Skokomish, S. Fork

The wood situation has improved significantly and there have been some recent changes to the riverbed.

The wood in the first gorge has cleaned up for now and everything has cleaned up from the recent landslide! It's a bit more of a pinch at the end of the rapid but otherwise it's less of a change than expected.

The entrance to the second gorge no longer has the big log across the center-right, and the piece on the left is out of play at moderate flows. You can just bump down the left for a more conservative line at the entrance, though the right now goes.

High steel falls has changed after a recent landslide from the right. The right side entrance is less of a quality option, so the best line is starting left moving center or far right.

Fresh landslide in the second rapid of the first gorge (Big Momba Jomba). Likely will be a portage for a while.

There is wood in both the left and right slots at the entrance to the first border garden in the second gorge. At the flow we had on 1/21/23, we were able to boof over the wood in the right slot but this option could be cut-off as flows drop. This is a tricky spot and not being able to boat past would mean a sketchy portage or heinous hike out.

None of the video links worked, either 'Page Not Found' or '403 Forbidden'....other than that a good write up and the link to the 2003 Oregon Kayaking site has nice pics and write up. Met Jurgen Nickles a number of years ago btw....

A winter trip after a high water event and flow consistently dropping to approxmialtely 625 cfs around the time we set out for the river and just below 600 cfs by the time we got to the take-out. Two groups were out on the river. Our group included Thomas O'Keefe, Omar Jepperson, and Mike Rausch. I shot video on the trip. We had some action in the first gorge with a momentary bow pin at the first distinct ledge that required assistance. One significant rapid, Big Momma Jomba, was a warmp up for more rapids to come in the second gorge (video point). We found the entrance to the second gorge difficult to scout; a ledge on the leftallows a bit of a peek and we found good eddies behind the two bigboulders (video point). The first rapid following the entrance was the the most technical of the drops; we were able to sneak it on the left or you could run the center chute (video point). We enjoyed a rapid just above High Steel Bridge which was visible high agove (video point). High Steel Falls was a fun rapid and the trick was getting lined up correctly at the top by catching the eddy just above (video point). Another group from Oregon caught up with us as we were running the rapid. With daylight waning we picked up the pace through Bobbing for Butler and worked our way past the landslide. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was the final signficant rapid (video point).

Photo provided by Gary Korb.