Sitkum
Above Brandeberry Creek to Hyas Creek
| Difficulty | II-V |
| Length | 12.6 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 76 fpm |
| Gauge | Calawah River Near Forks, Wa |
| Flow Rate as of 58 minutes | 306 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | December 3, 2024 |
Projects
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River Description
The Sitkum can be divided into four sections on its way to the confluence with the South Fork Calawah: a class IV/V section, a class V section, a class IV section, and a class II/III section. In theory you could run all of these together but it would make for a long day, particularly during the short days of winter when the river is generally flowing.
Upper Upper Sitkum, 2.5 miles
This run is a class IV-V with at least three clean 10-15 foot vertical waterfalls, multiple slides, and holes to punch. While it’s not featured in the Korb guidebook, it’s one of the best creek runs on the Olympic Peninsula. The run is short but can take a full day on your first descent. Once you’ve learned the lines, you can lap it.
The run starts with a fun flume on the right, leading to the first horizon line: a beautiful double-drop waterfall that’s tricky to scout. For the first drop, aim for the right of center, then follow the main tongue on the left for the second, smaller drop. Shortly after, you’ll encounter a second waterfall that’s easily scouted from the right. Scout carefully and choose your line, or opt for a portage down the slippery rocks on the right.
The next feature, 50/50, is a fun flume that banks off the right wall into a tricky hydraulic, which can be more challenging than it appears. The drop continues through a narrow mini-gorge. Be alert in the drop below 50/50, as the boil pushes to the right into a shallow cave. In 2017, the right wall of 50/50 collapsed, creating a messy rapid. It can be portaged on the left; with time, the debris may settle, making the rapid more runnable.
Next is a great 10-foot waterfall with a nice boof, which you can run down the center. It’s an easy scout on the left, but portaging would be difficult. Afterward, another fun slide awaits, and if it’s been raining, waterfalls will cascade off the bedrock wall to the left.
After the main whitewater section, the river opens up, and the whitewat
...River Features
Upper Upper Put-In
This access is at Forest Road 29 mile 20.0. It requires a short hike through the forest down to the river just downstream of a tributary.
Brandeberry Creek Access
The end of the Upper Upper run and the start of the Upper Run. The access is at Forest Road 29 mile 17.6 at the bridge across Brandeberry Creek. You can see the confluence with the Sitkum from this bridge and there is access to the river on the downstream river right side of the confluence.
North Fork Confluence Access
Trail down to the access for the Middle Run. This access is at a small pull-out at Forest Road 29 mile 14.3. You can head to the right and find a gully to scramble down into the North Fork. Using this route requires a rappel down the edge of an approximately 30' waterfall on the North Fork just upstream of the confluence with the Sitkum. An alternative shorter route (unmarked) is available by heading off towards the left from the pull out (this is the access illustrated in Korb's guidebook). It too requires rope to lower the boats down although you won't need to rappel. Either way don't expect the put-in to be particularly user friendly.
Little Pistol
An obvious horizon line marks the approach to Little Pistol. Grab an eddy on river left and hop out to scout this rapid which has a series of three drops with a bedrock wall along the right and boulders to the left. It's a relatively easy scout or portage on river left at moderate flows.
Cotton Candy
Cotton Candy comes after a class III lead in rapid. A distinct horizon line marks the approach to this rapid. At moderate flows you can scout on river right. A portage on river right is possible with assistance. At lower flows this rapid is more a slide but as flows increase a hole starts to form.
Sitkum Gorge Bridge (Forest Road 2900-070) Access
Korb lists this as the access for the lower run on the Sitkum but notes that it is VERY steep and requires rope. Accessing the river here avoids the class IV rapids of Little Pistol and Cotton Candy.
Calawah Confluence
The Sitkum joins the South Fork Calwah at this point and the run continues as the South Fork Calawah.
Take Out
Access is at a dispersed recreation site just downstream of Hyas Creek on land administered by the US Forest Service. This access site is located at mile 8.0 on Forest Road 29 at the Hyas Creek confluence. The access is at a gravel bar with great river access just downstream of where Hyas Creek joins the Calawah. A short drive provides parking off the road.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportNice packraft run down the Middle & Lower Sitka.
We parked our car here (47.9465579, -124.1465961) and hiked down to the top of the waterfall on the NF of the Sitkum. We spent a while poking around looking for a way down to the base of the falls. We didn't find a route we were comfortable with without climbing gear. Remembering that Korb had mentioned an access a little further up the main stem, we set out to find that. We followed an elk trail on a bench above the main stem until the game trail headed down roughly around here (47.94471, -124.14478). We put on the river around here, (47.94473, -124.14427).
