Tilton

Ken's write up regarding the wood is spot on. Only thing to add is there is another little piece of wood sticking up about half way down leap of faith on the left route.

Adding pictures of the wood at first drop and leap of faith.

Had a great paddle on 2/14/26! 800cfs is a really fun level for little boats.

At a lovely medium low flow-- perfect for first time since the high water-- there is new wood in 1st drop and Leap of Faith. The wood in 1st drop is to the left of the main line in the swirly section on river left after the initial drop, and as long as you stay right wouldn't be an issue. However if you rolled or got pushed left....hard to tell what's going on beneath the surface so could be very consequential. The wood in Leap is in the normal right line near the top but is easily avoided and easy to see from the scout. The only other thing to note is how much wood is scattered along the banks from the put in on down. It's mostly pretty high up for now but doesn't look very stable so keep your eyes open....

We (the PDX crew) weren't the only ones out there on 12/8, with crews from Olympia and Seattle meeting every half hour or so all morning.  We had all been watching, waiting for the gauge to bump, and when it went over 1,100cfs those in the know showed up.   This run is truly a favorite with enough challenge to keep out the riffraff, magnificent scenery, and plenty of fun moves and play.  We enjoyed being out there on rising water.

There were two WOOD HAZARDS of note on 12/8/24.  The first was in the small rapid below the rock island that was the site of a previous log jam.  The new logjam is substantial and quite visible from above.  It is an easy portage on the left.  I got out on river right below the jam and climbed back upstream on the rock wall to determine that the narrow slot on far river right would have been runnable past the root ball.  This slot could of course close off at any time, and being the first one through would be a gut check.

The second wood hazard was a riverwide log at river level at the top of a class 2 section about halfway down the run.  It was hard to see until we were right on top of it.  We all hopped over the top in kayaks, but at lower flows or in different craft this could cause trouble.

Leap of Faith and Scary Gary were clean.  The surf wave above Leap of Faith was very fine.

The Olympia folks were launching at the Tree Farm, which is private property that gets you in the water just upstream from the gauge.  They have cultivated a friendly relationship with the owner and had dropped off a gift basket on their way to launch.  Launching there requires that you park in the correct spot (within sight of the owner's house) and avoid driving down the ungravelled section of road down to the water.

We will continue to launch at the bridge and float the 1.75 miles of easy water through the valley above the gorge, because it's lovely, and coming from PDX we only have time for one lap anyway.

We ran it on 5/8/24 at 1060 cfs. There is log that spans the river after First Drop, just past the big rocky island. We heard it arrived 1 month ago. We easily portaged it on the left side. There used to be a gravel bar portage on the right, but that recently washed away. There is a newly formed small channel on the right side that we saw a group come through, but it is hard to see if it is there from above, and I don't know if it would be there at all levels.  There is also a new river wide log between the two main waterfalls.  We were able to scootch over it on the right side at our flow, but it could be a problem at other flows, because it would be hard to portage there.

(Added by Teresa): Here's Kanako's video from the day.  I wasn't there!

https://gopro.com/v/LRde96V0M4m4y

New wood on the Tilton, first there is a new tree in the rapid below the first drop as you head into the gorge. That tree is laying across the left side of the river, right is clear. Second, there is a piece of wood jammed in the middle slot of scary Gary.

Wood remains in right side of leap of faith.

A couple buddies and I ran the Tilton last Sunday (5/1/2022) at around 1250cfs. Our group consisted of five kayakers and one packrafter. We put in at the Christmas Tree Farm access which according to some locals cuts off a decent portion of the flatwater class I-II section leading in.

We didn't find any significant wood on the entire run. The only piece that was really in play was the far left channel of Scary Gary (called 'last ledge' or something in the AW description). Don't take the left chute, it wraps around and under a log that is very difficult to see from above. Leap of Faith was great and fast and didn't seem to pose much more of a technical challenge than the rest of the run, although a swim in the top would be a bit of an event. The rapids mostly consist of steep chutes and fun wave trains with some holes here and there, mostly pool and drop. There are some really beautiful mossy gorges on this run, with dozens of waterfalls dropping into the river pretty much the whole way down. Scary Gary was a fun little ledge. The final rapid, the one described as being long and continuous does end in some meaty holes that flush out well. We floated for maybe a half mile or so on class I gravel bars before the river backed up into the reservoir. From here it was about 30-45 minutes out on flatwater, I was absolutely miserable in my packraft but the steep rapids and the epic gorge was well worth the battle at the end.

There was a cave in a sand wall during the lower class I section, I briefly checked it out but it is very unstable and could collapse at any time so use caution if you choose to approach it.

As of Nov 8, 2020, the lower Tilton is clear of wood except for one log that presents a hazard around 1200 cfs and lower. This is not a new log, and has been there at least since spring 2020. After Leap of Faith, there are 2 tall waterfalls on the left. After these tall waterfalls, the next rapid has a house rock on the right. A log is just above this house rock, protruding about 4 ft from the right side of the river. It is difficult to see because it is submerged. Despite being submerged, don't assume you can make it over the log at 1200 cfs. My friend was caught in the torso by the log, his boat going under it. Fortunately, he managed to swim out. You can easily avoid it by running left or center on this drop.

As of 1/5/20 clear of wood, a major log at the end of first drop has been washed out. everything after leap of faith is also clear.

Yesterday Tilton was clean of wood. It should be noted that Final Ledge is very different than what is described. Left is a sieve with wood and the middle has a very big hole. Right is still fine but use caution and scout if you are considering a different line.

Log jam between rapids, plenty of time to get stopped on river left, we portaged carefully over the logs on river left with no problem. Location of log jam is near the beginning of the canyon (after the seond or third rapid).

Flows were dropping but it was a beautiful spring day on the Tilton River.

Saturday trip on the Tilton River. The run was clean (no Wood in Leap of Faith).

Posted by Nick Newhall 25MAR2006

First off a few things. Tilton is in good shape until you get to Leap of Faith. Actually Leap of Faith is good. It's what is below that is bad!

There's been a landslide on river left where the creek from river right comes in immediately below Leap of Faith. This landslide looks like it has deposited rocks in the river, not an issue, but the tree it brought down with it is going to be there a while and will definitely be more of an issue at higher water as eddie above it become less availble. Portage river right, actually scratch that. Start hiking out.

The old growth log downstream of Leap of Faith in the second small drop, and across the route you want for this drop, is river wide and I'm not sure it's going anywhere even with higher water. We had 900 cfs on the river and I got in the same drop as said log before I saw it. I may have soiled myself at the sight of it. There was maybe a foot of clearance under the right hand side of the log at this flow. Definitely not enough to pass under upright or upside down. At higher flows, if this thing doesn't move out this is just going to get a lot worse. Unfortunately there is no way to slide up to the log and go over, and traversing along above the river isn't an option either. Almquist and I explored that option.

So everyone knows you can extract up the creek as long as you stay to your left as you are looking uphill. Eventually you'll run into a tree farm and then come out somewhere in the middle of the road you drive shuttle on.

Winter trip on the Tilton River. Flows had peaked at approximately 3000 cfs the night before and were at about 2400 cfs at put-in dropping to approximately 2200 cfs over the course of the run. This was a great flow.