Warnicke

Gauge: You want the Siletz gauge to be above 4,000 cfs the morning of your trip.  You could do it lower but it starts getting scrapy.  At 8,000 cfs and dropping Warnicke is still fine to do, but Golden Goose packs a whallop!  Warnicke will have around 10% of the flow in the Siletz, so at 4,000 cfs on the gauge you can expect around 400 cfs in Warnicke.

The Trip:  A nice hike in along an old road brings you to a bridge over Warnicke Creek.  There are a couple washouts along this decommisioned road, but because it is unmaintained the road is also pretty overgrown.  This means it is conducive to dragging your boat without causing much wear and tear or leaving plastic shavings along the way.

From the bridge there is a short section of slides before the creek narrows and you may need to do a quick portage of a root wad.  Just downstream is the lead in to Golden Goose, a unique bedrock rapid that can be scouted and portaged on the right.  Downstream of Golden Goose (the largest rapid on the trip) the creek continues along with about a mile of class IV creek boating.The mile after that is III+, then another mile of class III before reaching the NF Siletz.  Once on the NF there is a final mile of splashy III+ down to the take out bridge (1/4 miles upstream of the Boulder Creek confluence).  Watch out for wood, there is often a couple quick portages that need to be made.

Trip Report from Into the Outside.

Directions: Use these directions to the Valley of the Giants.  When you cross over the NF Siletz (1/4 mile upstream of the Boulder Creek confluence), you have reached the take out.  To get to the put in, turn around and head back towards Boulder Creek, just before crossing the bridge over Boulder, turn left (upstream relative to Boulder).  If you ha

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