Trinity

1. Tangle Blue Creek to Clair Engle Lake

Reach banner
DifficultyIII-IV
Length13.8 mi
Avg Gradientn/a
GaugeTrinity R Ab Coffee C Nr Trinity Center Ca
Flow Rate as of 35 minutes
117 cfsbelow recommended
Reach Info Last UpdatedApril 22, 2024

River Description

This is an absolute classic. It doesn't run every year, and often runs for a short time, but is worth the drive if you can catch it.

The section above this run was clearly runnable and is roadside, if anyone has beta on it please add the run here on AW.

The run is absolutely continuous class III with one class IV at Bear Creek. Swims can be painful as the river isn't particularly deep and one gets pinballed at best and pinned at worst.

At 1300cfs there's some scraping for the first mile, so I imagine 800cfs would be pretty bony. 1500 is a great level. River should go above 2000 but would definitely become a class IV due to the continuous nature.

The class IV Bear Creek rapid about 1/3 of the way through the run. It has two defined sections of whitewater with a small swift recovery section in between. The first part can be seen from the road, but just a bit down the road from there there you can drive off of the highwauy onto a dirt road into the trees to see the lower part of the rapid. It's advised to scout this on the way to the put-in, as the lower part is hard to scout from the riverbank.


River Features

Put In

Distance: 0 mi

Take Out

Distance: 13.6 mi
Take Out

Ted, Michel, Robin in packrafts. It was insanely nice day, high of 70. We had some swims and were tested by the continuous nature of the run. Walked the first half of Bear Creek rapid and ran the lower half.  I ran it clean other than falling out of my boat peeling into an eddy lol.

If you camp in area night before, I recommend camping at Bear Creek, so you can scout the rapid before the run. Nice campsites there on either side of the river.

Can't wait to check out the section above Tangle Blue creek.

SM
Stephanie McKee

Jun 4, 2010


1000 cfs was a good level, a little bony in the beginning. Check gauge at Trinity above Coffee Creek: http://www.dreamflows.com/realtime.php#California\_North\_Coast

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Untitled

Dec 28, 2008


Like the upper mccloud but better