Blue

We had mild and clear weather for the 4th of July weekend and noticed they were releasing from Blue River Dam. Blue River Reservoir is managed for flood risk mitigation and recreation and usually kept at or near full pool for the summer recreation season. Ocassionally the Army Corps of Engineers will release water throughout the summer to either to manage the pool height/depth and associated reservoir infrastructure, or to manage summer temperatures for aquatic life in the mainstem McKenzie River downstream.

For whatever reason the river was running at a low ~305 cfs which was plenty to float and find fluid lines in our packrafts. The biggest single drop on the run had a tree suspended about 6ft above the water with branches dangling to water level. There was ample space between the branches to navigate, and we broke a few branches off from below to make it even easier. We saw a few anglers on the banks as we got closer to blue river. We kept it short and caught eddies down the run.