Upper / Lower Russell Fork
Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 1:32 pm
Thanks, John Van Luik, for setting up a nice Russell Fork trip. Temps in the 60's, cloudy skies, no rain, no wind, warm water, beautiful scenery, and good friends. A fall paddle just doesn't get much better than this!
We weren't able to drive down to the dam parking lot due to the closing of the federal government, but the gatetenders weren't ticketing people who walked in, so the Sunday group parked at the top and walked boats down.
It was just a plain good weekend. We were able to hook up with the Smith River group and made a single LARGE group of about 20 or so people.
John, Linda, and I hiked the Camp Branch trail that comes out onto the road to Garden Hole. The trail as a takeout would add almost another mile to the paddle and 3 - 4 rapids/ledges. Its relatively short (0.7 miles), but the carry for the first 200 yds from the river up to the old logging road would be pretty stiff and a group would likely pull out its throw ropes to haul boats uphill in places. The trail is not easy to find from the river unless you were actively looking for the creek coming into the RF. NOTE: At the end of the old logging road (top of the steep part), there is a foundation that used to contain an old forge that was used to make tools for the workers who were drilling the Tower Tunnel.
I've got some pics, but I don't have a public place to post them. If someone has the space and can post them, I'd be glad to send the pics to them.
If anyone is interested in a trip on the 26th/27th of this weekend (in two weeks), let me know. I would like to go back for one more trip this fall.
AJ.
EDIT: For those people who are interested, there was a close call this past weekend at Tower Rapid in the Gorge. Here is a discussion on it.
We weren't able to drive down to the dam parking lot due to the closing of the federal government, but the gatetenders weren't ticketing people who walked in, so the Sunday group parked at the top and walked boats down.
It was just a plain good weekend. We were able to hook up with the Smith River group and made a single LARGE group of about 20 or so people.
John, Linda, and I hiked the Camp Branch trail that comes out onto the road to Garden Hole. The trail as a takeout would add almost another mile to the paddle and 3 - 4 rapids/ledges. Its relatively short (0.7 miles), but the carry for the first 200 yds from the river up to the old logging road would be pretty stiff and a group would likely pull out its throw ropes to haul boats uphill in places. The trail is not easy to find from the river unless you were actively looking for the creek coming into the RF. NOTE: At the end of the old logging road (top of the steep part), there is a foundation that used to contain an old forge that was used to make tools for the workers who were drilling the Tower Tunnel.
I've got some pics, but I don't have a public place to post them. If someone has the space and can post them, I'd be glad to send the pics to them.
If anyone is interested in a trip on the 26th/27th of this weekend (in two weeks), let me know. I would like to go back for one more trip this fall.
AJ.
EDIT: For those people who are interested, there was a close call this past weekend at Tower Rapid in the Gorge. Here is a discussion on it.