Everyone...Must Run...Dillon Creek!

Want to paddle a sick northcoast creek run?  If you're willing to commit to a sweet must-run gorged out rapid, Dillon Creek is the goods.  Here is a short video of Russell Kramer styling the Must Run

With an abundance of beautiful scenery, sweet drops and proximity to other excellent paddling its a wonder this creek doesn't get run more often.  The view from take-out.

If you're wondering why it doesn't get run more often, I am happily writing this to dispel of mythology and fear factory.  Because if Stookesberry calls anything a "nightmare", then certainly 99% of the rest of us wouldn't want anything to do with it, right?  I mean, some of the stuff I see him running qualifies for my nightmarish status.  He then continues with verbage like "frightening", "terror" and even "deathtrap" (we would have none of this on our trip, nor in this description).  Here is a link to Ben's scary writeup.
It was confusing because I always thought to myself, there's no way the Knapp Brothers would've run Dillon Creek 3 times (twice down the NF) if the "must run" was really that bad.  Not only that, but they regard it as one of their favorite creeks around here.  Eventually someone mortal would have to check it out...

On the brink of my 30th Birthday, I was ready to test my mortality...since Dillon Creek sounded like the place to do that I partnered up with a rugged posse of roughnecks who were also willing to put it out there: Jared (Southen Oregon ruffian) and the up and coming Arcata Huckster - Russel Kramer.  We were planning on Bridge Creek (again), but decided for something new instead. Me and Jared had always wanted to paddle it, and besides when would Dillon Creek ever flow again in July?  The drive to put-in is pretty straightforward, and due to unlocked gates we were able to drive within 100 yards of Copper Creek.  After parking a shuttle rig at the highway 96 bridge, head south, and take your first right, which proceeds to go uphill. Stay on the main road, continuing uphill until you pass this shack.

The next road takes off to the right where the main road makes a big left-hand bend, go right.  Down this road we reached a confusing fork with two unmarked roads that both have gates, go right again.

We put on to a bumpy flow of maybe 50 cfs?  After the first bouncy mile you arrive at the confluence of Medicine Creek on your left, adding some much needed flow.  The creek remains bouncy until arriving at some fun bedrock drops indicating you are getting close to the confluence with Dillon.

The sun came up, and the true beauty of where we were started to come out.  In places, the fires of 08 burned all the way down to the creek.

One more portage brought us to the "20 footer" on Copper Creek.  This slide into a crack forces you to put your right paddle to the sky.  Dillon Creek is visible on the left side of this shot.

Copper Creek drops right into a beautiful gorge section of Dillon Creek, where you quickly arrive at the second "20 footer" of the day.

A couple of more sweet drops follow, then the creek backs off to class III-IV for several miles until the confluence with the North Fork of Dillon Creek.  This will either double the flow with much needed water, or double the scariness factor if there is already abundant water.

The gradient gradually builds again, eventually reaching the "Kiwi-Garden"-- an extremely steep boulder garden laced with new wood from a fire that burned in 2008.  We made a short portage around wood at the top and ran down a shallow boof on the right side...I know for a fact its shallow cuz I pitoned...luckily no pictures were taken.  Downstream the walls begin to rise as Dillon Creek drops into the 'fabled inner gorge'.

The confluence with Cedar Creek is your signal that you've reached the crux of the run.  I don't think streams get any more beautiful.

This was a sweet drop with a chute leading to a slide that kicked off a small slab at the bottom.

Next is a drop I'm gonna call "The Ladder", as it has a weird bedrock chute on the left that requires you to punch a hole and then climb over a rock ridge to escape the backwash.

One more drop remains before you have arrive at the lip of Must Run.

At our flows there was an excellent eddy on the left to get out and scout the drop.  We had to climb a little to see the bottom, but at even higher water the scout would still be available.  The drop itself is a series of 4 ledges as you round a bedrock bend.  The line actually sets you up to be left for the final drop, which is where you want to be.  A sneaky boof awaits--don't be afraid to stick it!

Here is Russel on the entrance boof

Then he makes the move left

Finally Jared making the corner and approach to the final boof...which he plugged!

Looking back upstream at the final boof.

Downstream, fun rapids continue for a couple miles before the gradient flattens out in the final approach to the Klamath.  We took lunch here, as we had made amazingly fast progress up to this point.  Unable to complain about the weather, we decided it would be just to hang out for awhile.

  Downstream we saw a momma bear with two cubs, sealing the deal that this was no ordinary paddling trip.  In our final approach to the Klamath, we encountered a family of Native Karuks with 10 children enjoying their swimming hole.  When they saw us, they were stunned, and then erupted with cheers and a round of applause!  100% sure they had never seen paddlers coming through their backyard I gladly executed a perfect eskimo roll per request...adding the exclamation mark to Dillon Creek!

