Lewis, N. Fork
4. Cussed Hollow to FR 9039 (Middle)
| Difficulty | III-IV |
| Length | 8.3 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 39 fpm |
| Gauge | Lewis River Above Muddy River Near Cougar, Wa |
| Flow Rate as of 43 minutes | 262 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | March 2, 2023 |
This is a great run for IKs and kayaks, and it's an excellent run for self-supported overnight trips. The first 4 miles are utterly gorgeous with class III whitewater and one or two class IV's depending on flow.
You can boat scout everything until Big Creek Gorge – when you see a big gravel bar on the left and a headwall on the right curving hard left, land on the cobbles and scout left. Big Creek Gorge has a tricky entrance that throws boats into the right wall, then a crux consisting of several large boulders with tight slots that can catch logs. It deserves a class IV rating even at low flows and is probably class V at higher flows. Kayaks can run this in sections and portage left as needed, though portaging is more difficult when the left side rock bar is under water. Those who know ahead of time that they don't want to run it (and can recognize it in time) can land early on the right and climb up to the Lewis River Trail, then drop back down to the river below the rapid. Rafts will have a significantly harder portage, so pack light and leave lots of time.
Below Big Creek Gorge, the rapids calm down significantly. You may want to combine this with the 4.5 mile run down to the Eagle Cliffs Park at the head of the reservoir. There are several nice rapids and great views of waterfalls.
Logistics: The take-out for this run is at the FR 9039 bridge which is accessed by going to FR 90 mile 20.6, turning on FR 9039 and heading 0.6 mile down this unpaved road to a bridge across the river and a trailhead downstream river left; it's a little easier to get out on river right. An advantage of using this trailhead as your take-out is you can do a bike shuttle on the trail that follows river right for a multi-sport adventure.
Many just continue on downstream to the next run (which is a short addition) and take-out at the Eagle Cliff Park Recreation Area at the head of Swift Reservoir. This recreation site, maintained by PacifiCorp with bathroom, pa
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The put-in is on the upstream river right side of the Forest Road 90 bridge where a short trail leads to a dispersed campsite providing easy river access. An alternate access is available on the downstream river left side of the bridge although the Forest Service signed this area as no parking in 2020.
An impressive basalt wall on river left marks the approach of a fun ledge drop. You can hop out on river left for a quick scout.
A short gorge with four rapids stacked together. Shortly after this series of rapids the trail comes down to river level and parallels the run on river right offering several opportunities for camping for those on an overnight trip.
Big Creek gorge is 1/4 mile long section of large boulders with narrow chutes in between them. The slots between boulders are not all visible from the upstream end of the rapid and wood blocking a slot is always a potential hazard. It takes time to scout the whole sequence from river left. Skilled and confident boaters can grab eddies on the left and scout each segment. Those who are not interested in running the rapid can climb up to the trail on river right to portage.
Take-out parking is available at the Curly Creek Falls Trailhead on the downstream river left side of the Forest Road 9039 Bridge. You can hike up under the bridge on river right. Another access is available immediately downstream of the rapid under the bridge on river right.
Jun 6, 2025
June 15-September 2 parking reservations are required from recreation.gov in the map shown
We ran from Cussed Hollow (Crab Creek) to Eagle cliffs at 1080 cfs 5/31/25, three packrafts and one hard shell. It was a low flow, the gravel bars were running a little thin but still plenty of water to scoot down otherwise.
Big creek gorge was clear of wood. There were lots of backpackers camping along the Lewis River Trail.
Apr 17, 2021
On a spring break trip to Cougar we had a chance to do this run at 800 cfs and 1000 cfs. The rapids were a little more filled in at 1000 cfs. Big Creek Gorge was clean and good to go aside from some wood in play in a couple of spots along the right.
