Crooked, North Fork

Flow was about 450cfs on the CRPO gauge which is low but doable. Lots of wood in the river, probably 4 or 5 trees that that could be avoided since they were in mostly calm stretches, but we had one river wide strainer to portage just above the Crooked Mile (first significant rapid below the lower falls). And we portaged the final barb wire fence about a half mile from the bridge.

This is a remote and committing wilderness run with a long shuttle. Much of the paddling at these flows are short class II features, wall shots, wood dodging, willow bashing and braid hunting. But there are a small number of class III-IV rapids that deserve attention, especially as the flows go up.

We left our shuttle car at the dead end of Shotgun road approximately one mile down stream on the mainstem Crooked from the North Fork Confluence. That is public land and away from the highway. There is a small barbwire fence to cross from the old bridge pylons to the parking area.