Umpqua, North

The LCCC, a paddling club based in Portland, travels the 3.5 hours to the Nump once per year, camping and paddling for 2-3 days in a row.  This year we were lucky in that even though the Cedar Creek Fire was burning one drainage to the north we had good air quality. Even luckier, local rains brought up the flows by about 50 cfs each day.

Our trip started with a Friday run from Boulder Flat to Horseshoe Bend.  The flow that day was about 850cfs, and we had some brand new members who were grateful to start out on the 'easier' section.   On Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th we paddled from Horseshoe Bend, at 900 and 950 cfs respectively.  This section is a delight at low water with clean lines, deep eddies, and lots of friendly play spots.

We had only one small raft in the flotilla, but also quite a few canoes and IK's to balance the preponderance of kayaks.

The largest rapid is Pinball and it follows on the heels of a drop called Alligator that tends to chomp on those newer to the river.  We had one swimmer at Alligator but knew to set a rope on river right below it.  Our newest paddler flipped at the top of Pinball and swam the whole rapid, saying at the bottom that it was so fun that he'd be willing to swim it again.