Dinkey Creek

If you drive through the campgrounds all the way to the end of the road, you can boat a narrow gorge with the most difficult rapids of this whole section.    The gorge extends from the put in to Honeymoon Pool.  It is easily scouted from above, before you launch.

Stone stairs lead down to this pretty pool which makes a good put in.   The rapids below this are fairly continuous rock slaloms intersperced with occasional bedrock drops and short pools.   Several of the bedrock drops develop serious holes at medium to high flows.

This historic bridge is fun to check out and is easily accessible without going into the campgrounds.    You can drive to and park near the bridge on either side of the creek, though I recall that river left has more parking options.   In some ways this is a nicer put in than the highway bridge, because nhe creek is immediately busy and there is one big drop between the truss bridge and the highway bridge.  .

The highway bridge is a common put in.  A painted gauge is on the river right bridge foundation.   A reading of 2 is boney but pretty fun, while 3 to 4 is clean and exciting.   There is lots of parking in the vicinity of the bridge.   Camping is not allowed here.   Dinkey Campgrounds offer developed camping for a fee.    Drive further east or back to the west to find free primitive camping areas.

Below the highway bridge the creek is shallow and rocky for almost 1/2 mile.   A couple rapids are long and fairly steep.   The gorge entrance rapid is long shallow, rocky and drops very steeply at the end.   The current funnels down in the final steep drop, then suddenly hits bedrock at a narrow slot between a large boulder on the left and the wall on the right.   The drop aims straight into the boulder, but it seems to have a good cushion and kicks boats to the right.

The little gorge is very pretty and relatively easy till the last two drops.

The canyon turns right and a horizon line hides a short drop.  An easy scout on the left should reveal a clean but turbulent line on the right, either against the right wall or a boof off a rock just a few feet out.

A steep, impressive, bedrock drop.   Scout on river right.    I don't recall why we called it Captian Nemo, but it is too shallow to submarine!

From a small eddy at the lip on river right, drop down a steep, left ward tongue, then cut back hard to the right.    The most common problem in this rapid is when boaters overpower the steep entrance.  They (we) overshoot up onto the left wall and get turned backwards.  A light touch in the entrance helps the cut back to the right, and down the channel.

In this one section, the creek really spreads out, while willows and such grow across the channel.   A few small openings allow passage by kayaks through the 10 to 30 feet of brush.    Then it opens up again.  The creek takes a bit longer to converge back together with decent flow.   In 2010, several of us took the right most tunnel and that was pretty clean as far as bushwacking goes.

Small rafts will have to work a bit to get through this area.

Camp El-O-Win has buildings on both sides of the creek.  An arching footbridge used to cross the creek but is gone in 2010.  I assume the bridge will be rebuilt.

The creek in this area is mostly wide and shallow, but bedrock drops await not far downstream.

A corrugated gauge tower is visible on river left.   A staff gauge, showing the level was on river right, but I did not see it in 2010.   It is likely that I just forgot where to look as it is in a protected place.

Links to historical data are shown in the Flow tab.

A pretty big drop waits just after the gauge.  Drop down ledges on the left.   Scout either side.

I used to think this was a pretty big slide, but I still think it is pretty fun.  On my last trip several people ran it twice.   There is an easy carry up the slab on river left.   Easiest scout is from river left as well.

Since it is a distinctive rapid, it is a good sign that you are approaching the heart of the Cherry Bomb Gorge.

It seems odd that a drop that looks so innocuous at low flows could be a keeper hole at high flows.   The next few drops come quickly. A big river wide ledge must be run on the right edge, before catching a small eddy on the left to scout Cherry Bomb.

A small but intimidating waterfall in an impressive gorge.     Scout on river left.   At lower flows at least, it is a fun drop.  In some years it collects trees, so must be portaged no matter what.

Portage also on river left with some difficulty if need be.  The left side portage requires hiking up steep dirt and rocks.  Then traverse easy ledges to a brush filled gulley.   Nice slabs at the base of the gulley allow easy lanching.

Confident rock climbers can also traverse the steep slabs on river right side.   Climbers can get to the eddy at the lip of the falls to set safety or line boats and such.

A very appropriately named rapid.  A large boulder pinches the creek against the left wall.   The water slides down the wall, then drops under the boulder.   I have not seen anyone actually smack their head on the roof, but I have seen them piton the wall and the bottom if they enter a bit from the right.

Enter hugging the left wall and it is generally a clean drop.

A group of friends all blundered into this hole at high flows once, with ensuing carnage.   At low flows you tend to blast through.   I forget where it is easiest to punch, maybe on the right edge.   I generally forget where I am til the last second and frantically charge off the left edge as the current tends to put you over there.

The rapid is a long, fast, shallow rocky rapid that steadily steepens then suddenly turns right and drops over a small bedrock ledge.

This is a fairly long bedrock rapid that ends in a pool next to the Sheriden Mine.   There is 4-wheel drive road access to the Mine on river right.   Scout or portage the rapid on river right.   There can be a pretty good hole at the bottom of the rapid.

Past the LA Riot Rapid/Sheriden Mine area is a bit more than a half mile of fun and continuous rapids.    The very last rapid is quite distinctive and provides a good way to recognize the take out.

After a half mile of really fun read and run rapids, the stream appears clogged.  Large boulders tower over and block the right side.   The left side looks like the only way but also looks junky and is junky.    Drop carefully down the center then paddle right through a gap in the big boulders.    The gap can't be seen from upstream and is only visible when you are even with it.

It is a fun and elegant finish to a fun section of paddling.

This take out is pretty non descript, so it is best to mark it somehow.  The very last rapid before is distinctive.  Downstream the creek turns to the left and quickly gets much steeper.   Small slabs at the waters edge provide an easy exit from the water.   A trail runs along the hillside on river right from the Sheriden Mine to Muley Hole.  At this point the hillside flattens out near the water and so the trail comes down next to the creek.

In 2010, the trail looked well used, though there were some trees across it.  Head upstream along the trail.   Where the trail crosses a small gulley, two large logs are down.  The trail just goes on top of the logs.  A steep grade follows.  When the trail levels out look for a side trail heading uphill to the logging spur road parking area.  It is a popular trailhead for fishermen, but the trail was overgrown right at the parking area.