This weekend we got just enough rain and snow melt to bring some rivers up. Saturday Jason and I rolled the dice and tried to get on the NF Clack. First time of the year for Jason I think. I checked the flow in the morning and found it to be at a pretty respectable 3′ so we suited up and hiked down to the put-in.
I haven’t been on the NF since we had several low elevation snow storms so I was curious to see the condition of the creek. Pretty soon we started seeing lots of trees bent over the creek with branches in the river. I kept hoping that it would clean up as we progressed downstream but it never really did. I think the weight of the snow was too much for a lot of the alder trees and just pushed them down into the creek. We portaged one small log early in the run and had to dodge a couple more in rapids. Overall the trees didn’t block any of the rapids but they sure made some spots more stressful and added a level of difficulty to a couple rapids.
The water level on the upper section was sweet and we stopped to take some pics and scout for wood every now and again. We bombed the 1/4-mile rapid through the upper gorge. Really fun but tiring! Jason’s in way better shape than me so I don’t think it fazed him. I’ve been struggling with the outfitting in my boat lately which I think has been making me work harder than I should.
Jason dropping into a fun rapid on the upper section 
Pretty soon we were at the big portage around the 50′ falls. There were also a lot of new branches down on the portage trail so the hike was harder than normal. After looking at Stairway to Heaven we both opted to put-in below it. I haven’t been feeling particularly confident with my kayaking lately so I’ve yet to run this super fun waterfall. Maybe a little in the spring.
Below the waterfall it’s game on again as the river careens down through some fun rapids with a some mank thrown in to keep you honest. We both had good lines down to above Piledriver and got out to scout for wood. I ran first and preceded to piton at the top and the bottom of the rapid! Not my best run so I decided to hike back up and try for a better line the next time. Jason came down and greased his line and I did pretty well the second time around.
Jason cleaning Piledriver 
Below Piledriver is currently "The Portage Section" with a new logjam just downstream, new wood that you can sneak on the far left and then the sketchy sneak around a log right above Storm Drain. I just about took my head off on the log when I didn’t boof very hard and then preceded to miss the first 3 scouting eddies above Storm Drain before clawing my way into the 4th and last eddy. Jason corrected off my flailing line and caught the first eddy. Storm Drain looked pretty good but neither felt like running today so we did the quick portage on the left. Below Storm Drain there is a really fun stretch with some good holes and boofs.
Jason near the bottom of the stretch below Storm Drain (the rapid continues upstream around the corner) 
Below here the river rips through a fast, narrow chute and then charges down through Blind Date; the last big rapid on the run. Just before I got back into my boat from taking pictures I looked downstream and noticed a river-wide log in the lead-in to Blind Date. This log was hard to see and completely blocks the river so I’m pretty glad I looked downstream before committing to the drop above it! There was some water flowing over the top so we both boofed over it with lots of speed. Kind of a sketchy move but it worked. As I was getting out of my boat to scout, my backband broke again. This was the 3rd time in three trips so I was pretty frustrated. I thought I’d fixed it the night before but I guess I didn’t do a very good job. Jason scouted Blind Date while I rigged up a temporary system that would hopefully get me the last few miles to the take-out.
Jason exits Blind Date 
From this point its about a mile of fun, easy rapids all the way to the lake at the take-out. All in all, even with the new wood in the river, we had a great day. It was even more enjoyable since I didn’t expect the NF to have any water and we were lucky to get on it after a last minute decision to check it out.
More details on the run can be found at:
oregonpaddling.northwest-rivers.com
oregonkayaking.net