Pilchuck river wood?
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Category: General
Forum Name: Whitewater Forum
Forum Discription: Open Discussion Forum. Whitewater related subjects only
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11754
Printed Date: 25 Sep 2025 at 6:35pm
Topic: Pilchuck river wood?
Posted By: kevinh
Subject: Pilchuck river wood?
Date Posted: 09 Mar 2012 at 11:17pm
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Has anyone been on the pilchuck river since the recent floods or know the status of wood on it? Thinking about running it sunday. We are sitting at the bottom range of flows but hopefully it will go up before that. Any personal stories from the P? Would 900 cfs still be fun or does it get stupid boney? cheers k
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Replies:
Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 8:32am
Only one real piece of note. When we ran it (after the most recent lowland snow) it was 2500 cfs and at the bottom of on of the bigger drops was a riverwide piece of wood. It was on the upper stretch, and between 1-2 miles from the put-in (sorry for being so unspecific, but the water was really high that day and it's hard to judge). It really snuck up on our group and we were able to catch the last chance eddy right above it.
Before the rapid is a left had bend, scout right portage right.
as far as levels go I've ony ran it once and it was 3000 falling to 2500 and our group considered that to be a high end of high level.
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The line will become apparent
978-273-7723
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Posted By: JoesKayak
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 7:11pm
First time I ran the upper section was about 900 and it was good to go. There was some rock bumping but not too bad. I've heard from others that about 700 is about as low as you'd ever want to run the upper.
Are you hitting it tomorrow? I might be interested in joining ya.
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Posted By: JoesKayak
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 7:14pm
Ack!!!
Sorry just noticed that you were talking about Pilchuck RIVER... not creek.
I (and I'm pretty sure Jed too) assumed you meant Pilchuck Creek. Sorry not paying enough attention.
As for Pilchuck river, if you're talking about the upper 3/4 run. There is a trip report from about a year ago and I think it includes flow. That's the most recent info I know of as that section doesn't get run much because of the access (hike or ATV in)
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Posted By: Jed Hawkes
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 7:58pm
yeah, thought you meant creek.
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The line will become apparent
978-273-7723
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Posted By: Wiggins
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2012 at 10:07pm
I'd be interested in running Pilchuck Creek tomorrow if it stays above 700.
Kyle
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I smell bacon
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Posted By: kevinh
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2012 at 8:55pm
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2012 at 9:19pm
Well, so what was it? Pilchuck River, or Pilchuck Creek?
'Cuz, dude- if you went an ran Pilchuck River, I gotta tell ya-
I EXPECT beta. Here on this thread for immediate consumption, but also on the River Page. Put up some kinda trip report, because that run doesn't get done much.
Pilchuck Creek is old news. Plenty of PPeeps can serve up beta on that one, and the river page for that run is current.
Pilchuck RIVER, on the other hand- I want to go run. Hiking or ATVs be damned (just not dammed,please).
So, Kevin, I think some clarification is in order.
For the record I would do whatever it takes to run that one, provided it wasn't some absurdly low scrapey facsimile flow. If I'm gonna expend any effort I want at least some medium juice. Just throwin it out there.
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🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋
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Posted By: BRoss
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2012 at 10:13pm
JP, I gotta say, Pilchuck River may just be a little bit more work than its worth. Its a pretty long hike for a VERY short (although pretty cool) gorge, with perhaps 4 rapids. The road in is blockaded at several points with giant boulders to prevent ATV traffic, so ATV in isn't an option and it sucks to climb over them with kayaks. That said, it felt like a bit of a mission and it was fun to run something that doesn't get done much. If you want to do it, look for more than 1100 cfs cuz that was on the low side, however more water will make the ratio of hike time to boat time even less.
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"That boated a lot better than it looked." "It always does until it doesn't."
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Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 11 Mar 2012 at 10:55pm
Yeah, sounds familiar. Wishful thinking, its probably not a run I'll get to..
And I suppose I woulda done by now if it wasn't so shut down.
Its just that every time I drive past it on the way to Robe I pine over it. Maybe I'll just put in as high as I can sometime and just boat the flatwater below that stretch for several miles n call it good.
There's more to kayaking than just running whitewater, in my book.
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🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋
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Posted By: kevinh
Date Posted: 13 Mar 2012 at 10:05pm
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Well... i hate to say it but none of the pilchucks got run by our party this weekend. I was looking into it for a fun III-IV run that none of us had done. In my initial look i didn't catch the 4 mile hike in requirement and since i was paddeling with someone who is just getting back from a broken ankle that made it a no-go. we ran the tilton instead.
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