Snoqualmie, Middle Fork

Three of us paddled in the rain from Bridgeview down to Russian Butte. Unlike the trip just 4 days before, there were trees down everywhere along the road from the recent windstorm. Thankfully, someone had gone through with a chainsaw before we arrived, so we were able to drive up all the way.

The river was still mostly clear of wood hazards, though there were a few easily-avoided logs that hadn't been there a few days previous. There is also still a log on river-right just before the Pratt confluence. Easy to avoid on river left, but hard to see it until you’re right there.

It rained hard the whole time, but was still pretty, especially with fresh snow on the low hills around us.

Five of us paddled from Bridgeview after the water levels came back down again after last week’s historic flooding. The road was clear all the way in, other than the 1-way section at the very beginning being closed. The Tanner gage was reporting 2,400 cfs, but we think that it might have been up closer to 3,500. The gages all probably need recalibration after the flood waters.

We were concerned about new wood hazards, but the water had been so high the week before (~20,000 cfs) that it seems to have pushed all the big logs and debris up into the surrounding trees, leaving the channel clear. The only log we encountered was on river right just before the Pratt confluence- it’s hard to see from up-river, but is pretty firmly wedged on some rocks and looks like a low-head dam. Plenty of room to get by it on the left.

This is always my favorite run for scenery- it’s just incredibly beautiful, especially with the mist rising through the trees. Lots of birds spotted- kingfishers, mergansers, dippers, and a big hawk.

Getting towards the lower end of the range but still acceptable with enough water to get down the river. It was just over 2 hours for the full Upper Middle run from the Taylor River down to Granite Creek. There were a few rock hits in a couple of the rapids.

Packrafters walked a short distance up the Middle Fork Trail to put in just upstream of the Taylor River confluence.

We were surveying for Harlequin ducks and although we did not see any we saw 9 Merganser including one with ducklings and a pair of geese with goslings.

In partnership with the Forest Service, American Whitewater coordinated a harlequin duck survey of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River by boat. This report is from one group that included 3 kayaks and raft that continued on down through the Middle-Middle. Participants included Tom, Jennie, Rachel, Andrew, Malia, and Mark. We saw two pairs of megansers (one pair just below the put-in and another pair just above the concrete bridge), but no harlequin ducks on the Upper Middle.

Took two packrafts on this section of the middle fork. Easy parking and access to both the put in and the pull out site. We were iffy on if we should even attempt this given the gauge was sitting a lower flow than the recommended runnable range. Despite the lower flow, we managed to run the whole section without ever needing to pop out of our boats. That being said I'm sure this river is far more fun at higher flows. Nonetheless the misty mountains made for a spectacular backdrop as one of the prettiest runs near Seattle. The run itself is straightforward, not too much to figure out and not much in the way of  hazards. Most of the braids are fairly obvious to follow and we were able to read-and-run any rapid we approached. At higher flows I imagine it's even easier to run. We definitely had to pick lines carefully as more rocks were exposed in the river at this low of a flow. At this low of a flow, the river can feel slow and meandering, not much current to push you through the flatwater between rapids.  Can't wait to run this again when there's more water in the river!!!

Went from the Taylor River put in to Russian Butte take out. No portage needed. Water level would be ideal at 2.5k. Today at 1.5k seemed a bit too low, but fine. Solid Class II+.

Middle Fork Snoqualmie Trip with Tom O'Keefe, Bethany Overfield, Doug Knapp, Kanako Iwata-Eng, Taylor Walker, Leanna Girton, and Cyn Taylor. We began our trip at the put-in upstream of the Taylor River confluence. We were treated to great views of the mountains which still have plenty of snow. An objective of our trip was surveying the river for harlequin ducks. We did not see any harlequin ducks but did see two pairs of merganser ducks and a solitary female, all in the segment between the Pratt River and Granite Creek.Video: < https://gopro.com/v/MJ6eeDgdpNXD7 >.

I went and scouted this section from the road today 11-28-21. The Middle Middle gauge was at about 2900 cfs. There's a new, very large river wide tree coming off river left to right at these coordinates: 47°32'18.0'N 121°33'32.3'W. It's above the Russian Butte parking area and visible from the road if you're looking for it. There's a second tree that's coming off the rootball upstream of the huge tree. This tree is pretty huge and will take some high flows to possibly get pushed out of place. There's a last chance eddy on river right but you have to have the boat control to ferry over to it. The rapid above is shallow on the right so you've gotta be left i there and then ferry hard to river right to catch the eddy and portage on river right over the tree. I didn't paddle the river, but I walked up the trail to this tree to confirm it was river wide. Happy paddling and be safe :)

Ran at ~1500 cfs 2020 Oct 11th. Plenty of hanging trees, especially on river right in inconvenient places where the flow wants to take you. Keep eyes downstream. It was all avoidable at this flow and higher flows might bury much of it.