Whetstone Mountain

After looking through our central Oregon cascades hiking guide, we decided that we'd pretty much done every hike listed within a 2 hour drive of Amity. Flipping to the back of the book, I found a list of hikes that the author deemed marginal, too difficult, not scenic enough, too long, too short, or too easy. I latched on to one that sounded interesting: Climbing Whetstone Mountain from the south, accessed via the Opal Creek Trail.

Whetstone Mountain is usually climbed as a short side hike from the Silver King Mountain trail in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness (Clackamas River headwaters). It is the highest point on a ridgeline that separates the Clackamas drainage from the headwaters of the Little North Santiam River. When I posted a query on the Portland hiking forum, no one had ever tried the hike from the south, but many people responded saying they had done the side hike and that the hike was gorgeous. That was enough for us to give it a shot.

We hiked from the Opal Creek trailhead about a half mile before turning uphill, and climbed steeply (~800 fpm) for about three miles. It was an adventure from the get-go, as it became clear that the trail had received no maintenance for quite some time. Deadfalls and blowdown covered the trail and constantly required scrambling over and ducking under logs.


We finally reached the ridgetop, and immediately noticed two things: One, a spectacular view of Mt Hood


And two, a LOT of snow on the ground. In fact, it was virtually impossible to find the trail.

We eventually just headed up the ridgeline as best we could, stumbling randomly upon the trail as the south face of the ridge became more exposed. We made the decision to push for the summit, even though the day was getting late. We hit heavy snow again a couple hundred feet from the top, which slowed our progress and made for some tense spots. The view at the top absolutely blew us away. 360 degree view of the major peaks of the cascades.

Battle Axe Creek canyon (Opal Creek trib) with Battle Axe Mountain and Mt. Jefferson in the background
Battle Axe Mountain and Mt. Jefferson

Looking out over the source of the Hot Springs Fork of the Collowash at Mt Hood

The beargrass and rhododendron blooms were gorgeous in the evening light as we head back down the trail.

All in all, a fantastic adventure, with a payoff of incredible views.

Opal Creek

I'd wanted to do Opal Creek for years. In fact, it's probably safe to say that it was the number one run I wanted to do after moving back west. I finally got on it today, at optimal flows and on a beautiful KAVU day in the mid-70s.

The crew was me, Darryl from Salem, and Russ from Tennessee. I didn't take a lot of pictures because we were booking down at a good clip, enjoying the fun ledges and boulder gardens.

What you get when the headwaters of a river include some of the largest stands of old-growth trees left in the state: turquoise water and a pristine river canyon

Ancient old growth logs wedged in the canyon below Big Fluffy, as viewed during the SKETCHY seal launch portage

Looking back upstream after the seal launch, which involved landing in the outflow of the waterfall in control so as to avoid the two logs that you can see in the river

Thors hammer and the largest and last rapid of the day, thors playroom. This rapid was FUN!!!! Only about half the rapid can be seen in this picture

Valley of the Giants

My parents and I were looking for a good close hike that we hadn't done, but would be short enough that we could make it back to McMinnville for a BBQ and Brew Festival in the granary district. We chose to explore a short hike in the Valley of the Giants - a tiny 55-acre patch of epic old growth Douglas Fir trees amidst the clearcut desolation of the Coast Range. The drive to the valley was traumatic - 20 miles of one lane gravel logging roads, with the most horrendous views on all sides. Yay Oregon, land of scenic beauty! It was easy to get depressed.


Once we arrived at the trailhead though, things immediately looked up...literally, as we were surrounded by massive trees. The trail was only about a mile loop total, but we took almost two hours. Every step we took revealed towering 400 year old 250 foot tall giant trees.



This guy had to be 10ft in diameter.

The North Fork of the Siletz ran through the Valley, which apparently had a 200fpm section just below what we could see from the trail. It was crystal clear and beautiful.


The giant trees, beautiful stream, and mellow hike left us feeling pretty magical. Too bad we had to drive back through this to get home...
All of the dust from the road left us pretty thirsty for one of these....YUM!
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14400/32432

Giant Gap NF American River 5/25/08

After the Bear River debacle, we were feeling both super keyed-in and in desperate need of a climatic finish to our California paddling trip. I had wanted to run the Giant Gap section of the NF American for a long time, but its reputation as being very committing necessitated a guide. Besides being almost totally inaccessible in certain parts of the 2 mile vertical walled canyon that comprised the Gap proper, the entire run was long: a two mile hike-in and a 14-mile run. After relaxing and unwinding from the Bear with a couple beers, Justin randomly shot out a post on boof.com (the cali paddling forum) to see if anyone wanted to lead 3 people down. Surprisingly, we got a immediate call from a guy named Todd from Sacramento - sure, he'd lead us down. Justin hung up, and we all thought "woah, what are we getting ourselves into??". Boom, we all went to bed straight away, and speaking personally I had trouble sleeping, thinking of the big day to come.

