Bridge Creek

Bridge creek is a tributary to Wooley Creek which dumps into the Cal-Salmon. The rumors that circulate about this precocious low volume jewel are all true. Multiple ten to twenty footers, several slides, lots of mank, lots of wood, and one hell of a two mile hike in.

The night before the Bridge trip New School (Dan Menton), Damon Goodman, Seth Mamon, and myself camped out at Wooley camp located on the Cal-Salmon. This is a good way to go when taking on Bridge due to the necessity for an early start in anticipation of a tough day on the creeks. We all woke up around sunrise, ate a quick breakfast and were speeding down the road in Damon’s truck boats loaded and myself trapped in the bed sealed in by the camper shell with three dogs, one of which was a Labrador with incredibly bad gas.
The shuttle road is the first left on the salmon road after leaving the 96. After about 45 minutes of being gas chambered by Willow (lab) and spectacular views of the Marble Mountain Wilderness we turned left at the fork in the road that leads to the decommissioned road which is the being of the hike. The hike down the road is very easy but is countered by a tremendously hard hike straight down the hillside. This class V hike begins once the rock cairns are encountered on the left side of the decommissioned road.
Due to the large amounts of low snow in the Marbles many trees and bushes had fallen across what was already barely a trail. This made it hard to stay on the right path but with veteran Bridge creekers Damon and New School we managed to make it down to the correct creek within an hour and a half. (don’t wander too far left because this could result in finding a tributary to Bridge making for an even longer hike).
Once at Bridge we were confronted with about 5 woody portages right off the bat. New School mentioned that this year the creek was unusually woody from the low winter snows. Eventually we paddled up to Blue toe gorge/Mullet power (either name is a go from Leif Anderson running the portage last year and petoning hard!). After this semi hairy portage the mank/wood begins to clear out a bit (except for one log I managed to get swept under : )
From here on the run gets better and better! The first set of falls are called medicine upper, and lower. The upper being clean 10-15 and the bottom a booferific 20 footer. The run literally has too many waterfalls to write about without creating a small book but the ones that aren’t an obvious portage were good-to-go! Some of the names include Toilet boil (we all portaged), Magic Carpet, pearl necklace, rooster, kicker, and many others.

Myself in Lower Medicine Falls
Damin Goodman in Rooster Falls
Damin in top drop of the Tea Cups
Damin again in the lower drop of the Tea Cups
Seth Maman in Pearl Necklace

Things to consider: I found this run to be very long and strenuous. To tell the truth it was definitely at the top of my ability level since I have literally never run a true waterfall before and made for one of the most physically and emotionally challenging days I have had on the river. This year was extra woody (6.8.08 and probably after a large winter flood, will clean up, cutting down on the portages). None the less, plan on a full day and don’t rule out the possibility of spending the night. This run should done with someone who knows the way. We arrived at woolly at around 5:30 after putting on Bridge at 11:00, ate a quick snack and paddled the remaining nine miles in about 1 ½ hours with New School leading/probing the way.

A special thanks to Both New School and Damon for leading the way and introducing me to such a great run! This is a definite must do on any Nor-cal boaters list of places to huck! I plan on making several trips back in the future. Hopefully next time with the Humboldt boys! (Martin, Dustin, and Will)

Photos By Dam Mentin

Bear Creek

Bear Creek is reputed to be the best creek on the Montana side of the Bitterroot Mountains. Set in a beautiful granite filled canyon, this creek packs in a full range of slides and fun drops in its short but sweet run. Yesterday, Cody Harris, Chris Ennis, and myself went to run this montana gem. After a two mile hike in, you are deposited at the top of a long, clean slide that sets the tone for most of the rest of the run. Below this, the creek continues to drop at a steady pace (340 ft/mile) through a mix of wood infested boulder gardens, and the money slides. Below some woody rapids, we came to the top of a fun slide with a sweet, banking left turn. After this were more fun rapids, and then the notorious Tijuana Crack Whore, a low angle slide where most of the water falls into a crack between two shelves, and the paddlers in question have their elbows abused. With the low water on our run, the option of trying to miss the crack on the sides was not an option, and the three of us tucked tail and walked this one. Next up was the Hotel California... you can check in, but you can never leave. This drop consists of a slide into a sticky hole that has been the site of more than one carnage episode. More fun drops follow this, and lead to the climax of the run, Brave Bear Falls. Brave Bear is a sweet drop that consists of slide-ledge-slide-pillow-slide-ledge. After this is another small slide, boof combo, and finishes with another slide. All three of us ran the falls and all three came out with ear to ear grins, accompanied by more shouting and cheering than a thirteen year old girl at a Leonardo Dicaprio movie.

