Wills Creek

There is a river wide strainer about half a mile before the takeout. There is a trailer, beige and brown on the left side of the bank right above it. Heads Up!

Significant changes at YOYO: Ran Wills this past weekend and YoYo has changed dramatically, once again. There is no longer a straight 3+ ft. drop in the main/center slot, rather there is now a 4-6 ft wide sluice just to the left of the large boulder that channels almost all the water, and ends in a flushing hole that appears to have a large, submerged boulder in it (which at lower water could possibly be a piton hazard). Perhaps most important, is that this change has dropped the level of the upstream pool (the approach to YoYo) by about 2 ft.. The result is that the right-side eddy above YoYo, from which everyone used to scout, is no longer accessible/existent. Moreover this pool now has new features: fast current and at least 2 new holes (one which is just above the entrance to the new, wide sluice drop). Approaching YoYo, especially at medium and high levels should now be done with extreme caution, as there are no easy places to eddy out and scout (on either side of the stream) within the last 150 feet above YoYo. Also, the large piece of metal formerly lodged in the center slot is now gone, and probably resting at the bottom of the hole below YoYo. Lastly, there is now a third major strainer on this run, one of which is around a blind corner 1/4 to 1/2 mile upstream of YoYo and has resulted in several nasty swims by otherwise skilled boaters. ....That said, Wills is still a beautiful, fun run. Just stay safe :)

Note, the warning below about metal in center slot is in reference to Yo-Yo rapid! (Can't seem to get back to the original comment to edit.) Thx. Ray

Ran Wills on Jan.16, 2017 at 2.65 ft. There is now a large10 inch wide piece of metal lodged on the right side of the center slot (just next to the large boulder to the right of the slot). It seems to be several feet long with over a foot sticking out above water at the 2.65' level, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon. Boaters should excercise caution at all levels. This is the main slot folks run at lower levels. At higher levels, you should still be able to boof the main drop to the left of the slot, but I would not advise running the center slot until this piece of metal has moved. (I'll try to upload a photo if I can figure out how, or if someone can advise.) Boaters running after Jan. 16, please update this post with any changes you note.
Thx! Ray Norman

Also, as of Jan. 16, there is a tree down across the main channel about 1/3 the way down from Fairhope, about 2-3 main rapids upstream of YoYo. Resulted in at least one nasty swim. Suggest portaging or approaching with extreme caution. Easily visible from upstream if you are
eddy hopping. Also, there is another major strainer just downstream of YoYo in the main left channel. Difficult to see from above. Suggest scrapping down the far right channel. Thx, Ray

Jumped on this on 9/9 just before it flashed. We walked off just down stream after lots and lots of water dropped in from all sides. Went above the put in only to be turned around by a flooded road by a tiny creek that was blown out. Watched at lease 6 different trees ranging from 20 to 60 feet long and 18 to 36 inches in diameter washing down stream. Be vigilant about new wood the next time someone runs this. Looks like the tiny stream that dumped into Wills had not had high water in many years.

The center line @ YO YO has a piece of rebar sticking up out of the water. Ran it @ 250cfs a few weeks ago. Rebar sticking up just below the pour over in center. If you do run the middle line, stay close to the big rock on the right side. At low flow like this you could see it about 4-5 inch out of the water. Any higher of a flow and you wouldnt even know the rebar was there and could be a real danger,especially if you go over the center drop and flip.

There's some major wood on this run. Not too long after Yo-Yo there is a tree across the whole creek. You know it's coming because there's a few houses on river left, then a retaining wall further down. You can skirt the wood on the FAR right, but you're still going to hit some small branches. About a mil further down there is another log sticking out from river right. You can easily miss this by running a small bony slot on the left.