Next morning, we got up super early and met Todd, who turned out to be a doctor (nice!). We set shuttle and geared up for the hike in the midst of a cloud on a ridge high above the river.

It was intimidating knowing the magnitude of what we were about to do, but not being able to even see to the bottom of the river canyon. We buckled down and started the 2mile hike down to the river, dragging our boats and trying not to crash into the forests of poison oak that lined the trail. It was actually quite beautiful, but I was too locked in to notice at the time.


Finally getting to the river, we were amazed at the gorgeous canyon, the turquoise water, and the old oaks trees covered with moss that surrounded us.

Looking upstream at the last rapid of Generation Gap.

Justin: "man what are we getting into???"


Once on the water, we floated through a couple miles of class II-III through gorgeous canyons until reaching the start of the Gap proper.



I don't remember too much about the rapids in the Gap, except that they were big and I was happy with the fact that we were dealing with lower water. We had nice moving pools between most of the big drops. I can imagine that at higher water the whole Gap becomes a scary flush through big water class V.
The biggest drop in the Gap, Nutcracker, looking MUCH smaller than it was.


Myself running a ledge in the lead-in to Dominator.

And oh yes I got Dominated. Dominator is the biggest boulder garden on the run, and the exit of the Gap. All I knew about it was that you did NOT want to be left at the bottom, as there was supposed to be a massive recirculating hole that was backed up by a wall. Todd, who had been a spectacular guide up to this point, led us in without telling us what rapid it was. I quickly ended up on the left side and got flushed to the left of a big rock splitting the flow. I tried to throw a boof on the 5-6 foot drop but ended up VIOLENTLY backendered. Mercifully, I flushed quickly, but man was I shaken up! In retrospect, the lower water made the drop more forgiving than its reputation suggested.
Dominator - you can clearly see the river-left drop that backendered me.


The rest of the run was more fun easier rapids through just about the prettiest canyons I have ever seen. There is something truly magical about the grey Cali granite covered in moss with old oaks and crystal clear water. I kept expecting to see Ents and hobbits on the shore. All in all, the single best boating day of my life, and an incredible finale to a great trip paddling through California.

Chamberlain's section, North Fork American

Today the rain started in earnest. Honestly, except for the license plates I could have sworn we were in the Willamette Valley in February. Colfax, where Justin's parent's house was located, is about 5 minutes from the takeout road for the Chamberlain's section of the North Fork American River - a nice class 3/4 river with amazing scenery. On this day, the rain turned the usually grey granite black, making for some nice photo opps.



Andy with a huge boof on the final part of Stairstep.

Two creeks from one putin and takeout

From our base at Justin's parents house in Colfax, we drove north on 49 to Downieville - a cute little town in the mountains with an insanse amount of whitewater all around it. Our goal was two tributaries of the North Fork of the Yuba - Pauley Creek and Lavezolla Creek. The unique thing about these two creeks was that they shared the same putin and takeout. We dropped a car at the takeout and drove up a ridge about 3 miles. We started our day with Pauley by hiking to the right off of the ridge from where we parked. Pauley's character consisted of micro-gorges with fine pool-drop ledges and incredible scenery. The drizzle reminded me of Oregon, but the geology was definitely Sierra.

About to drop into the first micro-gorge on Pauley.


Justin on a fun ledge. The scenery and water quality on Pauley was incredible.

Justin on one of the largest drops on Pauley.


And me below the same drop.


Andy in a scenic spot.

Justin on another ledge on Pauley.

Pauley had some classic rapids.



After running Pauley Creek, we chilled out for a bit, then decided to finish off the day in fine form by running Lavezolla Creek. Driving up to the same putin, we hiked off the left side of the ridge this time to run Lavezolla. I proceeded to get myself nicely pinned horizontally early in the run due to some communication issues. Lavezolla was a lot more continuous and manky-boulder-gardeny, which appealed to our mid-atlantic boater sensibilities.

Ducking a log early in the run on Lavezolla

Turquoise water....kinda like the Potomac. Or...maybe not quite like the Potomac.

Portaging the gnar in the rain.

Boofing is fun

All in all, probably one of the top-ten boating days of my life to date. Two creeks, from the same putin and takeout, both class IV-IV+, with totally different characters. Good times.