Carberry Creek

With both the MF Applegate and Carberry Creek flowing but on the drop, we opted for Carberry this afternoon and saved the MF for the next day. Flows were low but surprisingly good, even for a hardshell kayak. The rapids were technical in nature but we hit very few rocks. Boofs were in. Too bad the lake drowns the bottom of Carberry Creek, no doubt there's good whitewater under there.

There were two rapids with logs on the run that we walked around on 04/14/24, I have added pictures of both. The rest of the run had wood here and there, but was not a problem. The inflow to Applegate Lake spiked to 1200 while we were on the creek, and the Carberry estimate was at just over 400. This was a good medium flow that kept your boat off the rocks. We found the scout at Jackhammer to be a bit of a puzzle on the right at this level (lower would have been easier), left might have been more straight forward if wood had not blocked the eddy over there. The rest of the run had good eddies and easy scouting.

Nick S on the first rapid.

This run is a Rogue Valley favorite and when it's in local boaters will come a running. Dreamflows has an estimate for this run on the Northwest States page. The best gauge for this run is at...
http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?APLO3
This gauge gives the inflow, res. elevation and outflow for Applegate Res. What you're looking for is the inflow. The creek is often in runnable range when the gauge reads between 750 to 1,800cfs. Carberry Ck. flow will be most likely 1/3 or so of that.
The run starts with a couple hundred yard warm-up before the first class 4 and then takes off in class 3/4 boulder bar and bedrock rapid fashion from there for the next two miles before letting up in the last mile. The second drop is the longest and hardest and is worth a scout for wood. You can spot this rapid's location by the landslide on the road at mile post 3. To get a look, you can either bushwhack down or better yet eddy out right and look on your way down.
When this run is in the MF Applegate is always in and it makes a good warm-up for a Carberry run.