Pilchuck Creek, |
|
| Usual Difficulty | IV (may vary with level) |
|---|---|
| Length | 4.4 Miles |
| Avg. Gradient | 60 fpm |
SEASON: Winter rains.
LOGISTICS: Paddlers meet at the Highway 9 Bridge just north of Arlington at Highway 9 mile 34.9 to check the gauge and coordinate shuttle. If you're going to tack on the middle run too then this is the take-out, but if you're just doing the upper start heading up river. From the Highway 9 Bridge, drive 0.3 miles north on Highway 9 and turn right onto Finn Settlement Rd. (labeled as 44th Ave NE in the Gazetteer). Drive 4.5 miles along this road until you come to a Y. To reach the take-out (also the put-in for the middle section) turn right at the Y. From this point you used to be able to drive 0.9 miles to the logging road bridge across the river, but the WA DNR has gated this road and you'll now have to hike out if you want to use this access. To reach the put-in, turn left at the Y and head 0.9 miles to Lake Cavanaugh Road. Head right and continue another 4 miles up the road where the river runs right up againt the road. There is a spot for a couple of cars at a small pull-out.
DESCRIPTION:
The upper section of Pilchuck Creek adds some fun class III/IV rapids that can become very pushy and continuous at high flows with the action building up to the most challenging drops which are 1.5 to 2.0 miles into the run. At high water this section can push class V as holes start to appear and quick moves around wood hazards are required. The upper section is a bit more continuous than the middle section, but the character is mostly boulder gardens through a second-growth forest. There is an old logging road that runs along much of the run so although you can boat scout the run, getting out on shore is not as difficult as in the bedrock canyon downstream. Drops on this upper section are a bit bony with medium flows. Higher flows are generally best for this run.
The most challenging drop occurs near over halfway into the run where a large boulder sticks out from river right and the river plunges over a 5' ledge drop. It's run river right near the boulder. Another good drop follows a short distance downstream before the action begins to taper off a bit. It's a short distance to the take-out bridge (pull out upstream river right).
Those looking for more action continue downstream and paddle the middle section which is best-known for Pilchuck Falls. Paddling the upper and middle sections together can make for a great day with 10 miles of paddling.
See description for Pilchuck Creek, Middle Section.
This is a rain-fed run and it generally takes at least a day of good hard winter rain to bring the water up. Department of Ecology recently established a realtime gauge for this creek. You can also check the rainfall at the Arlington NWS station. The river rises and falls very quickly and once it stops raining the flows drop immediately. Of nearby realtime gauges, the North Fork Stilliguamish generally gives you the best idea of area flows (look for a winter rain event that brings flows up to around 8000-11000 cfs on this gauge). At the river, the USGS Pilchuck nr Bryant gauge is just upstream from the Highway 9 bridge. It's no longer an active gauge and getting to a spot where you can actually read the numbers would require you to go across private property (although you can read it when paddling past). You can see this staff gauge from the river left side of the bridge. Although you won't be able to read the numbers, the top of the board is at 5.7' (approx 2800 cfs) so from that you can estimate what the level is. Most paddlers use the large rock in the middle of the river on the upstream side of the bridge to estimate relative flow. If water is only just reaching the rock but not really flowing up on it then you probably want to skip this upper section and just paddle the middle section. If water is flowing up over the rock then this is the level where the upper section becomes boatable (around 4.5, approx. 1390 cfs) (see gauge photo). Once the rock is fully covered the river is running at high water--use caution. The staff gauge roughly corresponds (channel has likely changed since the last set of measurements) to cfs as follows:
3.5' - 560 cfs
4.0' - 930 cfs
4.5' - 1390 cfs
5.0' - 1950 cfs
5.5' - 2600 cfs
6.0' - 3300 cfs
| When | River/Gauge | Subject | Level | Reporter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilchuck Creek [WA] |
Upper Pilchuck rapid
|
n/a | Thomas O'Keefe | |
| 7y292d15h17m | Pilchuck Creek [WA] |
Upper Pilchuck
|
n/a | Thomas O'Keefe |
No rapids entered. If you know names, and locations of the rapids please contact and advise the StreamTeam member for this run. River Alert
State News
River Links
NWRI - Pilchuck Creek 1 - Lake Cavanaugh Road to Pilchuck Creek Campsite (mobile)
User Comments
easy carry. You can see it from quite a ways upstream at a left bend in the river. Downstream of
here you can see the river get narrow below with the log spanning the river. Edit
whole run (upper/middle) on a freezing winter (short) day...so, we dropped a car at the Hwy 9
take-out at around 10AM and drove to the put-in access on Lake Cavanaugh Road...it was snowing and
36 degrees. :) Flow was low...just over 700 cfs on the DOE gauge. The upper run could not be run
any lower, and in fact the lowness made it increasingly more difficult in places. It was a tense
float around a lot of wood in places but only one real portage as going under and over some of the
logs were Plan A. The 140 fpm Class IV section was the most difficult as the boulders made route
picking very difficult, the snow was pounding down and there were so many steathly colored rocks
boats took a beating (mine especially - 2 huge gashes in the floor). The bigger ledges are obvious
when you approach them and are both run next to large rocks on river right. I had one swim right
above one of the bigger ones and tested my helmets integrity in 6" of fast moving water before
self-rescuing, checking if all my marbles were still in order than proceeding down through the
rapid. Then I blew a line wound up getting side-surfed in a hole WHILE attaching myself to a
sweeper. That was a first. Took me over 2 minutes to find a combination of moves that got my out of
the hole and the sticks w/o flipping. The 2nd big ledge had Brian for lunch and Shaun and I took
chase and recovered his boat. One more fun, big river-wide ledge remained and soon we were at the
put-in bridge for the Middle run and we basically bombed down that as fast as we could in search of
warm shoes. The Middle still had the same logs it did a few weeks back and should be approached
carefully as another big water event might clean some up but also could push many of the sideline
trees into the drink as well. Overall: Running both runs together is great. No gate/hike-in issues
like on the middle and the PI and TO are cake. I'd like to see about 900 or so next time to clean
up the upper run. It is however easy to see how hazardous this run could become at higher flows.
That 140 fpm section can become Class V and with the wood in there and less eddies could make it
even harder. If you can't see the bottom of a drop, scout!