Thanks, Jon!

Hey what do you think about tomorrow morning?
I think there is potential of it coming in sweet.

My deal is I need to be out there early. Like, 9am on Hwy 9 or something close. Not only because I want to catch it high off the spike, but also because I have stuff to do in the afternoon.

Who can rally tomorrow morning for pilchuck creek?

about a mile from the put in there was a sharp left turn that had a couple of logs.  we were able to duck underneath them on the river left.  the level was about 1200 cfs.  later in the run, after the 2 major class IV drops, there was a river wide log that had to be portaged.  plenty of time to see it and get out, but pay attention.

You end up raftin it w/ wiggins?

Right on, Kyle--
Looks like a fun trip

So that second clip, the one titled "Big Drop", (where you guys got the side surf a bit and you said you shoulda been further right) that's the one we been calling Pil Pusher. Definitely the single most "big" move, or at least I think so, before the Falls. Its the broken ledge everyone refers to as "that one big ledge next that big rock"...
That rapid is worthy of a name for sure.

It seems to always go fine but Its kinda rowdy!!

I can't figure them out. If you cut and paste them the addresses are right.

It probably has a name, but I have always just refered to that one big drop.

Kyle

If it comes down for tomorrow or Thursday I could be convinced to go.

Kyle

The other thing to note, is using 41411 to text the level. "Level Pilchuck" is unfortunately of little use because it only updates a few times in a twelve hr period. Just paddled w/ the architect of this awesome resource (41411) and he said that the DOE guages can be less reliable than USGS, which makes sense given a smaller budget. I've never had that problem w/ the Icicle guage tho. At least not such large blocks of time between updates.

I will still ping "Level Pilchuck" in the future, but I also recommend getting both NF Stilly guage readings. The Arlington value minus the Oso value gives you a rough Deer Creek flow, which in turn should help you guage the Pilchuck, since they are neighbors.

Anyway it is a beautiful little creek!

More detail about the Pilchuck guage as it pertains to using 41411 to get the value as a text message, for those who want to geek out on this like I apparently am...




On Nov 19th at 6:21am I requested "Level Pilchuck", and promptly recieved the reply
     "2610 cfs at 4:45 AM on 11/19
      rising 45 cfs/hr
      Pilchuck Cr. @ Bridge 626"

...and then again at 7:30am I got the same value of 2610 at 4:45am.


I guess I got busy coordinating logistics, driving out to the HWY 9 bridge, and putting on. I really only Pinged it again at 1:51pm after the run, and it read:
     "3070 cfs at 10:45 AM on 11/19
      rising 15 cfs/hr
      Pilchuck Cr. @ Bridge 626"

So maybe that's about right, and what we saw at the bridge was about 3k. We were away from the bridge for abput half an hour before the rest of the crew arrived, so just in the time it took to arrive at the Put In, there wasn't 3k there at the put in. No f'n way.

Meanwhile I had been pinging the N. Frk Stilly's two guages to correlate. And this is messed up, too: check this out-
I pinged the Arlington guage at 7:31am, which returned this:
     "16100 cfs at 7:15 AM on 11/19
       rising 100 cfs/hr
       NF STILLAGUAMISH RIVER NEAR ARLINGTON, WA"

Then pinged the Oso guage at 7:32am (upstream of Deer Creek) and got this:
     "10400 cfs at 2:00 AM on 11/19
      rising 430 cfs/hr
      N.F. Stillaguamish R. @ Oso"

Note that while the two values were requested at around 7:30am, the Arlington value was recorded at 7:15 while the Oso value was recorded at 2:00am.
This is even more bothersome than the Pilchuck guage, in a way, because you can't guage the two against each other (to guess Deer Creek's flow, for example) if those values are 5 hrs off.
Maybe I'm missing something but damn-
That's just wrong! Don't these hydrologists understand we gotta go boating here? This data is IMPORTANT!!

BUDGET CUTS OR NO.
CONTEMPLATING A TIM EYEMAN INITIATIVE TO FIX THIS
just kidding, and I know Tim Eyeman has no influence over USGS, thank goodness.

The point is that the devil is in the details, as all the seasoned paddlers know. And the reason I'm obsessing over this creek in particular is because it flashes so quick. It would be great to have some reliable info to guide the decision making. Especially since most of Washington's rivers flow way more often than Pilchuck does. And since I like this one high, it is even harder to be quick on the draw. It is difficult to impress upon your paddling buds just how crucial it is to be out there as early in the morning as possible. Darren was of course out there before anyone, ready to go.

for the class IV-V boaters who want to catch this at their fun, fat 'n fluffy flows, the EARLY BIRD GETS THIS WORM. That means having a plan the night before when all the guages are blowing up. Because you don't have time to guess about who's committed, who's not, when/where are we picking up him or her, ect. No you gotta have all that sh*t figured out before hand, the night before. I was delayed probably an hour just sending texts to everyone...

Still, it worked out great. We may have lost a little water and been late putting on but not by much. Had a great crew of five total.

Good Morning peeps, looks like Pilchuck is in this morning. Anyone care to rally for a lap? I'd say the earlier the better!

Its probably on the lower side of runnable, I'd guess about 4ft on the stick gauge. Internet gauge is reading 1200 cfs and climbing (although the creek may have peaked already).

It's higher than I thought.....
5.2 on the stick. JPs gauge rock is a nice fat brown pour over.
High side of good.

Might be able to catch pilchuck on the downswings tommorow. If not, the stilly should be good to go. Who's available?

Very well could be a Pilchuck weekend. If anyone gets out there, please take a pic of the takeout gague rock for me and note the flow at the time. I'm compiling a bunch of pics of different flows to put together a visual gague.