Whitewater Forum: clear fork cowlitz update

clear fork cowlitz update

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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=12265
Printed Date: 27 Sep 2025 at 2:26pm

Topic: clear fork cowlitz update

Posted By: dinsdalw
Subject: clear fork cowlitz update
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2012 at 6:53pm

my brother and i paddled the clear fork twice in the last two days and found it pretty clean and very much worth paddling. the cowlitz gauge was reading about 3000 cfs and we found this to be a very nice medium flow. i'd paddle it with more water but it is well padded right now. we portaged 4 times - around the first drop of entrance exam b/c of wood; at an obvious riverwide logjam; just after a mini-gorge rapid and a right bend in the river where some wood is just above the surface midway down; and at the landslide, which is clogged with wood. there was a marginal limbo log and some barely submerged pieces of wood that may require portaging at a lower flow. our first trip down took about 4 hours. second trip took about 2 hours. i found the hike-in to below entrance exam to be just as difficult as the portage around the top drop and it deprives you of paddling the double series just below.

Replies:

Posted By: Ellingferd
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2012 at 9:27pm

What!!!!!!!! Wow, that is awesome. Ill have to be getting out there soon then.

Posted By: SOPBOATER
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2012 at 1:02am

Sounds super promising. I mean thE clear fork is back. That is a very good thing.

Posted By: tiziak
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2012 at 7:58am

How do you think 3500 would be? still good to go?

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If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Daniel Patrinellis
360.434.4616

Posted By: fiddleyak
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2012 at 10:00am

Yeah! I've been waiting 5 years for this. Thanks for the update maybe we'll get out there tomorrow.

Posted By: dinsdalw
Date Posted: 07 Jul 2012 at 2:58pm

3500 is still good. we just paddled it again today and it was higher than thursday and friday but still nice. it's blisteringly hot in packwood right now so i expect flows will trend upwards.

Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 08 Jul 2012 at 12:03am

Great news!!! Thanks!

I really want to get in there very soon. It'll have to be a weekday for me, so for those of you who know me and are down thats my availability and I'd like to make it happen.

Been waiting for this run to clean up, but I never make it down that way otherwise.

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🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋

Posted By: fiddleyak
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2012 at 11:06am

Originally posted by dinsdalw

we portaged 4 times - around the first drop of entrance exam b/c of wood; at an obvious riverwide logjam; just after a mini-gorge rapid and a right bend in the river where some wood is just above the surface midway down; and at the landslide, which is clogged with wood.

Dude you guys are pretty tough if that's true! We walked 3 times below the landslide portage: where the river divides and is super undercut on the left side (Lane chopped out a stick to make a tricky line on the right runnable), at the slidey falls that has two old growths sticking into the river on both sides in the landing zone, and right downstream of that at a waterfall formed by a logjam.

Andrew noted that the run has not cleaned up significantly since his run last year. Still worth doing I'm glad I finally got in there and did a couple runs.

Posted By: JD_G
Date Posted: 19 Jul 2012 at 6:44pm

Hey Ben. Thanks for the info. How many portages in total for you guys? I heard that last year it was over 10, so wanted to clarify. Thanks.

Posted By: WA-Boater
Date Posted: 19 Jul 2012 at 9:47pm

JD, I was in there with Ben and Andrew. Andrew did it last year and stated it's about the same. Maybe a few less portages in the non-whitewater stretches.
I lost count of the portages. But is was at least 10. I'd say more like 15. I was tired by the end of the day. If you were really brave the portage total could be single digit. It could also be your last run too, I suppose.
Extremely beautiful.

Darren

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Posted By: JD_G
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2012 at 8:20am

Thanks Darren. That's what I was looking for. The statement "losing count of the portages" is never a good one. That tiredness is from hauling that BIG boat around. :)

Fine line between brave and stupid sometimes. Yeah, that canyon is phenomenal.....very special place amongst all the special places us kayakers get to see.

Thanks again D.

Posted By: James
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2012 at 8:35am

Originally posted by dinsdalw

my brother and i paddled the clear fork twice in the last two days and found it pretty clean and very much worth paddling.

Originally posted by WA-Boater

I lost count of the portages. But is was at least 10. I'd say more like 15. I was tired by the end of the day.

Originally posted by dinsdalw

...our first trip down took about 4 hours. second trip took about 2 hours.

How many clear forks are on the cowlitz... it would seem as if different stretches are being talked about, although I know that is not the case.

Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2012 at 9:49am

I'm curious what dinsdalw ran that D, B & A portaged.

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"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman

Posted By: fiddleyak
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2012 at 4:10pm

I don't think it's quite as bad as Darren remembers. Probably 7-10 portages depending on your tolerance. Sounds like people are thinking about going tomorrow, I say go get it!

Posted By: swimswim
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2012 at 6:44pm

Originally posted by water wacko

I'm curious what dinsdalw ran that D, B & A portaged.

Hi, I'm the other paddler on dinsdalw's trip. We ran everything below the landslide. The three that fiddleyak mentions were definitely tricky and we had varying levels of success on each of our runs. Suffice to say that our respect for the navigational challenges of each of those rapids increased considerably over the course of our several runs. And I need elbow pads.
And there are definitely a couple places with marginal limbos or vaults that wouldn't look very appealing at different flows.

Vis-a-vis bravery vs foolishness: i pity da'foo

Ben

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