"North Fork Patterson Creek" (Scott River Tributary)


Originally posting this run I made the mistake of calling it "Upper Patterson Creek". Taking a closer look at topographical maps I can't find a name for this creek at all, so for the sake of calling it something I'll call it the North Fork of Patterson, since the main stem of Patterson comes from the South on maps and is named.

Patterson Creek is a small creek that flows from the Marble Mountain Wilderness into the middle of Scott Valley to join with the Scott River. Before this week I had never heard of it being run, although I had heard rumor of good possibilities. Thursday I met up with Ben Stookesberry and Tristan Ragsdale and we had a great high-water run down Slate Creek and he mentioned running Patterson Creek in the past. His group had done the first descent several years ago, hiking in the full five miles and spending one day on an upper section and hiking back in for another day on a lower run. He said the upper run had more mank, but larger rapids, while the lower run was more committing but not quite as large rapids.
After a run down a somewhat flooded Kidder Creek on Friday, Ben thought that the level for Patterson would be good the next day. A well-timed early morning call had Ben Stookesberry, Devin Knight and I meeting in Yreka on Saturday morning, and quickly heading over the hill into Scott Valley.
With Ben’s trusty Subaru dropped off at the takeout, we drove up the half-mile to the gate, to find something unheard of. The gate was open; we were ecstatic about not hiking. We were really fortunate to find a combination of open gate, no snow, and a decent amount of water. Growing up in Scott Valley I had never heard of this road being open, as I believe it is in fact not normally just a seasonal gate, but a closed road. The road wasn’t in great condition but wasn’t too bad either, while making good time up the road we rose above the fog level to get a few good scenery shots. Here is Devin enjoying the view of Mt. Shasta.


The fog bank and Mt Shasta.

The shuttle was back on, and after a little confusion about which road we were on the right track and at the put-in, which looked promising. Ben strolling around at the put-in.


We leisurely geared up and were on the water at 11, and indeed, it was manky. We ran perhaps twenty to thirty yards before our first wood portage, followed by more runnable junk and then another quick portage. Next up was out first fun rapid, a nice ten foot waterfall that landed in a punchbowl, followed by another wood portage. Devin probed and ended up checking the depth of the punchbowl.


We started portaging around the wood on the left, and continued portaging due to junky rapids, wood, and an inability to get back down to the water with our boats. After some deliberation the portage continued on up the hillside, until we eventually hit an abandoned road. Eventually the abandoned road took off up the hillside, and I took a much-needed break while Ben and Devin scoped out river access. These guys are hiking machines, I was pretty well spent and they were all over the hillside. When they returned we debated quite a while about our different options, eventually deciding to hike out and try to save the day by a run down the still high Kidder Creek.
We were all pleasantly surprised by the ease of the hike out, after half a mile more on the abandoned road we were back on the shuttle road. Devin hiked back up to his truck at the put-in while Ben and I enjoyed some amazing 60-degree Christmas Eve weather, and a great view. As the picture shows, it is quite a ways down to the creek where we hiked out, but it was one of those days where it’s just good to be out there. Like Ben said, this run is more high mountain survival boating, has a few good ones but lots of junk in the middle of nowhere. Get some local maps and figure out your shuttle if you are doing this run, you'll probably be hiking. Patterson is inbetween Etna, Ca and Fort Jones, Ca. So we were foiled by the Upper Patterson, but scheming to be back for the lower.

This run (if completed to the "Classic Patterson" section) is roughly one mile long and drops 700-800 feet.

Home Page