 I'll be the first to admit that our low water level made this a mellower trip than we were expecting; it was  pretty scrappy at the top, and I'll definitely return with more flow next time.  Legitimately, it is a long run that should be taken seriously.  I definitely agree with Stookesberry's advice to be careful with this creek.  At our level I would rate Must Run as a solid class V; although I'm sure with more flow it becomes V+.  I also wouldn't expect to drive all the way to put-in during a normal season.  Moral of the story: If you can paddle class V, you need to check this amazing creek out for yourself.

North Fork Eel River, Day Three...and then some!

We had hoped to make it to the confluence with the Main Eel, but our late departure from camp on day two left us a couple of miles and one big gradient section short of the confluence.  We had already scouted out the "Breakfast Rapid", the night before and with one more river level scout of the top, we decided she was good to go.  We then routed the run-out section and were stoked to have gotten our day off to such a great start.

Warner Sticks the Breakfast Boof

Immediately thereafter, the river's character changed to a wide gravelly class II run. 

We made quick time down to the Main Eel...where we were surprised to see a group of rafters, the first people since Kettenpom Store that we had run into.

Warner Stoked to be at the Confluence

Beautiful Confluence, looking up the North Eel on the right, and Down the Main Eel on the left.

I'll be honest, I haven't ever paddled the Dos Rios to Alderpoint section before, always afraid of endless flatwater and boredom...well immediately upon my arrival, halfway through the run, I was taken by surprise at the abundance of great playspots and fun big-water feel of the river. (we did have ~7,000 cfs at this point).  I now unconditionally recommend this section and can't wait to return and run it in its entirety!

Eel River Country

Did I mention the playspots?  I was wishing I had my playboat as I took this photo!

Oar-Frames on the Eel

Island Mountain Rapid comes before the actual Island Mountain tunnel, although its pretty obvious that you are approaching a larger drop..It had an entrance rapid that the rafters elected to scout, while we simply bombed through and continued to blaze down the river like we do.

Warner sets the Eel River Ablaze, Island Mountain Rapid

The scenery was beautiful, it was crazy to see the faulty railway which some people are still trying to keep going (pipe-dream), and some all around backcountry goodness...the best description of the railway I have heard yet is "looks like a roller-coaster in places"...here I am, in front of the Island Mountain Tunnel, having the time of my life!

Downstream of Island Mountain, where the river makes a monstrous horseshoe, one more big rapid awaits!  

Kekawaka Falls was more fun than Island Mountain at this higher level, although an active slide on river left gave it the feel of an entirely new rapid..one thing to keep in mind when you're padding in the Eel river area is that the geology is incredibly active, and things like rapids rearranging is entirely commonplace.

More Beautiful scenery ahead

This is a really fun river, and all of the train remnants are a constant reminder that once our "Babylon System a Fall" this will be what's left...abandoned railways and ghost towns!

We did take-out in Alderpoint, where there is a spot on the river left side just upstream of the bridge where you can drive most of the way to the river (all the way with 4WD).  I must admit, after hearing rumors of the "town's" reputation, it quickly lived up to them.  There where "whip-it" canisters (NO2) and Crown royal bottles on the bridge, and this is no place I'd want to leave my car.  The first people we encountered were true Appalachian-style hillbillies, roaring by us in their mufflerless truck and hollering incomprehensible gibberish.  Its worth the extra 5 miles to Fort Seward, to say the least, or hire a shuttle driver like we did...thanks Rosada!

The 3 day trip was awesome, we timed it perfectly with the break in the weather and both the North Eel and Main Eel are river's with spectacular and unique scenery that I will undoubtedly return to.  Don't let them get by you as long as I did!
Happy Paddling!

Middle Fork Eel River

I'm going to keep this post short, because it is so sweet!  Looking down the Black Butte River at put-in.

The Middle Eel was way above my expectations for quality and way below my expectations for work.  Easy shuttle, tons of wildlife, nobody there...how can you go wrong.  On the water.

All you gotta do is find the right people to go with and it'll be flowing for a little while longer.

The first 20 miles there are way more class II drops than I was expecting, the river keeps up a good pace (at 1500 cfs) and had much less flatwater than I was expecting.

We had lunch at about mile 13, after only 3 hours on the water

Things start to mellow with longer pools for awhile, but the rapids start getting larger.  You arrive at the Skinny Chutes around mile 25, and this is where I got schooled.  I tried boat scouting into the drop, and with the ferry angle I chose, allowed a diagonal wave to completely grab the cataraft, shoving me left into a boat-catching eddy that I had fully neglected to appreciate on my hurried boat-scout.  A few minutes of swirling around and cursing, missing my ferry angle and being shoved back into the eddy by the pillow ensued.  I gave my passenger the high-side talk, mentioned the possibility of a swim, and proceeded to make my way out of the eddy.  This left me boat-scouting the second half of the drop, which fortunately had a good line left of center.  Whoop Whoop!  Then some beautiful Scenery.

