Cal Salmon - Heinzerling Run
Location - Northern California
Difficulty - Class III-IV (IV+) Length - 15 miles
Level - 4.5 feet Salmon Gauge
Date - June 2008
Difficulty - Class III-IV (IV+) Length - 15 miles
Level - 4.5 feet Salmon Gauge
Date - June 2008
The morning of the second day of our trip to the Salmon River drainage
in northern California started off in an exciting fashion. Just as dawn
broke a large storm hit complete with numerous lightning strikes and a
great deal of loud thunder. Besides a very brief downpour the storm
was pretty dry which was good for letting us proceed with our morning
routine. By the time everyone was up and stirring the weather had
passed and a the sun was already starting to shine again.
We already decided to paddle the Heinzerling run on the Salmon, a
classic stretch full of numerous class III-IV rapids with a few more
difficult drops. This stretch of the Salmon has been run for many years
and has developed a reputation as a stout big water run. We had
medium to low flows on our trip, with about 2,200 cfs on the gauge at
Somes Bar which made for forgiving and generally playful rapids.
Everyone in our group was paddling creek boats, but a playboat would
have been a lot of fun on this stretch of river at the flows that we
experienced.
To avoid having to double shuttle vehicles, we decided to pack
everyone in to my truck for the drive to the put in. This involved
stacking six creek boats onto the roof and strapping the dog’s kiddie
pool on top of that while packing everyone else and their gear into the
cab and back of my truck. Having the truck so severely overloaded
meant that we had to creep along the sketchy shuttle road, but doing
this saved at least 60 miles of unnecessary driving. Suffice it to say, by
the time we reached the put in everyone was ready to get out and
stretch their legs.
I found a nice spot to park and set up the dog’s spread while we
changed up and got ready for the river. The put in was at a wide gravel
bar with some strong currents and deep eddies to warm up in. After
maybe a quarter mile of easy class II we reached the horizon line at
Bloomer Falls and crashed on down through the drop, punching a hole
and eddying out. This area was apparently altered by the Forest
Service in the 1960’s and the result was a dangerous class V drop that
claimed the lives of several rafters over the years. In response to this
threat, the Forest Service dynamited the drop once again in the early
1980’s, making a safer rapid that now only gets burly at much higher
flows.
Below Bloomer Falls the Salmon settles into a pool drop pattern with
many fun class III+ drops that are full of eddies and boulders at these
flows. Some nice waves and deep eddy lines made it tough to be sitting
a creek boat, but we were having fun nonetheless. All of these drops
could be boat scouted and we made good time without rushing.
in northern California started off in an exciting fashion. Just as dawn
broke a large storm hit complete with numerous lightning strikes and a
great deal of loud thunder. Besides a very brief downpour the storm
was pretty dry which was good for letting us proceed with our morning
routine. By the time everyone was up and stirring the weather had
passed and a the sun was already starting to shine again.
We already decided to paddle the Heinzerling run on the Salmon, a
classic stretch full of numerous class III-IV rapids with a few more
difficult drops. This stretch of the Salmon has been run for many years
and has developed a reputation as a stout big water run. We had
medium to low flows on our trip, with about 2,200 cfs on the gauge at
Somes Bar which made for forgiving and generally playful rapids.
Everyone in our group was paddling creek boats, but a playboat would
have been a lot of fun on this stretch of river at the flows that we
experienced.
To avoid having to double shuttle vehicles, we decided to pack
everyone in to my truck for the drive to the put in. This involved
stacking six creek boats onto the roof and strapping the dog’s kiddie
pool on top of that while packing everyone else and their gear into the
cab and back of my truck. Having the truck so severely overloaded
meant that we had to creep along the sketchy shuttle road, but doing
this saved at least 60 miles of unnecessary driving. Suffice it to say, by
the time we reached the put in everyone was ready to get out and
stretch their legs.
