It’s no surprise I started wondering about running Elk Cr. Last year, on the way to running the Upper Kalama for the first time, I was a bit awestruck as we crossed the bridge over Elk Cr. and looked down onto ledge after ledge after ledge. The bridge is very high above the creek which makes the setting even more spectacular but harder to judge the quality or runnability of the rapids. Being so close to Portland and so obvious, I was pretty surprised I hadn’t heard anything about it but, over the years, Weyerhauser has restricted access to the Kalama more and more so maybe that has something to do with the lack of info. The lack of info actually made it even more attractive, though, so I started plotting strategies.
My original plan was to take a trip in and just hike the creek to see if it was worth doing but since the gate is only open for a short time in the fall each year, I didn’t want to waste a day when there was enough water to run the creek. I headed up once with my boat during the week only to find that the area was closed except on weekends. Nothing like getting turned away once to fire me up to really get on a creek so when there was a bit of rain over the next few days, I figured that was the sign to try it again on Sat.
Matt and Jacob rallied for a trip even knowing it was likely to be a low-water, wood-fest. Gotta like the spirit! Finding all the gates open and good roads, we drove all the way to the highest access point only to see that the creek was really small, filled with wood and didn’t have any water. Not a good start. Two miles downstream, however, things looked good as we did the easy hike through the woods down to the creek. There was just enough water to float which was all we really wanted.
Before too long we rounded a corner and saw some gorge walls jump up out of the river. Jacob got out and after a long scout, indicated Matt and I might want to take a look. The huge old-growth log jammed in the gorge didn’t look good initially but after a bit more scouting, we decided there was a decent chance to pull off a log-slide move with low consequences.
The author dropping in. 
Both Matt and I ended up falling off the wrong side of the long but Jacob had a perfect slide down the right side. After this gorge the creek continued with lots of small ledges and slides and remarkably very little wood. We soon got to another big horizon line where we really started to get excited about the potential of this little creek. The creek dropped over a 4 ft. ledge into a hole backed up by some wood, and then plunged over a 10ft. waterfall into a large punchbowl. Although the first ledge had a little too much wood for us, the waterfall looked like great and we each fired it up with big grins.
Boofing 
More nice, small ledges and slides continued to an even bigger horizon line. Jacob gave Matt and I the “Class 5” signal so we both got out to scout what turned out to be a tricky 18’ waterfall. It was quickly obvious that there wasn’t any reasonable way to portage the waterfall, so I started eyeing the 20’ seal-launch on the left while Matt and Jacob discussed how to run the falls. I wasn’t thrilled with the seal launch but the pool at the base of the falls seemed deep. Matt pushed me off and I landed without a problem and setup to take some photos of the guys dropping the falls.
Matt running the falls
The trick was to make a move to the center as you entered the falls to avoid hitting the wall and the overhanging rock about halfway down. Matt did well to avoid the wall while only dragging his right paddle blade on the wall on the way down. Jacob did a sweet launch from the top into the center of the falls and didn’t hit anything.
Below this falls were more good ledge drops and slides until we got to the section we had seen from the road bridge way above the creek. These drops were some of the best on the river with 2 clean 8-10’ ledges and a couple technical rapids before we reached the confluence with the Kalama. All in all, a really high quality run for those interested in getting off the beaten path.
Jacob on one of many fun drops 
