Wooley Creek

Second Wooley run in the past two weeks. After a warm day prior (90°F), flows bumped up about 10% from the previous day’s peak, reaching 3,300 cfs at the Somes Bar gage. We boated Wooley on the diurnal drop from that overnight peak. Compared to two weeks earlier—when we ran it on the drop from a 4,200 cfs peak—it wasn’t much lower, and certainly not enough to change the creek’s pace or power. It was juicy (in a good way), though that made things more challenging for the two packrafters in our group of three.

We started hiking at 8:40 a.m. and were shaded by marine layer clouds and terrain for the steep climb from the trailhead. We kept a moderate pace, more or less at the speed of the kayak hiker. Total hike time was 3.5 hours—about an hour longer than my hike two weeks prior. That’s been my experience: for various reasons, the hike takes somewhere between 2.5 and 4 hours.

I paddled my Alpacka Mage again. It’s a delight on the trail at 32 pounds with all my gear, food, and water. It’s also a delight on the water—though Wooley pushes it to its limits. The Valkyrie is the better choice, and Jim had one.

Boating started with a bang at the first rapid. With slightly lower flow, the line in the entry narrowed and forced us further left into the edge of a big curler off the bank. It didn’t go well for the packrafters—Jim and I both swam, briefly, into the river right eddy.

After that rough start, Jim and I portaged the third significant rapid—one of the tallest and most powerful on the run. Geoff aced it, as he did with all the drops all day.

Jim and I each had one more swim in the second gorge. Not ideal, but both were short and into eddies, with no drama. One downside of the Mage is how hard it is to roll, and its large tubes make every hit feel big.

Jim opted to skip the lower gorge and hike out on the Wooley Creek Trail from Deer Lick Creek. Geoff and I continued slowly, scouting the long, complex rapid that forms the crux of the run—and that can’t be fully portaged. A strainer lurks not far downstream, and I’d had a close call swimming over it two weeks prior. I’d hoped scouting would give me the confidence to run it clean, but the opposite happened—I couldn’t envision a clean packraft line through the stacked holes and laterals. With no full portage option, I ran the entry, caught a small left eddy, portaged the heart of the drop, and re-entered where the canyon walls required to run the final river-wide hole. That took the teeth out of it, and I made it through clean. Geoff ran the whole thing.

The strainer just downstream looked worse with a bit more water—logs were now partially exposed, not buried. Geoff barely squeezed through far left, skimming the logs. I portaged right.

The hole in the middle of Fat Lady Sings was big, so I portaged that too—bringing my total to three. I’d have run all of them in my kayak, but not in the packraft. That’s the tradeoff: easier hike, higher swim likelihood. It’s a questionable bargain when Wooley is on the high end of medium. I plan to return at 2,500 cfs—a true medium—which I think is the sweet spot for the packraft compromise, particularly in the Mage.

We took our time in the final gorge—and never moved fast all day. Total paddle time: 3.5 hours. With the hike, transition, and lunch the total mission was 7.5 hours.