I found a nice spot to park and set up the dog’s spread while we
changed up and got ready for the river. The put in was at a wide gravel
bar with some strong currents and deep eddies to warm up in. After
maybe a quarter mile of easy class II we reached the horizon line at
Bloomer Falls and crashed on down through the drop, punching a hole
and eddying out. This area was apparently altered by the Forest
Service in the 1960’s and the result was a dangerous class V drop that
claimed the lives of several rafters over the years. In response to this
threat, the Forest Service dynamited the drop once again in the early
1980’s, making a safer rapid that now only gets burly at much higher
flows.
Below Bloomer Falls the Salmon settles into a pool drop pattern with
many fun class III+ drops that are full of eddies and boulders at these
flows. Some nice waves and deep eddy lines made it tough to be sitting
a creek boat, but we were having fun nonetheless. All of these drops
could be boat scouted and we made good time without rushing.
While floating along we rounded one corner and two plumes of smoke
could be seen rising from the base of a large Douglas Fir high on the
side of the valley above us. My immediate reaction was that we were
looking at a smoldering lightning strike from the storms that rolled
through this morning. The others disagreed, citing a campfire as the
cause, but the location high up on the steep slope seemed to make this
unlikely in my mind. There was nothing we could do but paddle on and
maybe report it at the fire station later in the day.
The first rapid of consequence is known as Cascade, and we made the
scout from river left. This class IV rapid is well worth the scout as there
are numerous lines and several hazards to avoid. At the lower flows that
we had pretty much the only good looking line was down the river left
side. This line was straightforward, with a narrow and steep lead in
ending with a couple of big holes and a few rocks lurking just below the
surface. To safely run the rapid boaters would have to stay in control
and maintain speed all of the way to the bottom. Everyone had pretty
good lines, some more exciting than others, but all ending well.
Everyone was excited below Cascade and headed downstream enjoying
the river more and more as we went along. The rapids became more
numerous and the scenery remained spectacular. We could boat scout
all of the drops below Cascade, as eddies were numerous enough to let
us stop to check out the lines without getting out of our boats. Fun
waves and slalom style lines were plentiful and we played our way
downstream at a steady pace.
The next rapid that I distinctly remember is called Airplane turn. It starts
out with a steep boulder jumble forcing most of the flow to river right.
Bob and I worked our way down the top of this section until we were at a
point where it would have been impossible to get out to scout. The
entrance was a little blind, but we ended up nailing good lines.
Immediately after the boulder jumble the river gathered up on the right
and swung back left with a few ledges on the right and a bigger drop on
the right near the bottom. It felt great to be out on some bigger water
after a winter of low volume creeking in Orgeon.
Somewhere in this section we stopped for lunch and enjoyed relaxing on
the sun warmed white granite. With lots of daylight we were in no hurry
and it felt good to be so relaxed and unconcerned with anything else.
This was pretty much a perfect day so far and some of the best
whitewater was still waiting for us downstream. We only stopped for a
half hour or so, but by the time were moving again the day had started
to grow quite warm.
Many more fun rapids followed and since none of our group had done
the run before each was interesting and entertaining. We knew that the
single biggest rapid on the river, Freight Train, lay somewhere ahead,
so we remained watchful and paid attention for any landmarks that might
give away its location. From what we from the shuttle road the best
could be seen rising from the base of a large Douglas Fir high on the
side of the valley above us. My immediate reaction was that we were
looking at a smoldering lightning strike from the storms that rolled
through this morning. The others disagreed, citing a campfire as the
cause, but the location high up on the steep slope seemed to make this
unlikely in my mind. There was nothing we could do but paddle on and
maybe report it at the fire station later in the day.
The first rapid of consequence is known as Cascade, and we made the
scout from river left. This class IV rapid is well worth the scout as there
are numerous lines and several hazards to avoid. At the lower flows that
we had pretty much the only good looking line was down the river left
side. This line was straightforward, with a narrow and steep lead in
ending with a couple of big holes and a few rocks lurking just below the
surface. To safely run the rapid boaters would have to stay in control
and maintain speed all of the way to the bottom. Everyone had pretty
good lines, some more exciting than others, but all ending well.
