| Above North Fork Falls |
Sauk, N. Fork
Class IV+
1.5Miles
Avg Gradient 180 fpm
River Mapplet
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| County |
Snohomish |
| Put In Longitude |
-121.3382416 |
| Put In Latitude |
48.0929909 |
| Take Out Longitude |
-121.3678818 |
| Take Out Latitude |
48.0979729 |
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Gauge Information (Professor Paddle updated levels from SAUK RIVER AB WHITECHUCK RIVE at 9/3/2010 9:14:33 AM)
| Gauge |
Forecast |
Height |
Current Flow |
Authority |
Physical Update |
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SAUK RIVER AB WHITECHUCK RIVE
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n/a |
2.86 |
418 cfs
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USGS - NWIS |
09/03/2010 08:15 PDT |
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Minimum Recomended Level: 1500 cfs Maximum Recomended Level: 2500 cfs
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AccessFollow Mountain Loop Highway out of Darrington for about 8 miles and look for Nat. For. Dev. Rd. 49 and look for a pull-out for N. Fork Falls, 75 yards up the road from here is a pull out for the take out. SCOUT THE TAKE OUT. |
Putin DetailsPut in at a clearing at the road, there is a class IV drop in here with wood in the main line, put in above or below. If you drive a mile up stream there is a section of class II warm up. |
Takeout DetailsTake-out above North Fork falls. SCOUT THE TAKE-OUT! There is a class IV drop that is above a class VI lead-in to the falls, from below the falls looks good to go but don't be fooled. There is a trail to the base of the falls, cut through the woods towards the sound of whitewater and look for the class IV drop. There is a slow left hand bend with some class II-III in it above the lead-in, take out here. |
 River Alerts ( Add Alert ) |
GMaps |
 There is a log hanging off a big jam in a rapid downstream of Scott''s. The rapid is visible from road on the drive up. Left sneak at higher flows. Sketchy right line available at all flows. Portage left. Rest of run is clean. - Posted by: chipmaney on 6/30/2010 10:34:00 AM -
[Remove Alert]
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Putin |
Take Out |
Shuttle |
| River Mapplet
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Other IssuesHas a high potential for wood, is clean as of 06/27/10. Ran this in November at 2200 and again in Late June at 2200. 2200 from snow melt was noticeably higher and pushier than 2200 from rain. |
Fun FactsThis run is rated class IV+. It boats like class IV+ in a class V environment. That is to say that it has lots of nasty spots to get pinned or hurt. It is so continuous that a swim on this short run could go very badly. It's probably not a good place to start getting introduced to class IV, but solid class IV boaters will enjoy the challenge, and it's a good stepping stone into the class V environment. |
Run Description [Season: winter/spring]From the first class IV+ drop the river starts off with some steep boogie water, and then the first big drop comes up, "wheres Scott drop". We scouted left and ran left, the right and middle would go, but the left is the most fun and cleanest.
From here down there is lots of good class IV boogie water, pick your way down and scout when needed.Taken individually,a boater rarely needs more than class IV skills to navigate this run. But the run is littered with hazards, from pinning on boulders to wood. There are also lots of places where a boater would not want to be caught upside-down. Treat his run with repsect. It barely falls shy of a class V rating.
There is a rapid that is scoutable from the road on the way to the put-in, there is a serious potential for piton/pin on a obvious rock at the bottom of the drop, in addition there is a monster log-jam on river right, and a log that obscures the line left of the piton rock (this log has shifted and is now leaning downstream), left is runnable but be weary of the piton rock. At 2200 cfs (snowmelt) there was a line down the left taking the piton rock and leaning wood out of play and a nice boof line down the right.
There are two island drops, at the second one run left or scout from the island. The right side has the steepest drop, but has a razor thin line with wood and plenty of opportunities to pin.
The run is short but took three of us the better part of 4 hours to complete. A quality run that is worth doing.
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