Whitewater Forum: Lower Zigzag Canyon (The Wood)

Lower Zigzag Canyon (The Wood)

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Printed Date: 21 Sep 2025 at 10:48pm

Topic: Lower Zigzag Canyon (The Wood)

Posted By: jP
Subject: Lower Zigzag Canyon (The Wood)
Date Posted: 29 Jun 2010 at 1:35pm

so here's an update on Lower Zigzag ...

over the last month or so I'd heard the wood situation at the bottom of Lower ZigZag (on the Green Truss) had taken a turn for the worse.

Fish, myself, and Connor were in there saturday eve- great flow. Something fatter than 3' (the stick guage in Hussum read just at 3' or even a hair below, but it had been hot for a few days, and I'd been hearing the irrigation pumps along the river during some of my raft trips, and the Truss felt just a tiny bit fluffier). Anyway, we had a great time!

The Big 'Ol Leaner Log is the same. There is NO new wood stuffed in there. It's the mess at the very bottom of the rapid, just before it flushes out of ZigZag Canyon entirely, that has shifted.

The criss crossing logs that have the dangler wood hooked onto the upper log had collapsed. The whole mess is now at river level. So after the crux in Lower ZigZag, the consequences are now ramped up another notch. You MUST finish the rapid by running that last row of boulders to the far right, so you can eddy out on the right, just above the riverwide wood jam. A swim out of lower ZigZag would be ugly.

At 3' + or whatever it was, there was just barely enough water to ram-boof over the log on R. Right. At lower flows this will be a portage, unless some sort of hungry beaver shows up, something I've been hoping a lot for actually.

Gonna try to put up a more sucinct river alert on the Truss Page...

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Replies:

Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 02 Jul 2010 at 10:12am

went back last night (thurs)- The river wasn't much lower, but it was definitely too low already to run over the log on R. Right. We had one guy get out on the right hand bank and drag each boater over the log. worked ok.

there may be a sneak through there once the river drops some more, but it'll likely be sketchy. But the rapid itself still runs the same.

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Posted By: huckin harms
Date Posted: 05 Jul 2010 at 9:52am

yeah, this is definitely a sketchy rapid, but then the so is the portage...

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Posted By: shrek
Date Posted: 06 Jul 2010 at 12:43pm

Hungry beavers are the best kind.

Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 10:00am

None needed after all. The 'lil dangler wood seems to have been shaken loose by the current since it's been dragging lower in it. Maybe it assumed enough flotation to unhook itself and float free, because now it is gone.

Now the stick in Hussum is reading a solid 2.75'. Of course, if you're running the Truss it'll feel a little fatter still, I think, because the farmers have started pulling lots of water out both above and below the Truss. Regardless, it's low enough now that with the Dangler gone, we've begun paddling through the "X" at the very exit of Lower Zigzag. No problem.

It's still probably best to boogie over to the eddy on R.Right after the leaning log and boat scout it, though.

Good fun down here though...

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Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 10:26am

...been lots of great boat'n to be had. Can't say I'd rather be anywhere else. Many a Double Down Day unfolds while the water is flowing strong, sometimes Triple Trips!

last weekend was a whirlwind:
Take a raft, then race over to meet Fish at the LW T.O., then back up to BZ for the Longboat
Big Air Bonanza ( a very small informal oldschool ender competition )-- yeah, I rocked the Diablo in it and gave it my best.... never been good at winning popularity contests though!

The LW / Truss combo is a common one, I usually like running LW first. These sunny days facilitate lots of pleasant breaks along the side of the river to "smell the roses", and I realize that we would stop more on the river if it was warmer and sunnier throughout more of the year. Yesterday did a few Truss laps- a casual one followed by a pseudo-wildwater run.

... been seeing some carnage, too:
saw a great paddler who is fairly well known get his ass handed to him in BZ falls. His line looked damn near perfect, too. That hole just reeled him back in like nothing and sent him DEEP into the rinse cycle for an extended period. It was scary to behold.
A swim out of the Cave at Big Bro also had some spooky sh*t goin on as my friend kept going super deep on the eddy line and popping up in the exact same spot, only to "mystery move" again and again... Another well known boater who is really good janked up his line at Big Bro- he's run it SO many times, too.
...then I watched in horror as PP's Favorite Sun, Dan the "Make It Happen" Man swam in Horshoe Ledge( on the 'lil White) . We had a hectic time getting the whole spill mopped up before Stovepipe. And then there was a loudly audible flat landing last Monday at Spirit Falls.

--some reminders of why I portage the drops I do, and a sobering reminder not to take Horsehoe Ledge (or any other part of the Little White) for granted. fu*k running that sh*t too hungover, because - yeah- one can get down it on "half a tank", but it won't be as enjoyable and you may just get your ass kicked hard. Always bring that A game to Willard.

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Posted By: huckin harms
Date Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 12:36pm

Thanks for the hood rio updates jP... sorry to hear about the carnage - the good, the bad and the ugly. That hole at above stovepipe is a real thumper. And how about BZ - keeping its reputation clean and true to form.

here's to keepin it sunny side up....

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Posted By: NOMADIC WORLD
Date Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 12:54pm

Nice recap JP, that was a nasty swim at BZ, and the 2nd straight in a row for two core boaters dropping in with the same line, I guess the river gods have a mind of their own on warm summer days once in a while. Catch up with you soon for another set of laps. keep us posted.

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In The Business of Doing Things.

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