Miller

We had a crew of eight, which was a little large for this run, but we made it work. We crossed the bridge over the West Fork of the Miller and continued upstream about a mile to a spot where the river ran relatively close to the road, above the suggested put-in in the Bennett book. It was quite bony for a while, with a class II–III bump-and-grind feel, but the river began to pick up as we approached the confluence with the West Fork. Flows were still a little low, but there was enough water to boat, and we wouldn’t have wanted it much lower (the Skykomish at Goldbar was at approximately 5500 cfs).

One of the bigger drops on the run sits just above the confluence and was the site of one of our swims when Dave Pearton became hung up on a log. This was the second log encounter of the day, as Willie had earlier taken a log pin that also resulted in a swim. The more difficult section of the run was fairly continuous, with eddies scattered here and there. Once the river flattens out and cabins start to appear, the run is mostly over, aside from a few short drops similar in character to the upper section.

This was an early winter day on the Miller, enjoyed with a group that had never paddled it before. We were glad we put in upstream of the West Fork confluence, as it allowed us to enjoy a longer stretch of good whitewater on the East Fork. We continued downstream to the Old Cascade Highway, with the gradient tapering off as we approached, and took out at the bridge as snow began to fall.