Rogue, North Fork

I managed to get on this run a no. of times last summer during the schedule release. The three times I did, the stick gauge at the put in read between 2.1 and 2.8 a low to medium flow. Perfect for the class 4 boater such as my self. With-in these flow parameters there were lots of eddys and the water did not have much push giving you plenty of time to make the technical moves necessary for this run. I hear as the flow goes up so does the rating, and I can see that. The class 4 section starting below Mill Creek falls to the Powerhouse is essentially a 1.3 mile long class 3 to 4 rapid and tons of fun, all set in a spectacular gorge with 2, 170' tall waterfalls, tall canyon walls and fantastic water color and quality. Even though I live less than an hour from the put-in, I like to camp up above Prospect on the release weekends, That way you maximize your boating time and can get the whole NF Rogue boating experience by adding runs down the Natural Bridge, Takilma Gorge and River Bridge sections as well as a couple of laps down the Mill Creek section. That all adds up to a great summer weekend of boating! Below the powerhouse is a good section of class 3 that reminded me of the upper McCloud...continuous, fairly shallow rocky rapids with good gradient (50fpm) and a couple of nice surf waves on the day I paddled it..The class 3 section goes 24/7/365 but has access problems both at the put-in and the take-out...too bad because I bet it would be fun in the playboat.