Ever since I saw the aerial photos on Oregonkayaking.net I have wanted to be in the bottom of that canyon! Hamilton creek has always seemed a little too far out of reach. Aerial scouting on the first D, to a 4 mile hike in, to no definite put in......it's just go til you can't anymore then drop down 250feet to the creek! It finally took Jarred Jackman moving to N. Bonneville to make it a reality. He was the reason a group of us decided to suffer through the long hike and see what was really in the bottom of that canyon and looking back on it now, your the man Jarred. I would have probably waited even longer! Our group consisted of myself, Jarred, Jason, Keel, and Chris.
We started our day by loading boats before the sun ever came up on Sunday, December 17th, 2006. We made it to the take out (Jarred's house) as the sun was coming up. A fresh dusting of frost and below freezing temperatures made it hard to get motivated, but we all rallied the big truck up the road as far as we could go and started our long day. We set out with images of big powerful boulder gardens in our head, set in a pristine canyon that drops into the even bigger Columbia River Gorge.
Needless to say the hike was as much work as we had expected. It started with a ferry across the creek to get on the OLD logging road on the other side.We hiked and hiked. Passing by many small to large landslides that looked new as of the last flood a few weeks back. This is where I stared to get worried. Loose hillsides, new slides and new trees in the creek.....We might have waited a little too long.... During the hike we went past several tributaries that had been washed out. Some we would walk right through, others we had to pass the boats down and across. After @ 9-11 washouts and a few large sink holes we almost fell into we reached a section on the trail that almost came to an end with a very impressive overlook of the creek and upper valley.
At this point we had reached our put in time, we had agreed that we need to be on the water by noon so we would have enough time to get out before dark. The upper end of the whitewater we could see from here looked awesome! After a group discussion we decided to go around the next bend and drop down to the creek. According to the research I've done on the First D by Ron Reynier and crew this put us right on top of a rapid dubbed Insane Asylum. Not sure at the time where we dropped down to, we took a look around, above this rapid was more continuous boulder gardens. The meat of the drop however was right where we dropped down. It was a pretty impressive yet chunky boulder garden stacked up with more than one crux move with most of the water going into a sieved out section in the middle at the bottom of the rapid. Keel had hike down the hill further upstream than the rest of us so his boat was sitting at the top of the rapid, he took a quick look and gave it a go! He styled the rapid, making a few moves up top and then driving hard left into a separate channel away from the sieves. Great way to start off the paddling portion of the trip.
Below us was horizon line after horizon line. The next rapid after IA we had to portage due to a little tree in the middle of the flow at the bottom of the rapid. next came what I called the never ending island. The flow split leaving us with half the water as we went right of the island into a very shallow, but steep section. We bashed our way through and came to more horizon lines. This next section was very similar to the Miracle mile on the NFMF. very fun, fast, and no stopping for about a half mile! We came to another down tree at the end of another small island and saw the small waterfalls coming in on the right side of the creek. This was supposed to mark the rapid of the day, Pick- up-sticks. We kept going around the corner with more of the same, good read and run, tight and technical, but fun!
The next notable rapid was a drop that resembled Master Blaster on the Little Whitle Salmon. The only difference was It looked like it was formed by a recent landslide from creek left and judging by the small rocks that would break off the hill side every now and then while I sat shooting video, it could change again very soon. We kept our eyes peeled for Pick-up-sticks, but never saw a big rapid with an old growth tree in it and we were already down stream of the last tributary. Soon we came to the huge land slide on creek left that we had to hike up and over on the hike in. This marked the end of the 'Good Stuff' and the beginning of two more tree portages. after the second portage we were confronted with a big log jam downstream of where we ferried across earlier that day. After that portage we were all feeling the beat down from the full day on Hamilton. Soon we were floating under I84 and into Jarred's back yard. Great take out! We warmed up and enjoyed what we had just seen, another Columbia River Gorge classic!
Flows: When we ran it the E.F. of the Lewis gage at Heisson was at 1,750cfs and falling. The Clackamas gage at Three Lynx was at 5,900cfs and falling. The flow on Hamilton creek was in the medium/Low range. High water on this creek would be very scarry!!!
I didn't get many on the water photos due to the cold weather, as soon as we hit the creek my batteries died. vid coming soon.
If anyone wants more info on the run email me at crgvideo@yahoo.com. Even though I was sore for days, I will go back again in the future! Check out the Hamilton Creek video here.
kEEP Creeking,
Stay safe
~Ryan~
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