Bear Creek 3-24-07

I had been watching the Bear Creek gauge all week and finally we got some rain (and snow). The flow jumped to 140cfs which is just about enough. After some overly enthusiatic posts on Mountainbuzz about how great the flow would be, I had a few takers. Carter, John, and Mark all showed up at the take-out psyched for a little mank 'n wood. Yet another good experience finding boating buddies on the buzz. We scouted No Fun Falls on the way up. This is the entrance rapid. It was snowing a little bit.



The first part of the run was reletively uneventful. We scouted No Scout Falls on the island. There was no wood and the boof was super. A huge log floated past us above the second rapid and we could not see if it flushed through so we prudently scouted. No worries- it was clean. There are no photos of this section because my hands were freezing off.

Carter approaching the second slide:


We all walked the dam even though it looked pretty runable. We knew there was likely to be wood in the last long rapid. There are not a whole lot of eddies in this section so we just ran it. Sure enough, the rockpile after the ledge was full of wood. Its hard to see in the picture, but trust me its there. We went back up to try to pull the wood out. Some pieces came out, but there is still a log just under the surface after the rockpile that has serious pinning potential. If you miss your boof here, you could have serious problems. FYI- there are no eddies above this spot- be careful.


Then we cruised to the takeout where it wasn't even that cold:


140 was a fine level but more would be better. Pray for rain and be heads up for wood if you go.