Chiwawa

Hiked up the trail and carried packrafts down thru the burn area just below Buck Cr confluence. Sketchy fun with no prior wood report at 1000 cfs on the main Chiwawa gauge. Constant rapids with a couple of near river wide trees in first half mile and brush-filled eddies. About a mile down encountered a river-wide tree that could be jumped right leading to the biggest ledge on the run. A powerful slide just below surfed us a bit. Eases to easy class 3 then, but stay heads up. A terrific series of class 4 drops in a right bend against cliffs appear near the end of the high gradient! When the valley opens up, the gradient backs off, but water is still very fast, and we found a few trees to portage with little room to stop above them. A memorial plaque on the right in this section is just above a bad tree not far above the takeout. Good run for class 4 boaters looking for something off the beaten path and willing to hike, just be very heads up for trees!