Stillaguamish, N. Fork

Today (5/15/2022) a group of three pack rafters including myself floated from Hazel Hole down to the Takeout shown on the map. There isn't a lot of info on this run because it's not a big time Whitewater run but it is a great run for beginners to learn how to handle their boats with no real dangers and a decent number of practice spots. As we floated by the gauge at Whitman Road, the flow read 2.9ft. This would be an easy place to stop and see what the flow is at before committing to the run. Anything under 2.9ft and the river would get pretty bony. We bounced around here and there but this was a good base flow. This run would probably get really fun as the gauge approaches 5-6ft. Since there seems to be no accurate real time gauge on the NF Stilly, I have always used the SF Stilly gauge and thrown the dice. I find that the SF Stilly gauge correlates to a similar flow on the NF during the rainy season but the NF loses a lot more water in the summer due to a smaller watershed and no real snowpack. Today the SF Stilly gauge read 5.9ft.

Onto the run!

We put in at Hazel Hole, from here there are a few easy class I rapids to get 'warmed up' on until you reach the landslide where the rapids build slightly in intensity and could be considered class II. We stopped on the left bank and admired the event, the river right bank is still a very actively eroding clay wall and in the fifteen minutes we were stopped we saw a good dozen or so chunks fall into the river. After the landslide, the river tumbled through a long class II rapid ending with a massive boulder in the middle of the river, there are some nice surf waves in this section and at the flows we were on it there are a lot of great little surf waves and eddylines to play with. The river tumbles through a couple more class II rapids before chilling out a bit as you near Whitman Road. There is a stick gauge here on the river right side downstream of the bridge we used to gauge the flow for today. After Whitman Road, the river goes down the largest rapid on the run, and possibly the whole NF Stilly. This rapid is just a boulder garden with a couple good waves and holes before slamming into the right side wall in a huge pool. This rapid would only be considered a class II drop however there was a sweeper coming in from the right bank that covered about 1/3 of the river. This was the only wood we found to be 'in play' and it was easily avoidable. From here the river calms a bit before banking left toward the takeout. This is the last reasonable river acces for several miles of Deer Creek isn't low enough to ford up the creekbed. We saw two families of Canadian Geese in the pool here, none of them chased us. It was nice.