AMcEwan and I ran the Upper Mashel a couple weeks ago. At 900 cfs the run is Class IV-IV+. It's continuous but not too pushy. All of the drops were filled in but the holes were maneagable. The run was surprisingly high quality, with many fun sections and very little mank. It reminded me of Pilchuck Creek with more canyon sections.
Wood was not too bad although there were some tight eddies above some of the rapids.
Much of the river is within a privately-managed timber
reserve, but the hike into Busy Wild Creek was not nearly as bad as expected and you can park on public land. Takeout is at a bridge.
John Whaley is the only person I've met who has done the run, in the 80s!

This river is worth getting on, I'd be stoked to hear of more crews
taking advantage of it. JP, this is in your backyard, you would like
it.

Here's a video I spliced together of my footage. It includes all of
the harder drops, in order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4Zg9JnoX8&feature=youtu.be

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zP4Zg9JnoX8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Always wanted to do this run, cool to see someone else get on it.

that looks like a great find. so, you think 800 on the mashell gauge is a minimum for the run?

sh*t, its,in right now!

Make it SAT and you can add another J to the J team. I can go anytime sat but sunday I am booked up. Plus the TO is only 1 hour and 8 minutes from my house.

The run should be tolerable down to 500-600 but personally I think it's worth waiting for 800-1000.

I brought along a handheld-topo-GPS. It turned out to be essential to finding the putin. You want to start hiking from the end of Busy Wild Road.

I wrote some mileage when we were leaving, no guarantee on accuracy;

(miles are total mileage from Alder Cutoff)
From Alder Cutoff Rd
L 7. Stay on 706
11.3 miles L 92 RD before Ashford
11.8 pavement ends
12.7 pass gate on L
14 pass gate on R
14.4 L
14.5 R (from here stay on main road don't take any spurs)
16.4 pass road on R
19 end at clearing at top of hill.

Hike down opposite side of clearing down to river. Be careful not to hike off west side of ridge into Beaver Creek. At some point we met up with a road and followed that left, downriver for a bit. Then we took a right which dead-ended and we bushwacked down to BW Creek not far above the confluence with the Mashel.

Next just for discussion sake. And this question is for Ben or anyone that has been on these roads recently.

Here is the route to the putin as Ben has described. (correct me if I am wrong ben)
Google Map Route of Bens directions off the National Park Hwy

And now here is another map of what would seem to be a more direct route with closer access to the Mashel. The question for ben would be did you try this route, or do you know if it would or would not work?
Google Map Route from Eatonville via Alder Cut off road

I think I found the gate on the Bing maps that would pose the problem.

Sweet. Have to monitor flows (looks a bit high at the moment), but I'm down for saturday. Gotta say though I probably shouldn't be conducting this discussion openly online. The reason being, four people is enough for this run.

After that anyone else interested needs to organize their own trip. It just gets too crowded on runs like that with too many people, and I'd rather enjoy the run with the people I make plans with rather than be crowded.

But yeah: Jon, Jed, and James I am down for saturday.

I have 5 people that are going to join your group...what am I going to tell them now???

Hey, as long as their names all start with a "J". Sorry Bret, we all know your name ain't Jackson. Jeremy can come though.

Ha! Just kiddin around. Or, as the colloquialism goes: "half joking" - I love boating with everyone (yes, even you, Dave)
--just not at the same time. Its lookin like it'll be too high now, and or have too much snow to hike through.

Prolly just end up on the Green. It is St. Patty's on the morrow, me lads and lasses, and what better run for a Leprechaun such as me self. Who knows...

Nice work!

Thanks Ben  & Andrew 4 Sho.

Had it not been for the enticing footy I probably would not have invested (what I consider rare) time into the trip. I am glad I did. I will enjoy helping flesh out the river description.

But to recap it here.
The putin hike was well.... a slog much a kin to a big brother version of the upper sultan. I grabbed a nice handful of devils club which might be why it stands out in my mind. None the less worth of the effort, I would say this blows the upper sultan out of the water in terms of boating quality.

I am really surprised that this has not been boated more. The drops are quality, not overly complex but encompass the characteristics one desires in more difficult whitewater. Boofs, Clean Angles, Some Holes and an plethora of fun little eddies and moves to fill the day.

Highlight: Watching an R2 crew maneuver an inflated raft through some wicked tight forest down a steep ass hill. And finish it off with portages that make rafting seem simple on tight creeks.

Low point: Finding Mud Balls thrown on my windshield. At first I thought Maybe Brad had found my van back in the woods and since I did not show up for the st. pattys day jog he threw mud all over my van, but as luck would have it I think some locals tossed a few mud balls my way to let us know that no trip is complete without a little effort up front and in the tail end.

Over all, Very glad I got out there, I doubt that run will maintain it's relative wood free status long.


Edited by James - 18 Mar 2012 at 8:52pm