Cody and Chris on the hike in.
Brave Bear Falls, upper two-thirds.
Myself on one of the fun slides.



Here is a video of Cody running the main falls. Sorry about the low quality.

The Missoula Chronicals

As is illustrated by the fresh ice clinging to my car, there still is not much running in the Missoula area. So, its back to the old standby of the Alberton Gorge and surfing downtown at Brennan's Wave. The weather went from nice sunny 60 degree days last week, to 30 degree days with snow flurries this week. No big suprises there. Fortunately for us Missoulians, we have a nice play run that has water year round, even if it means that you have to avoid the undercut ice ledges on the banks during the colder days.
Brennan's wave is a fun feature built right smack in the middle of downtown, making for some great party surfing involving a full variety of hole moves, as well as skirt popping, paddle knocking, and if all goes well, your buddy swimming to the old folks home. I know what you are all thinking now, and yes, booty beers are still considered mandatory.

Local paddlers enjoying Brennan's during a sunny, cold afternoon.

Pauley Creek

Pauley creek was another hit on our list of "creeks to run again, but only when they have substantially more water". I did this run twice this spring, both occasions with a juicy flow of around 80 cfs. For those of you that don't know, I believe the minimum recommended flow for Pauley is around maybe 200 cfs. For those of you who already knew this, you probably already think I am a fool. especially to have done it twice. But, in its defense, this creek is actually quite fun, even at marginal flows, if you are looking for a fun time consisiting of clean bedrock drops, seperated by large amounts of not so clean rock vs. boat bumper car action.

Don't ever trust your friends with scissors...

Leif Andersen Boofing the first ledge of the day. Good form.

Dustin Stoenner, droppin' into a fun 10 footer.

Yours truly on the Split Rock super-boof.

Dustin, showing some tongue on Pauley creek.

Pauley Falls. Exceptionally bony, yet suprisingly clean.

Pauley Creek, good to the last drop.

If you get a chance to do this run, make sure you stop in at the pizza joint in Downieville. You can't miss it, as there are only about five buildings in downtown, and only one of them serves pizza.

Brandy Creek

Several weeks ago, under the delusion that there would be water flowing from the hills around Whiskeytown Lake, Dustin Stoenner, Orion Meredith, Leif Andersen (the Mullet), and myself made a trip up Brandy Creek. To our immense suprise, we found water, not much, but definitely liquid, flowing down some of the beautiful bedrock slides that Brandy has to offer. We put in at the confluence of Brandy and some other small side creek, right at the top of a small slide. Below this, we ran some manky boulder gardens that consisted of ricocheting from rock to rock, usually pinning or broaching in annoying places. Fortunately, the water was only ankle deep in most places, so the stress level was pretty much non-existant. More water than we had on this run is key, but even at our meager flows, we had a good time running the clean drops.

Orion Meredith living the dream.

Dustin Stoenner, lookin' good.

Myself on the same slide.

Below this lay more mank, with one small bedrock section, that at legitimate flows, would not even be recognizable as such, and then a fun section consisting of two 10-15 foot slides, followed by a 10 foot drop through a narrow slot. This section was probably the most fun, as you could run laps on it until you puke.

Triple-drop section.

Myself, rockin' the purple top in the crack.

Enjoying some of the "in-between" stuff.

One of these days, we'll make it back to Brandy, this time with more water, and go charge the upper drops in the gorge. Thanks goes out to Leif for all the great shots, and advice on kayak induced foot bunion care.

Spring! (Almost)

Just got back to Montucky for the guiding season to begin on the Alberton Gorge. Unfortunately, I had to leave beautiful, warm northern California somewhat prematurely, but with the copious amounts of snow here in the north, it seems that this summer might just be the best yet. As the snow continues to fall this evening, I am dreaming of creeks that soon will be running with ample amounts of recently departed snowpack, at the tropical temperatures of water that is only degrees from being ice. Patience is the name of the game right now, and since I cracked both of my boats before leaving sunny humboldt, this might be a good time to finally start working again, before I break something else. Speaking of broken boats, kinda sucks that you can't weld Jacksons. But, enough of that. I will have some photos up soon from our recent trips...

Happy Paddling!