The rapids were clean. Little pistol looked like fun, so we both opted to run it. It would have been an easy portage on the left. I ran (and flipped) on cotton candy. Ariel portaged it on river right. We had a couple of easy portages over a couple river wide logs. There was one massive 7' in diameter tree that has been in the river long enough that a cobble bar has formed just above it on river left. We climbed down the log and passed boats down. The lower section was a chill scenic paddle to our takeout at Hyas Creek. Ended up clocking in at 7 miles and 2.5 hours on the river.
Flow was 1800 and felt boney. Would prefer it with more water.
After a storm in November 2021 blew out a couple culverts on Forest Road 29 (the Calwah reached 40,000 cfs), this run has been inaccessible and it was great to be able to get into this river again.
I’ve done this run at a lower flow, but it definitely needs more water than the 775 cfs we had. We dropped a car at the Hyas Creek take-out at 10:00 am, but it wasn’t until 12:15 pm that we were on the water at the North Fork confluence. The hike from the pull-out at the put-in down to the river took longer than expected—about 1.5 hours. We took the route that heads down the North Fork, which involves lowering boats and rappelling down a roughly 30-foot waterfall. Next time, I’d consider trying the put-in just upstream of the North Fork confluence. This route also requires lowering boats by rope but doesn’t involve rappelling.
Once we were on the Sitkum, we had a great run. Several rapids were too shallow, leading to multiple hits and momentary pins. While it was still possible to get through, some rapids were portaged due to the low flow. Only one of us ran Little Pistol, which was very technical at this level. Two of us ran Cotton Candy, which did not have a hole at this flow, making it more of a slide but still technical.
We encountered three river-wide trees over the course of the run, requiring a portage. The pace of the run was slow at first but picked up as we got closer to the end. Once we passed the South Fork Calwah confluence, we finally enjoyed our first rapid with no hits.
We also saw numerous steelhead, present in nearly all the large pools we passed through that had excellent water quality.
The total run time was three hours for the six miles from the North Fork to Hyas Creek. While it takes some effort to get in, this is such an exceptionally beautiful run, with several patches of old-growth forest and large trees lining the banks.
A major storm event in November 2021 severely damaged the road in several places. I joined a site visit with the Forest Service and partners to assess road conditions. The plan is to repair the road but it will likely take a couple years.
Ran the Upper Upper on 12/11/18 at 1800 cfs and dropping. Still enjoyable, but very bony. A few things to know: (1) The tree that marks the put-in is now a single, dark tree with orange flagging around it. We missed it the first time through. If you get to a tributary with slumped concrete over a big culvert, you've gone barely too far; (2) At the flows we had, the Falls below double drop did not look good-to-go, so we portaged on river right, which was a pain in the ass; (3) 50/50 is still blocked by wood, but the new rapid will be very fun when the wood is gone; (4) the final falls with the large wood on the left side is good to go on the left. I've seen videos of people running the right side to avoid the wood but it looks cleaner now than it did on earlier videos.
The right wall at 50/50 has collapsed, the debris is still settling as of January 2018 and required a portage for wood at that time. The rest of the Upper Upper was clean, and all the other rapids were runnable. I think there was also one easy log portage in the Upper section.
The gauge recommendations are only accurate if flows are dropping. A flow of 1,200 rising to 2,500 and stable was too high for a safe trip through the Upper Upper Sitkum (Jan 16, 2016).
We enjoyed a Thanksgiving weekend trip on the Upper Upper Sitkum after a hard rain that transitioned to snow. The Calwah peaked at 10,000 cfs the day before but dropped below 4000 cfs the morning of our trip. By the time we were on the water flow was 3500 cfs dropping to 3100 cfs by the time we were at the take-out. These were great flows for this run.
Ran the Upper Upper on 3/8/2014 Go to mile 20 on the road. There are marks on the trees on river right and a few flags leading you to the river. Definitely NOT class 3. More like Class IV-V. At least 3 clean 10 -15 foot vertical waterfalls, multiple slides and holes to punch. I enjoyed the Upper Upper more than the Upper and middle. Can definitely be lapped.
Thanksgiving weekend trip at low water. 900 cfs Thanksgiving morning dropping to 550 by Sunday night.
We ran the entire 9+ miles on 11/27/2004. There was only one wood hazard and that was during the last 4 miles or so, which is class II (barely). There's a tree that spans river wide. At the water level we ran it at, some of the more limber paddlers where able to sneak under the river left side of the tree. However, there was also a very quick portage on river right.
The class V section is really amazing. This is definitely the most accessible class V in that area. It's pretty easy to see when things start to pick up and at the medium-low flows that we ran it at, we had no trouble finding eddies and getting out to scout.
I found that Korb's description of the run was fairly accurate, however, I don't believe anything on that run should be labelled class VI. There was at least one VERY serious undercut and definitely do not underestimate this run, but a SOLID class V boater will not have a problem.