Twisp

Despite earlier reports of wood on here and from John at EQPD in town, I saw none on my solo packraft trip from Buttermilk Creek down to the intersection of Twisp River Rd and Poorman Creek Road. Just a fun continuous II/III run with a beautiful bike shuttle.

Wood report:

Two logs between the Buttermilk put in and Litte Bridge creek. Photo is of the log that we saw on our shuttle after the run (log was not there before). It is a couple hundred feet above the little bridge creek put in. The other log is roughly half way between Buttermilk to Little Bridge Creek (Class 2 section). At these flows there is a small eddy on river right where you can boat scout. We ferried over to the small eddy on river left just above the wood and took the small left channel under the eddy (more slow water). River right channel is small and looked a bit spicier.

Logs that are below the Poorman creek bridge before the take out at the Confluence Park are out of the river's channels (there is still wood in that section but it is in the middle of the river and is easy to miss if you just stay river left.

Otherwise, super fun flow. VERY continuous and not too many eddies. The dam is a just a fun big wave.

Access at the Twisp Park at the confluence with the Methow River.

Took an early morning lap on the lower Twisp the other day. There is an access spot where Poormans Creek Rd butts up against the river just a couple miles up the river from Twisp, this was the put in.

This is an interesting river, the action and gradient are nearly continuous and there are few eddys along the side, even at 620cfs, which seemed like the perfect flow for this river. There were three rapids that stood out, the first being right around the bend before the Twisp River Road bridge and the next being about a quarter mile downstream. The second rapid had a really clean hole on the right side that proved to be a lot of fun. Not too far downstream is a rotary screw trap which is easily avoidable on the left half of the river. Just around the corner is a riverwide logjam that must be portaged at this flow. I used the eddy river left about 40 feet upstream of the structure and made the quick and easy portage to the other side.

From here down to the highway 20 bridge is nearly constant action with class II+ boulder garden features and some pieces of wood here and there. As you pass under the highway bridge, the river pushes up against the right wall where there are several old cars jammed up against the bank. Keep off the bank but enjoy the rapid that flows by because it is the last of the three rapids that stood out to me. Just downstream the riverbed opens up and flows into the Methow, you are able to run one rapid on the Methow before pulling off in the big eddy river right.

I made a crucial mistake during my run, I put in at ~8:30am and did not bring sunglasses. This is a generally east flowing river, so bring your sunnies if you're going out for a morning lap!

Had a fun run from Buttermilk creek to the Methow confluence on 4/22/21 at 950 cfs. The wood report from the alert posted on May 1st 2020 still seemed pretty accurate. The only thing that I'd want to add is that there are also a couple wood hazards between Buttermilk and Little Bridge Creek. The first downed tree spans the left 80% of the river, shortly after the put in, where the river comes back together after splitting around an island. Taking the right channel around the island will set you up nicely to skirt right of the log. The second noteworthy strainer was river wide. It is at the bottom of a little class 2 rapid. At 950cfs, there was a fairly large eddy on river left upstream of the log you can catch to walk over it. We also portaged the fish collection dam as we were running inflatables and there were some sharp looking branches protruding from the dam.

On July 4th, 2018 we paddled the Twisp at 277cfs to 280cfs. We ran from Little Bridge Creek to Poorman Rd. Cutoff. It was bony (rocky) but doable. We had a couple of short-term rock pins and high sides that we overcame quickly. There were no log issues and we had a clean run over the fish weir.

Good times at 2000 cfs--continuous class III+ for most of the run with fast current at few eddies. One channel-spanning log just upstream of Little Bridge Creek. We were able to boat over it at 2000 cfs (barely) but much lower and it would be a portage. Fish collection dam was no problem down the middle at this flow.

Had a good run over Memorial Day weekend with flows of 1100 cfs. It took a little over two hours to run the 11 miles from Buttermilk Creek Bridge down to the Twisp River bridge. We had channel-spanning log that had to be portaged a couple miles into the run. We also portaged the fish collection dam although it looked like you could run it just right of center at the flows we experienced. Lots of wood in play and along the banks but nothing that gave us any trouble. This is a fun intermediate run with sections of fun continuous class III with a few stretches of class II.

Very runnable down to 550 CFS or even slightly lower. Some wood on the river - one log we were able to sneak under at low water.

Drive up the Twisp Valley at low water.