Spring Creek

Banana Split is the last major rapid in the upper section of Spring Creek. After the intitial series of ledge-drops that begin almost immediately after the put-in, the river mellows out before reaching Banana Split about one mile down.

A sieres of small and often shallow ledges leads into a calm pool above Banana Split. There is a small beach on river right with a well-worn trail that leads around the rapid and provides both numerous vantage points as well as the option to portage.

The standard line starts left of center over the first ledge and then a hard move back to the middle for a nice boof just left of the rock in the center. What makes this rapid challenging is a strong current that moves very hard to the left and propells you over a nasty double stairstep ledge and into the hollowed-out river-left rock wall. This *is* a runnable line, but is not especially fun or advisable.

At one foot, the hole at the bottom of the ledge is unremarkable. However, as the water level rises to 1.5 feet and above, this hole gets quite sticky. Running far right is also a poor idea unless the water is high enough to cover the nasty rock jumble that fills the drop. This seems to be about the same level at which the hole below the main drop gets scary.
Julie Ross, professional ducker, gets crazy air at Banana Split!
A perfect example of the non-stop ledges on the first mile of Spring Creek.
A nice example of what lies between the big stuff in the first few miles of Spring Creek.
The first set of drops just below the put-in.
Jim running the left side of Second Drop.