Hoping to paddle 50 miles was a tall order but we felt up to it and put-on with a business-like fashion at Orleans. Will honorably elected to drive shuttle in an effort to get some good camera shots from the road and the plan was to make the call at Weitchpec if we thought we were making good enough time. Right away we were making good time, surfing the goods.
Photo: Paul Gamache |
The Klamath is amazing in that it has so many large tributary streams coming in from both banks. Seems like every other bend another large creek is coming in and the river flows swiftly. The Klamath is also a very mighty river with a an ominous feeling of history that tingles your spine at times. After floating though Orleans, Camp Creek spills on on the right bank and the Klamath enters a beautiful canyon with an excellent wave right at the entrance.
Photo: Paul Gamache |
Photo: Paul Gamache |
Then another couple of rapids bring you down to the confluence of Bluff Creek, coming in on the right. The realignment of Bluff Creek during the flood of 1964 is is one of the most unique geological features I've seen. Bluff Creek actually used to flow along the Highway 96 and empty into the Klamath 1/2 mile downstream of its current location, but in 1964 the amazing volume of water caused the entire hillside separating the Klamath and Bluff Creek canyon's to collapse, sliding into the Klamath River. The result is a gnarly class V spectacle that has rearranged multiple times in the 11 years I have lived here. We drove past this spot after a huge rainstorm and while standing on the bridge you could literally hear the rocks tumbling down the riverbed and caroming down the amazing whitewater spectacle! It is a powerful place, Bluff Creek is also the location of the famous Bigfoot footage that cannot be disproven, here Paul walks up from the Mouth of Bluff Creek looking for signs of Sasquatch.
Downstream from here the river charges through an interesting rapid with a huge surfwave. Problem is just downstream there are some huge whirlpools and a gnarly eddy line so it takes a little liquid courage to drop in on!
Photo: Paul Gamache |
The big rock always visible from highway 96, and Orleans Mountain as the backdrop
And then we passed the Martin's Ferry Bridge.
The Martin's Ferry Bridge was structurally weakened following an earthquake and extremely high water event in 2006. The highway department closed off the bridge and for a little while the residents downstream of Weitchpec who live off the Bald Hills and Tully Creek Road were cut off from the road back to Weitchpec, the community hub. Well, it could only last so long before people were risking it and charging across the bridge in their vehicles. Before long I was driving across the bridge, mistrustingly, on my way to the Bald Hills Road back to the coast near Orick. It seemed like nobody minds that the bridges srtructural integrity was of no concern to the crazy locals of the Northcoast. When we passed the bridge, however I was both surprised and delighted to see a road crew set up and working to reinforce the Martin's Ferry Bridge. Just downstream, Tully Creek comes in, another creek that has been run, but unfortunately became plagued with landslides and portages in the last 5 years.
Downstream we were entering a section of river I was fascinated by but have never paddled.
Photo: Paul Gamache |
We passed into the coastal fog zone and began to see some Sequioa sempervirens , Coast Redwoods
Passing the Mouth of Roach Creek, another stream that has been paddled.
Riffles on the Lower Klamath
Paul enjoying the trip
Turns out the Mysto Wave was the last real rapid on the Klamath River. Downstream are some "riffles" but nothing I would consider a rapid, at least at our high flows of 37,000 cfs at Klamath Glen. This section of river is notorious for having lots of jetboat traffic as many people fish the river, however it seemed that nobody was interested in taking their jet boats out on this particular day and we saw nobody else on the river, which seems to be a theme of our mission.
Maybe it was the cold rainy weather and fog, with high water that was discolored and too murky for fishing that kept other people off the water?
Arriving at the confluence of Blue Creek was a special experience. Blue Creek has never been paddled in its entirety but is a dream of mine and to see it flowing strong at the confluence was inspiring to say the least. This also meant that we were nearing the highway and our take-out. We had been paddling pretty solidly for several hours now as the river had flattened.
Before we knew it we were passing the stream gauge at Klamath Glen and arrived to the boat ramp where Will was waiting for us. It was an amazing day on the water and totally different from my expectations in that we found sick waves, had lots of current so we didn't have to paddle our asses off, and didn't see another soul. Another quality day on the water in the land of the Six Rivers!
Looks like a great surf trip!
ReplyDeleteGreat read - thoroughly enjoyed your account.
ReplyDeleteAustin
Thanks Austin and Russell, hope you're havin good times on the water!
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