Obey, E. Fork

We did it today at 1200, a good minimum level, at least with today's conditions. Here is the deal:

This run sucks. Its worth doing once, mostly so you can say you will never have to do it again. There is nice class 2+ for the first few miles and a 6 foot ledge. Then it gets real pretty and drops into the first of 2 serious gorges. This one is 1/3 of a mile long, with 4 distinct rapids. First is a nasty double drop, then a cool right to left slot, then a drop alot like the first part of fantasy flight on big south in colorado, then what we called 'baby jesus' due to its similarities to Coming home on the meadow. after another 1/2 mile of class 2, its gotta be 6 miles of flatwater before the next thing of interest. lots of roads and rednecks at the river and the scenery is sub par. Then a mile after Little Indian Creek comes in on the left, you hit the second gorge, which is scarier and more dangerous than the first. There are spots in here where a mistake means certain death. Horrible undercuts. However by this point you are so glad to see anything that you will be excited to run it. Class 5 for sure. El Horrendo is first, and has a horrible undercut on the right with 40% going in. This WILL kill you. Then the second move is a tight slot center left with many sieves and a siphon that we threw a log in. Then is afterbirth, which is not too bad. Small mirror version of climax on Russell Fork into a slot that is the tightest that could be run. Don't slice your neck on the sharp undercut on river left and don't go under it for that matter. Then a nice 1/2 mile stretch of class 2 to 3- boulder stretches and you hit Hurricane, then the rest is a little better with better scenery again and then surf city, then fat man's which currently is sketch. The middle is the definition of Sieve. Then the 6 foot drop where you lose water and then the takeout.

As far as the talk of losing tons of water to caves and then getting it back, we really didn't experience much of this. The level remained the same untill surf city where we gained 200 cfs for about a mile. Otherwise our level was roughly 200 cfs, which is minimum. The reading on the usgs gauge was roughly 1200 cfs. Look for 1500.

Watch out. At higher water the 2 class 5 gorges are definitely 5+ and of most serious nature. They are rapids that make Linville and the lower meadow seem less scary.

So there you have it, the ultra unclassic East Fork of the Obey. Glad we did it, but gosh. 2 dangerous class 5 sets, and about 5 class 3 rapids. The rest is either flatwater or class 1 to 2-.

It was an adventure though.

Well said:

'Its the most exciting run I'll never do again.' -Tony Robinson