March 10, 2011
| Reporter | chris stoops |
Early Spring 2006:
The Run: 53 to 393 to 1649 bridge, 800CFS
Someone on AWW.org said that 53-393 wasn’t runnable at 500 and to try it at 1000, but we were going to try 800 anyways. It was extremely boring and slow at first, but then we finally got to the first ledge. Surfing, laughing, and taking pictures the whole time with my waterproof disposable, I thought it was the best rapid I have ever been on. Next the whole woods open up and you will see this 1+ foot ledge on the left side of the creek only, hurry and don’t miss it. But at 800 CFS I couldn’t even get over it due to lack of water. I bet around 1600-2000 CFS this would be a great surf spot, the ledge is sooo wide. Right after that there are a bunch of tiny ledges in a row. I remember one drop being the coolest scenery ever, I thought I was in Daniel Boone forest for a second, big boulders along the sides of the creek. The drop was big but had a small wave train at the low level. Then there is it's prime attraction the class III ledge; it was exactly like the other ledge on river left, but I was on the right, and my brother is yelling “hurry get the camera” and I am yelling I can’t. I was sideways and highsideing allot to prevent being tipped in my 20 dollar 2 man raft. I can take that thing the worst way down the lateral wave on Elkhorn’s S-turn leaning to the side as it flushes me out trying to flip me over and over again, but it can’t. This wave at Harrods had some major power, but surely wasn’t a solid class III at 800 CFS, because escape was too easy. We lost the camera there of course, and one of my friends started becoming hypothermic on this 60 degree day and he had on his sleeveless shirt.
Right before you get to the 393 bridge, be looking up, there is some rock formations up there that look like something out of an Idaho desert. The perfectly slanted Grey muddy bank looked exactly like this creek I was looking at in California once. Be careful, the 393 bridge had a massive pileup, but I scouted back and forth and saw that there was a small and decent opening, the drop took my breath away, it was a decent one, I think the logs made the drop better because of the restriction. My friend starts shivering pretty bad, so we start moving along real fast. Along the way it looked like something out of Goonies, we saw 3 giant 100 - 200 foot waterfalls, some had muddy bowl looking slides for the first 100 feet. I wanted to paddle up the feeder creeks so we could see a much better view, but my friend was too cold, I never saw the bottom of a single one.
Next is where the danger happens. About 3.5 miles after the 393 bridge we see a giant massive logjam, and we all pullover. I try and tell my hypothermic friend to walk around while my brother and I catch this eddy located in the middle of log jam city. Without my knowledge he decides to follow us, and he tries to ferry across because I taught him that move earlier, but the current was too swift, and he ran out of juice. He is heading for the worst strainer I have ever seen. Two giant logs arranged like a V pointed downstream like this ^ and a giant suck-hole that was shooting water in the air and twirling allot. It looked like a picture of this killer whirlpool in one of my rafting books. My brother sees that there is a log crossing the creek above him and yells to him JUMP JUMP! I couldn’t believe he was able to jump and bear-hug this massive tree with his legs and arms like he did, hell I couldn’t believe the tree was even there. My brother already went running down a log to go get him after he yelled, and he leaned forward and grabbed him with one arm scooping him up. I couldn't believe what I saw but I think adrenaline had a lot to do with it. The whole time that was going on I was trying to get the rope which was in the bottom of our gear bag(a lesson learned: keep it on top). Finally we get to this guys driveway after 1649 only to find our car is gone. Our friends girlfriend got sick of waiting and drove off, we finally get our cell phone working and call her to come back and pick us up “ya your boyfriend is just about hypothermic right now and he almost died earlier”.
While waiting we talked to the guy who lived there and he said he had gone canoeing from 1649 - 329 the day before and the rapids were so big it sank his canoe, and he even lost it. I checked and it was running at 3000 – 8000 CFS all day. He swore it was the best section, but he had never even run the 53 – 393 section, ha ha.