Canyon Creek (SF Stilly) and Sauk

Saturday was spring in the Northwest. 66 degrees and sunny and the rivers, they were up. I joined up with Bellingham boaters Jon and Tim, and headed to Canyon Creek, a super short and fun run about an hour south, running at a healthy 6'. The class IVish run seemed like a good candidate given our early-season rustiness, and the Bellingham crew had a score to settle with this little run. Unfortunately, few that experienced the earlier epic wanted to join us this time.

We met up with several Seattlites, including a trio that (mostly) successfully rafted the creek, which was impressive to watch given some of the tighter drops on this run. Though the prospect of paddling along with a floating undercut is never that appealing.

Poogies and excess insulating layers were shed with abandon, and we started the run.

The run begins with a good sized rapid with hungry ledge holes, but quickly tapers into a scenic canyon with clean, aesthetic drops. Tim probed his way down most of the drops while the less intrepid among us scampered about along the canyon walls, debating lines, all of which went well. And then we were done (it is pretty darn short).

We put on for a second lap, which involved 4 swimmers in a prolonged spin cycle in the top drop, including all three rafters (I still feel a little bad about boofing onto the first swimmer, but the raft was hot on my tail), and then we proceeded to cruise the lines in under 45 minutes.

Beer and chips and salsa awaited us at the take-out thanks to the foresight of the Seattle contingent.


Tim in the first ledges. The right side of this one goes smooth.


First ledges.


Seattlites in Headwall Rapid (?)


Jon Dufay, Headwall Rapid (?)


Last larger drop.


Tim, last munchy hole.

On Sunday, Hale, Jon and myself headed out for some early season playboating on the Sauk. Unfortunately, the evil Northwest weather gods had returned from their Saturday reprieve, and we were greeted at the put-in with giant snowflakes that muffled our quick descent.