on their face.

The birthday boy firing off Parker Falls
(photo by Bob Lee)

Shawn goes for a more right-side line
(photo by Bob Lee)

Eric fires up Parker Falls
(photo by Bob Lee)

As we rounded the corner below Parker, we floated into a slow moving pool between cliff walls. This pool is new, and formed by a logjam at the end, which must be portaged easily on the left. Once over the small log dam, we were faced with a couple of more logs to either put-in above or below. The group went half and half, and the ones choosing to navigate the wood obstacles did so without issue. Between here and the first bridge we had continuous class III+ water with two wood hazards to deal with. Both could have been run but the lines were a little sketchy and we decided to portage for the safety of the group.

The pool created by the logjam just around the corner from Parker

The logjam ledge that creates the pool

Portaging the log dam

As soon as we passed the first bridge we were in familiar territory; this allowed us to start making good time, which was good since we had spent more time than planned up to this point and daylight was potentially a factor for completing both runs. After some fun steep boogie water, we reached the lead-in to the first major drop (below the first bridge), Bubble Trouble. Not only does this drop have a cool name, it’s also quite fun. A busy lead-in deposits you into a small fast moving pool before dropping over a low-angle slide and into a beefy hole. As long as you run the far right side of the ledge you’ll bust through no problem, however if you blow the entrance or don’t line up properly, you may face a beating you won’t soon forget. For this reason, and to take some photos, I jumped out of my boat and ran down to set safety.

After setting up, I waited for the others. And then I waited, and waited…

After growing impatient, I decided to hike back up to see what the hold-up was. Come to find out Shawn had just broken his brand new boat; his third one in about a year! At this point he had already started the hike back upstream to retrieve the car. I once again ran down to the drop to setup. Soon enough the crew came into sight, led by Roman who had a textbook line down Bubble Trouble.

Roman leads Eric and Bob through the lead-in to Bubble Trouble

Roman hits the line down Bubble Trouble

Bustin' through the hole. This thing is extremely
sticky on the left side, so stay right as Roman did.

Both Eric and Bob eddied out just above. Eric wanted to give it another quick look while Bob made the decision to take off, wait for Shawn, and prevent overworking his healing shoulder. While Eric gave the drop another scout, I ran up, got in my boat, and ran the drop, making the lines that I needed to. Eric dropped over soon after and we were on our way.

Eric and Bob in the lead-in to Bubble Trouble

The author drives for the right line on Bubble Trouble
(photo by Eric Emerson)

Dropping in...
(photo by Eric Emerson)

...and hitting the soft spot of the hole
(photo by Eric Emerson)

Eric runs Bubble Trouble

Since Bob was walking the road, he graciously offered to take pictures for the rest of the trip. After a short bit we were in the eddy above The Snake. This drop has gotten a little less sketchy since the log in the left slot has washed away. That said, it’s not a give-me drop, and requires dropping over blind around an airplane turn and threading a tight pinch between two boulders. We all made it through with some interesting lines and met up in the eddies downstream.

Roman lines up the pinch at the bottom of The Snake
(photo by Bob Lee)

Eric dropping into The Snake
(photo by Bob Lee)

The author goes for the airplane turn entrance
(photo by Bob Lee)

Holdin' on...
(photo by Bob Lee)

...and threadin' it
(photo by Bob Lee)

Between here and the next major drop, Orthodontist’s Nightmare, is continuous class III/IV boulder dodging. There is one horseshoe shaped ledge hiding around a blind right corner that we always sneak on the left. There is a generous eddy above it on the left, but you could easily blow it if you came in too hot and didn’t know what was below. As I approached this drop, I passed both Eric and Roman who had briefly eddied out higher; I then cut across the turn (above the horseshoe) and drove for the eddy. Unfortunately I hit it too low and flushed out backwards toward the ledge; all I could think at this point was, “ahh, shit”… There was no time to recover or turn around, and as I felt myself dropping over backwards, I plastered my face against my boat and hoped to pop through. I would not get so lucky. After plugging it, I immediately went into a high-brace side-surf. I held on for a moment and thought I was clawing my way out, but was soon drug back in by the backflow/boil. Not wanting to swim in the deep pocket, I pulled before it had a chance to drag me there. Amazingly, I was able to pull myself up the ledge wall and back into the eddy above it. I watched as my boat was getting worked in the deep part of the hole that I had wanted to avoid. After getting the “I’m alright” from me, Roman chased down my paddle while Eric got a line on my boat. Based on the above, we now refer to this ledge as the "Birthday Hole"! The described carnage can be seen in graphic detail here:





After my boat was emptied and paddle was back in my hand, we headed downstream once again, still burning daylight. The next eddy we caught was just above the large river-wide log blocking the entrance to Orthodontist's Nightmare. Both Shawn and Bob were there at roadside to greet us, and like the good chaps they are, they set safety and snapped some pics of us running the drop. I went first. After sliding in below the log I paddled down toward the drop. The best line on Orthodontist's is to cut river-right about halfway down the lead-in, then drive for the boof flake that feeds back to river-center in the meat of the drop. I hit one of my better lines and waited in the eddy below for the others to come down. Eric got a little bobbled in the lead-in but recovered nicely and hit a good boof off the flake. Roman had a great line as well.

The wood blocking the entrance to Orthodontist's Nightmare
(photo by Bob Lee)

The bottom crux section of Orthodontist's Nightmare

The author lines up for the boof on Orthodontist
(photo by Bob Lee)

and gets it
(photo by Bob Lee)

Eric hits the boof
(photo by Bob Lee)

Roman diggin' in at Orthodontist's Nightmare
(photo by Bob Lee)

By this time Eric was feeling the effects of not boating for awhile, and our crew had now shrank to 2, from our original 5. With spirits a little dented but still high, Roman and I continued to the next drop just downsteam, Le Mans. Le Mans is certainly not the biggest drop of the run, but it is one of the hardest lines to make. Basically it's an S-Turn that requires a precise left turn at the bottom to avoid getting blown into the junky mess on river right. Prior to the flooding the weekend before, wood had also shared the space with the junk, making the price of failure a little higher. Both Roman and I greased the drop and eddied out below.

Roman coming out of the first turn at Le Mans
(photo by Bob Lee)

The author makes the second turn at Le Mans
(photo by Bob Lee)

From here is a busy stretch that leads into "Hop, Skip, Splat" with the only real eddy sitting on river-right at the lip of the drop. This drop is almost always portaged due to pin hazards and a backed up hole at the base, and it just looks ugly in person. Not wanting to blow another eddy, we took out immediately below Le Mans and chose a little bit longer walk around.

Hop, Skip, Splat. This drop looks much worse in person...

Putting in just below the base of the falls, Roman and I were off again. This is actually one of my favorite stretches on Brice, it feels pushier than the stuff up above but has great flow and just keeps going all the way to the takeout bridge. I remember a couple of months ago when we ran it a stupid high flow, a buddy of mine asked what was below as we portaged Hop, Skip, Splat, I told him "boogie water", and once we got to the bridge (~1/2 mile below) he came up to me and said, "that wasn't boogie, that was one long class V drop". That said, be prepared for a ride if the flows are high.

A view looking upstream from the bridge separating Upper and Lower

As soon as we reached the bridge that separates Upper from Lower, it had been a long day already and so we decided to takeout. As we waited for the others to return with the cars we reflected on what a great day we had on the river. Even though we didn't do the Lower like we had planned to, we'd definitely had a full day. After loading up, we all headed back into Eugene to grab some dinner at one of my favorite eats, Papa's Soul Food. What a great way to spend a birthday, on one of my favorite creeks with my bros!

Some head-cam footage of our run: