Saturday Evening Chewuch

Kira and I R2'd the middle section of the Chewuch River with zero portages on 5/26/2012 at about 2000 cfs. Flow was great, and the river is very lively, with one rapid (the last one) which we deemed sporty. We likened it to the Chiwawa without the "wah wah."

Pretty steep class II+ the whole way down with 3 fun, read-and-run class III/III+ rapids -- one at the beginning (easiest), one in the middle, one at the end (hardest). Just past halfway down, there was a wood-dodge maneuver between a couple logs about 6-7 feet apart.
After the last rapid (Boulder Creek), there is a weir which is very visible from upstream (look for the "Jim Lahey Forever" graffiti). We ran it on the FAR RIGHT down what we assume is a fish ladder, but this option might not be available at lower flows. It isn't the nastiest weir we've seen, but it could definitely serve a beat-down dessert at the end of the trip. Scout is advised.

The entire 13-mile run took about 2 hours on-water. The riparian campgrounds were packed full on this Memorial Day weekend, and some campers at put-in offered to drive down and pick us up, and saved us the 11-mile run. Some of the campers farther down eyed us suspiciously as a potential (unexpected) threat to their beer chilling in the river.