Here is the view of Coal Mine Falls' First Crux Drop

We arrived at Coal-Mine Falls downstream, and took a lunchbreak in the only non poison-oaked shade we could find.  This rapid is completely hyped and is the reason many people haven't paddled this run.  However it is a full-on class IV+ drop, with consequence.  It had a line, but after my shaky experience upstream, my confidence was rattled, and the lack of safety convinced me that lining the cat down the right channel would be the way to go.  I made the entrance  move, catching the eddy right at the lip where Laura grabbed the boat...I removed the oars and tied on a rope.  Then, before you knew it, 5 minutes later the boat was at the "bottom" and we were ready to roll again.

It turns out there is a whole other part of the drop downstream which I knew about, although the eddy I was hoping for turned out to be of insufficient size for the cataraft.  Several scrambling moments later the line appeared to me in a boat-scouting vision of creative splendor and I managed to luckily pop through clean as a whistle.  Another big Whoop!  Here is looking back up at the exit to Coal-Mine Falls.

The rest of the river flows through a beautiful canyon, I'd say in summary that it gets better as you go, and at no point is it bad, in fact it is beautiful.  The miles came easily and we camped at mile 17.5 where we should have.

Black Butte Store at put-in #707-983-9438 runs shuttles for only $50, call them and get on this run that you've been putting off for way too long.  We saw 5 bears, 2 bald eagles, 50 deer, cormorant, ducks, wild horses, green heron, and not one person.  Nuff said!  

North Fork Eel River, Day Two

We awoke to an early sunrise and had a relaxing morning before disembarking from camp.  It was a warm night, and we awoke without even dew on our sleeping bags.  I reckon we camped somewhere about the Round Valley Indian Reservation, as we were now also in Mendocino County.  During the leisurely morning, we spotted a bear descending the hillside across from our camp to a spot where vultures were circling.  Cowpies littered the grassy flat where we camped and some were decorated with these funny looking mushrooms...

The next 6 miles to the Mina Road Bridge were fun class III, and though the flows had dropped a little they weren't significantly lower.  It felt good to get back on the water.

One of the highlights was the Rainbow Wall, a chert formation unlike any other rock and undoubtedly the most colorful rock I've ever seen.  We took a break here to admire the monolithic masterpiece.

We paddled underneath the bridge, and into the undescribed Split Rock section.  For a class III-IV paddler, a two-day trip to Mina Road Bridge would make an excellent run with an easy shuttle, but continuing downstream definitely puts you into a committing class V section for several miles as the North Fork descends to its confluence with the main Eel.

Split Rock was first descended by a group containing Bill Cross, and the only information we were able to gather regarding the section was that it "wasn't worth doing ever again", and "it wasn't that bad", but the group did a long one-day descent, taking out all the way down in Alderpoint.  This didn't leave us much to go with, and after scoping the river on Google Earth, I thought it looked bad-ass.  So as we paddled downstream from Mina Road, our mood was optimistic and cautious.  The old Mina Road Bridge eerily awaited us around the first bend.

After a couple of easy miles we reached a pair of rapids that dropped us toward the gorge, where the river takes a 90 degree left hand bend.

One more boat-scoutable rapid brought us to the crux of the gorge where we elected to carry a stout class V+ drop.  The portage was across a fresh, and loose landslide and was less than relaxing to say the least.

From here we had to ferry across the river to get a scout at the next rapid, and get a view downstream around the bend.

Stoked to find that the next two drops had good lines, Warner proceeded to fire them up.

Before we left the canyon, it was time for a lunch break.  Chilling in the gorge was a powerful experience, and just as we were leaving a mist-storm blew down the canyon.

The rain was visibly falling, but seemed to be evaporating before even reaching the ground...before we knew it the sun came out and the fun rapids continued.

Looking Back up at Split Rock Canyon

Downstream of Split Rock, the river eases for awhile, though fun rapids continue.  

Eventually the river's character became more intimidating as the gradient steepened with many large boulders that made for difficult boat-scouting.

 Being off-line wasn't an option as many places had hidden sieves and undercuts, some even clogged with wood.  We continued downstream and were able to run most of the whitewater, although it was slow going.

John Warner--On Line

Two major portages came after a bit, one that we carried on the right, through a hole in the  rock and into a back channel pool of schmeg water.

The second portage could have gone, but we chose to carry on the left, and after completing it, realized that the second half of the rapid was completely sieved out.

We then had to carry up and over a ridge, where simply portaging up and over on the right bank would've saved the time and energy...these are the types of problems that arise due to the lack of visibility between large boulders.

 Looking Back Upstream

 Cool Sedimentary rocks

All of the scouting and portaging had burned up quite a bit of our daylight hours, and exhaustion led me to suggest looking for a campspot, even though we had hoped to make the main Eel confluence.  After charging through a sweet drop, we got fired up that we might be close, but then reached another gradient section and decided to call it a day.  We were able to take a sweet hike and scope out the "Breakfast Rapids" for our final day on the water and a sweet sunset.