August 7, 2020
| Reporter | George Michie |
I saw this description of the South Fork above 56 on a YouTube Video comment:
Back in the early 90's I talked my buddy Gary Ward into going down that way to explore the forks of the Tye with me. We put on higher up at the fish Hatchery(Mill Creek). The section from there down to the bridge where you guys put on starts out fairly easy(there is a small dam to deal with) then the bottom drops out(on a sharp left bend) and the creek gets steep! There's a steep, funky cascade(10-15' drop in 40') with a swift pool at the bottom that leads into a difficult boulder choked rapid(class IV+) that leads directly into a reverse Big Spat type waterfall. Then you have about 20=30 yards of moving water to a tall cascade(30' drop in about 30') into a small pool, then continuous rapids. All that in about 600'-700'.
We portaged all that because there was just too much going on for one person running safety to deal with if something had gone wrong. The lead in to the reverse Big Splat looked like a good way to get hammered, at least at the level we caught it at.
From there down to the Rt. 56 bridge(where you put on) it's continuous drop after drop after drop!
We had walked upstream from the bridge to scout that section. In the time it took to walk back, run up top and paddle down, the creek had dropped about a foot but still had plenty of water. Good times!