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Remember the actual Trip Details are located on the Sunday Stilly | Trip Page

I'm wanting to make a run down the Stilly on Sunday if the levels hold above about 5.5 feet.  Meet at 10:30 Across the highway from the Verlot Ranger Station.  Backup if the Stilly drops out is a run down the Sauk.  Anyone else interested?

I'm in for the Stilly.  Arn and I ran the Sauk at 4000 cfs.  We'd go again up to 5500, but don't want to push it beyond that for the next run.  I have demons to exorcise on Whirlpool  (the demon that smacked my lower jaw).

Trip is a go!!! 

Anyone posting a trip report?

I've dropped into the center right hole at the top of wiley creek at about 7 or so feet, and I didn't think I would get out. Ever. It can be a very big hole. I finally got out, and got slammed by the one below it.

Just to add a little more detail about yesterday's run on the Middle SF Stilly....

We put in at Boardman Creek - about river mile 53.5 on the old USGS maps.  There is a bridge across Mountain Loop Highway (MLH) here and a good pullout on the right hand side.  There is a trail down to Boardman Creek from this pull out and the creek joins the SF Stilly immediately after the bridge.

Most of the river at 7.5 feet consists of class II and class III boogie water and some flat sections.  The exception to this is the seemingly endless Wiley Creek rapid.  The lead-in to Wiley Creek is some harder class III water that eventually leads to a large eddy pool on river left in a river bend just as the river gets close to MLH again.  When you are here, you are coming to the crux of Wiley Creek rapid (or so we thought) - the part you can scout easily from the road.  All of us searched for the glassy (HAHA) tongue that was left-center while trying to avoid the seam that was left-center as well as the monster hole that ate Dylan on river right.  The river at 7.5 feet was big and pushy and, frankly, I'm more a little surprised that most of us survived upright through this rapid - especially me.

Reaching the bottom of Wiley Creek rapid, we all breathed a sigh of relief as our fearless leader assured us that the river would be a little calmer after this.  Yeah, right.  The next section, IMHO, was the even harder than the so-called crux move of Wiley Creek rapid.  As Dave stated above, it was a slalom course of huge holes.  Last night, I must have heard at least 25 times about the hole that literally ate Adrian.  Deborah said she was following him and then he was gone - swallowed by the river.  This was terrifying to her as she was on his line and expecting the exact same fate (and, worried about Adrian - probably in that order).  She was able to correct her course a little but still flipped though managed to roll.

Reaching the bottom of the rapid below Wiley Creek, we didn't breathe another sigh of relief because we didn't know what was to come next.  But, the river did calm down a bunch even if it managed to produce holes out of nowhere to try to swallow us.  I suspect part of this was the murky flat nature of the water that definitely made reading the river harder.

We parked at the Mt. Pilchuck road to take out under the bridge.  This involves negotiating a wood obstacle that most in the party walked.  A good description of this obstacle is on the AW site.  An alternative take-out would be about 1/4 mile further east - just east of 353rd Drive NE intersection with MLH (use Google Maps and you can see where the river comes close to the highway here).  While waiting to portage, the river right cliff continuously gave way - at times dropping gigantic hillside portions of rocks, dirt and full size trees.  It was scary and fantastic at the same time.

In reviewing the river levels and the trip after we got back, I notice that the AW site lists 5.2-7.2 as the range for the river.  There is a curious 3 year old note on the AW site about their suggested range.  Anyway, the range on PP is 5.0 to 8.0 feet.  For me 7.5 feet was more than I bargained for.  Everything turned out fine but I probably wouldn't return too quickly at this level - not until my skills improve significantly.  To put this in perspective, on Saturday, we ran the MM at 1800.  That was only my second time on the MM (the first was at 900 so barely counts).  Even though I took a bad sneak-right line  and managed to flip in House Rocks twice including one longish underwater hole survey before rolling up and<

Hey ... Hide that watch before D4 starts getting ideas.... he's a sucker for a Tag.

As for the suggested levels. I changed those after a trip down this stretch a few years back. The gauge could have been changed since due to floods, but Bryon Scruggs,  D1 and I did that stretch and it was super boney at 7.3 ft or around there somewhere. That is why I bumped up the recommended levels. The run is still alot like the middle middle in that there is really no celing to what you could do the run at. The Max is more of a top end of when the banks start filling over and the river reaches a flood state. Example the middle middle gets run up past 10k all the time. Max is like 4k. recommended, not due to difficulty but because at 4k the river is starting to breech the banks and eddys start to wash out. So it is a different type of river.

I am curious though, did Deborah, actually get a chance to look down at the hand, or was that drawing more of a momento of the trip?

Well that would make the cheat sheet a little more difficult I suppose.

Well watching the helmet cam play back I can add a couple of things. The river was huge. Some of the rapids in the canyon section around Wiley Creek threw my 13' two man inflatable around like a fetch toy. Loads of fun.

Edited by Wiggins - 20 Mar 2007 at 12:23pm

So Arn and Deborah, sounds like you are you ready for Boulder Drop now?

I'd love to take you and Arn down BD for your first run.  Maybe this summer would be a good time as the levels drop and it gets warmer.  As for the bootie beer, don't worry, I wouldn't ask others to do something I wouldn't do myself. 

Thanks for the thoughts Ryan.  I think that I am (finally) ready to try BD.  Right level, right group, good day, I'm in.  Now then, it could be till summer before the Sky is back at 2000.

More fun than BD @ 2K - you bet. But with a bit more consequence.