Applegate River, Middle Fork

A great medium flow with busy continuous whitewater at 1400 cfs inflow to the reservoir. Megi and Bill took packrafts and Tom was in a kayak. We put in at the Undercut and paddled down to Seattle Bar on the reservoir. We were on the water for about an hour.

We had a beautiful day on the Middle Fork Applegate with three kayaks (Tom, Scott, and Jeff), two packrafts (Kevin and Megi), and an R2 (Bill and Bob). We ran from below the waterfall just above the confluence of Cook and Green Creek. We portaged the Undercut Chute by walking up to the road and putting in below. We continued down to the next bridge just above the reservoir. Inflow on the reservoir of 1160 was a good flow on the lower side of medium. The run was busy class III with good eddies although most were smaller than the whole group could catch. We encountered one large log near the start of the run that was easy to float under. Closer to the reservoir a river-wide log completely blocked the channel in a narrow bedrock chute but we were able to reposition it and the run is free of wood hazards.

We paddled this run 4 times over 2 day at about 500 on the dreamflows estimate, and 750-800 on the Applegate inflow gauge during spring snowmelt. 4/21-4/22

https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?lid=APLO3

This was an excellent first time flow, and the run exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. Lots of good, friendly class III whitewater with pleny of variety, and rather pretty for a roadside run. The run was portage free (we put in below the undercut rapid), but a couple of the class II gravel bars had wood that needed to be avoided, usually by going through shallow water to the left of the trees. We found the wood to be obvious and not in any notable rapids.

Pick which run you want to do first

The normal put in is about 75 yards above the bridge. The undercut in the background

Marcelo Leyva in topless weather girl

A little different angle

This is the top half of the rapid

Picture of Stepen McCleary in an unamed rapid

APLO3 gauge reading on the day most pictures were taken, the applegate usually gets about 2/3rds the flow from my understanding correct me if I'm wrong

Picture taken on the race day last year, this is the put in about 60 yards upstream of the second bridge.

This signals the end of the run, and loading your gear for another go around

Stephen McCleary in one of the many rapids on the run

This rapid is known as hydraulics on crack or valium depending on flows. It's about 1/2 way down the run.

This signals the end of the run, time to pack up your gear and hit it again

One of many fun rapids on the run

This undercut seperates the upper and lower runs, it has been run at much lower flows

This run is a classic class 3 creek run and makes a great introduction to creek boating (it's tons of fun besides) Dreamflows has a write-up in their Northwest rivers section that will get you to the put-in and take-out. You can put-in a mile up from the second bridge just below a 10' waterfall (I've seen it run a number of times but I've never seen anyone do it twice) and Whiskey Ck. I almost always head upstream for the extra mile as there are 5 more 3 to 3+ rapids in that section. Just be sure to mark your take-out so as not to bumble into the class 5 rapid/undercut above the second bridge. What makes the run a classic is evident below the second bridge; evenly spaced class 3 to 3+ rapids with class 2 water and lots of eddys in between from start to finish. Most drops are bedrock with river center transit the norm. Wood is a hazard at times but due to the runs fast center channel nature, most wood is pushed to the bank after high water events. We had our first race down the lower 3, April 2010 and plan to do it 2011. A friend of mine has a good video of the run at; vimeo.com/17833871 that will give you a very good idea of the nature of the run. Upstream of this run is a short class 4/5 section on the Butte Fork of the Applegate. Dreamflows also has estimate of the flow on their Northwest Rivers page. Carberry Ck. one drainage to the north (less than a mile away) has good class 4 action and is most likely runnable if the Applegate is.