With the rocky terrain it's no wonder that on the North Fork Smith water levels jump dramatically when it rains, making it an ideal fall run.
Friday after running the Oregon Hole gorge we drove into Crescent City and met up with quite a few kayakers from the bay area, who were kind enough to let us use the hotel hot tub with them. We discussed plans of hopefully creeking the next day, provided it rained that night. Unfortunately it didn’t rain Friday night, and Saturday morning we looked at depressingly low creeks, and followed the herd of cars up to the shuttle house in Gasquet for the North Fork of the Smith. Locals scrambled around trying to find enough drivers for all the people, and we spent way too long at the take out organizing gear. I think a total of six shuttle drivers ended up being needed between three groups on the water Saturday. Eventually we arrived at the put in about 11:30 after an hour and a half long shuttle on dirt roads, and were rewarded with stunning views before putting on the water. Roughly 1,500cfs flowing by in the background.
Our large group about to put on in late November 2007. Flows were at 16' on the gauge in the morning, and 22,000 at Jedidiah Smith.
A bit more than 1,500 cfs this time!
I’d heard this was a beautiful class IV run with world-class scenery. We had a flow of 1500, and while the rapids were entertaining, there was quite a bit of flat and mild class II-III throughout the run. Red wall gorge, the first set of class IV rapids. 8-9' on the Gauge in the photograph.
The scenery on the North Fork Smith is stellar, at low flows you have plenty of time to soak it in. I was surprised that it was more high desert scenery than coastal. Matt from Ashland at the Still Creek break spot, 1/3 of the way down.
What a way to spend the day after Thanksgiving, another lunch break at Still Creek.
This run has more waterfalls coming in from the side than any other I have ever been on. We enjoy a few during a break 2/3 of the way through the run. Paddlers enjoy the wonderful Grotto.
At high flows one of the largest rapids on the run is "Serpentine Slide" and it gets some big holes when the rocks are covered. At lower flows (9.5' in photo) it's a wonderful boulder garden. Matt and Clint enjoying the fall paddling through Serpentine Slide.
Erik Larson and Tom Peil on the same.
Pitcher plans were everywhere on the riverbank, fun to see. This run is well worth doing, although at lower flows it's a long day at 15 miles.
This run would be a great overnight run for class III/IV boaters wanting to enjoy wilderness style scenery, although camping spots are scarce. With higher flows I absolutely loved the run. Downriver play is epic, the flats disappear and he rapids stay class III-IV but the consequence jumps to IV+ because if you do swim, equipment is going to go a long ways downstream. Not a problem at lower flows though.
At high flows the only down side is the long shuttle, and hour and a half one way. Helping mitigate the shuttle problem, Barefoot Brad is a reliable and trustworthy shuttle driver who only charges $40 a day and has some great stories, and also cleans up all the trash on the road!
Holbek & Stanley has shuttle directions as always if you are intent on running your own shuttle, making the North Fork Smith a very long day.
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4 comments:
Nice Darin. That was a great run. No mention of my stupidity. It is running at almost twice that flow right now. I would be super sweet. Good pictures, great run.
So sunday I ran the north fork smith with some big water and some of the best boaters I've ever seen. When we arrived at the put-in the first words out of the shuttle drivers mouth were "wow... thats high" Followed by someone saying "I wish we had that on video" The gage at the north fork confluence was reading just over 15 ft and the nf seemed to have about 3 times as much volume as the mf at the confluence. This was because most the rain had been to the the north in Oregon. So off we went and in what seemed like just a few minuets of never ending waves we were passing diamond creek. Now we were really moving! As we approached the red rock gorge I got out to take a look at the first class 4 rapid and discovered their was no one rapid. I walked to the bend to just see more huge waves and holes. After a quick chat with a few guys eddied out down stream I decided to sneak right. This was harder than it looked the river was always pulling hard to the center and I really had to fight to get off to the side to get a look at the second big drop I think it was scout. Well I didn't scout good enough, as I went over one of the first waves a huge currler crash over me from the right. I attempted several rolls usualy coming up on top a wave but with nothing to brace on I would just roll right on over to the other side. After making a few good rolls and just getting knocked back down I started to tier and soon found myself swimming toward the ledge wishing I was still in my boat and wondering how I lost my paddle. Every time I would get close to shore the water pushed me from the bank and back to the center. Just before I went over the last drop I managed to swim into a small hole on the right where one of the guys on the shore were able to toss me a rope. It took a solid class 5 pro to catch up to my boat and get it to shore some 4 miles down river. After watching my swim 3 other class 3-4 boaters left there boats and joined me for what would turn out to be as epic of a hike out as it was on the way in. With the river this swollen we where seldom able to walk at the rivers edge. Most of our hiking was high above the river on steep loose boulders and dense brush. And at times we were forced to skirt are way along the cliffs at river level. It was pitch black when we got back to the put-in. What had taken us an hour or so to boat took us over four to walk.
Glad to hear you guys made it out safe...Thanks Darin for the trip down Pat's Creek and the high N. Fork, epic..
Hey is that luke? Anyways funny running into you at the store the other day james. It's great to hear the hike went OK. Im not sure if i told you but I stashed you paddle at one of the last creeks on the river right at the end of the first gorge.Don't know if darin grabbed it on his way down or not. Man what a day ha?
Darin, also wanted to say thanks for leading the way down pat's crk. and the North Fork. Good times!
Orion
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