Tomki Creek

Tomki Creek can be runnable during the winter rainy season.   There is reported to be a lot of brush, so don't go in when the flow is too high.

The second half of the run is on the main Eel River and tends to go quickly.

Getting There:

From the town of Willits on Highway 101, the take out at Hearst is about 10 miles to the east on Hearst-Willits Rd.  The shuttle from take-out to put-in is only about 5.4 miles.

Tomki Creek Report

by David Emery

Thanks to Paul Futscher's excellent judgement with Eel watershed flows, we were treated to a rare opportunity to run Tomki Creek on Monday 2/25/08, survive it and even enjoy it. This was a first run on Tomki for all three of us - Paul, myself, and Matt Barnett, all paddling IKs. We put in at 12:30 and had no time to waste with 17 miles to go.

Bill Tuthill's account of Tomki Creek (see California Creeks website) was apparently at a higher flow, during a rain storm. Our experience yesterday was pleasantly exciting and probably not as punishing. I would do it at the same flow again, or perhaps a few inches higher. Its a tight range between dragging rubber near the putin and losing control through the rapids below, with dense brush and tree growth in the creek seriously compounding the hazards. So timing the flow is very critical, and will be addressed in more detail later in this report.

Wasn't long after putin that we found ourselves ducking low willow branches and splitting wide walls of grassy brush to get downstream. The creekbed was often broad and broken up by sandbars, and the deepest water was often near the bank on either left or right. Eventually the brush got thicker with thin gaps becoming long paths or tunnels, some that ended badly and others with no end in sight. As expected, the best paths often had the most current or gradient, which made every decision seem that much riskier - a dead end in fast water would not be pretty. If I were to name any o

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