Cali Boatin' - Elk Creek & NF Smith

After a summer of hot, dry days and no rain since mid-June while firing up the local summer runs for months the weather report finally called for RAIN!  I was skeptical of any good runs coming in but the rain came...and soaked southern Oregon and north Cali.  With everything so dry I knew the water was going to run straight into the rivers and be gone within a day or so.  Nothing went as of Saturday, but with the continuing rain Sunday it was to be a great wet, cold day in the mountains of North Cali!  I started phone calling around 8 am Sunday to find that my Crew was heading to run the south fork of the Cal Salmon (a nice IV-V river run).  I set up a meeting place in Yreka, CA so we could finalize plans and check levels; as stuff was climbing fast.  Good thing we did...the river was swollen and huge.  The Cal Salmon was going to be class "Scare You To Death Epic"....so that was out.  

We eventually decided to head to the home of Bigfoot.  Happy Camp, CA to regroup and check levels on Clear Creek and Elk Creek.  As you pull into the town of Happy Camp you are greeted by a large statue of Bigfoot himself.  To the residents of Happy Camp Bigfoot is as real as the grass is green in the spring time.  Do not taunt the locals by telling them there is no Bigfoot they get rather defensive!

Once in Happy Camp we rallied and talked over our options Clear Creek or Elk Creek.  Clear creek is mostly IV+ with 3 class V rapids which you can walk, and the last being a must run.  At higher levels it's a solid 5 rapids of V/V+.  Elk Creek is a sweet, local only run that has gotten little to no attention and is a solid 4 rapid creek run of IV+.  We walked over to Indian Creek which serves as a visual gauge for the other two creeks, and it was brown and fast. Clear creek was out, so up the road we headed to Elk creek.

When my friends Dan and Peter ran it in the spring it was about 300 cfs lower and at the bottom end of runnable.  We pulled up to the takeout to find it brown and at a sweet level.  We drove up the road about 10 minutes to the normal put-in, but then headed upstream on a trail.  All the beta we had on this run said the good stuff was a several mile walk up the creek from the normal put-in.  We walked up the trail several miles to find a sweet reward!  We put into solid class 4+ whitewater that did not stop.  We bombed down through slide after slide.  The first several miles were steep and fast. Once we hit the normal put-in the creek changed a bit....It stayed steep and fast, but turned from slides to nice ledge drops.  I wish I was able to post pics but no one had a camera.  We had paddled everything but one drop that is a nasty, crack drop into a stomping, boxed-in hole when we arrived at a 3 part drop . Two slides leading into a 6 foot ledge with a flake that airs you out and over a sticky hole.  I was the third to run and cleaned the first two parts.  I caught an eddy on river right to set-up for the crux part of the rapid but quickly discovered I had caught a bad eddy.  The eddy fed upstream into a powerful hole that flipped me and sent me barreling down stream and over the final drop up-side down.  I attempted to roll but was heading over the drop as I started to pop up and was unable to hit it as the bottom dropped out.  Into the hole I fell and out of the boat I came.  I was sucked out of my boat skirt popped and was swimming, giving those with me a chance to practice their rescue skills, as I was stuck in a nasty recalculating eddy.  Once I was back in my boat we paddled some nice class IV boogie water to the take-out. This is one of the best creeks I have paddled....Non-stop action from top to bottom with a fast and easy shuttle drive.

With unseasonable flows and a classic wilderness run at a prime level a plan was set to head back to Cali to boat the next day.  We ended up meeting early Monday morning to head to the North Fork of the Smith River. This is a classic coast run just above the redwoods.  It took a little over 2 hrs to get to where we were to meet up with ‘Barefoot Brad'.  Brad has a shuttle service for this river.  With a 1.5 hour drive up over and down into the canyon it's best to pay the 40 dollars to Brad to have him drive your vehicle out and to the takeout for you.  As you climb the mountains you pass several great creeks and a spectacular view of the surf over on the coast just a quick jog over from the river.  The NF Smith is 14 miles of class IV/IV+ big water.  Once on the river there is no getting out till the take out.  This run houses some of the best rapids I have seen.  Huge holes, and powerful pushy water all running steeply downhill...even the flat water moves fast.  Great play is everywhere and the canyon is spectacular.  Creeks flow in all over the place and waterfalls explode in from the tops of ledges everywhere you look. Another thing you see if you look is the carnivorous Cali pitcher plant everywhere.  This has become one of my favorite rivers anywhere!

If you have a chance to hop on any of these sweet runs do not miss the chance you will be passing up on some of the best water out there....

~ Adam Griffin