Santiam, S.

After always heading higher on the South Santiam for years, we decided to see what was in the stretch between Cascadia State Park and Foster Reservoir. What we found was a beautiful canyon and several miles of pool-drop 'splash and giggle' class 2-3. This would be a great run for someone who can catch Eddie's and is ready to graduate from the McKenzie or North Santiam.

After a couple miles, we came up to an obvious horizon line - Tree Farm Rapids. At this flow it was a legit class 4+ - 80% of the flow going left into a pin spot, with the move being cutting right into an undercut turbulent slot. In spite of what Soggy Sneakers said, the scout at this flow was on the left before you entered the lead-in moves. We caught the one-boat portage eddy on the right to do the easy walk around and seal launch. With maybe 200 more cfs, a sneak line would probably open up on the right with a slide onto a shallow rocky run-out.

The rapids picked up after this for a few miles, then slowly died off. The canyon stayed beautiful. We passed the campground and highway pull-out that allow early exit from the river, and paddled all the way down to the Caulkins Park boat ramp. Even though the reservoir was 20-30 ft below full pool, we still had about a 1 mile flat water paddle with deep mud at the end.