Everyone was excited below Cascade and headed downstream enjoying
the river more and more as we went along. The rapids became more
numerous and the scenery remained spectacular. We could boat scout
all of the drops below Cascade, as eddies were numerous enough to let
us stop to check out the lines without getting out of our boats. Fun
waves and slalom style lines were plentiful and we played our way
downstream at a steady pace.
The next rapid that I distinctly remember is called Airplane turn. It starts
out with a steep boulder jumble forcing most of the flow to river right.
Bob and I worked our way down the top of this section until we were at a
point where it would have been impossible to get out to scout. The
entrance was a little blind, but we ended up nailing good lines.
Immediately after the boulder jumble the river gathered up on the right
and swung back left with a few ledges on the right and a bigger drop on
the right near the bottom. It felt great to be out on some bigger water
after a winter of low volume creeking in Orgeon.
Somewhere in this section we stopped for lunch and enjoyed relaxing on
the sun warmed white granite. With lots of daylight we were in no hurry
and it felt good to be so relaxed and unconcerned with anything else.
This was pretty much a perfect day so far and some of the best
whitewater was still waiting for us downstream. We only stopped for a
half hour or so, but by the time were moving again the day had started
to grow quite warm.
Many more fun rapids followed and since none of our group had done
the run before each was interesting and entertaining. We knew that the
single biggest rapid on the river, Freight Train, lay somewhere ahead,
so we remained watchful and paid attention for any landmarks that might
give away its location. From what we from the shuttle road the best
indication would be a steepening of the canyon walls and a glimpse of
the road clinging to the gorge high above on river left.
After a while we came to another steep rapid that looked just like the
others from above. I entered on river right where many boulders looked
like they would make plenty of eddies for boat scouting. This ended up
to be a bit of a bad idea because I was unable to get back into the main
flow on the left and was forced to run through the jumbled right side,
which turned out to be a bit of a sieve, although I missed seeing the
worst part because I was upside down! I rolled up and finished up the
drop to see Nate upside down and finally rolling in the pool below the
drop. After coming through this drop like a bunch of clowns we eddied
on river right and recognized that we were at the top of Freight Train.
Freight Train was noticeably steeper than the rest of the drops we had
seen, so making the scout was a no brainer. This was a bit of a
challenge since the river bank here is made up of huge boulders and
piles of rubble. It was a good thing that we looked, since the rapid from
river level looks quite different from the view had on the shuttle route.
Running Freight Train blind could be very dangerous because the
rapid hides some dangerous looking sieves and shallow chunky lines.
Basically, a class III lead in continues up to the lip of the steepest main
drop at Freight Train. Much of the crashes down the center of the river
and crashes into and around a massive boulder. Most of the flow going
to the right of the rock fell into and around a rock pile that made a
nasty looking sieve. This probably fills in a bit at higher levels, but on
this day it was a real hazard. The best line would have been to move
left of the river center boulder to boof the main drop into a somewhat
sticky looking hole up against the left cliff wall. A few shallow rocks in
the runout made flipping undesirable. At the time none of us wanted to
deal with the hole so we portaged on the right. In retrospect, I really
wish I had run this great looking rapid.
Below Freight Train many more miles of quality river remained.
Numerous class III rapids with a few more fun class IV’s were
encountered. The largest and most picturesque was a drop known as
Gapping Maw. At high water I think this one would kick up a big hole
left of center, but at this level a large rock jutted out of the water and
forced a move to the right. Vertical canyon walls soared overhead and
we rolled through some more fun boulder gardens downstream.
Eventually the canyon opened up and we passed the confluence with
Wooly Creek and paddled under the high road bridge that serves as a
possible take out. Since we had left a car back at the campground we
would be paddling another few miles of quick water and class II. A
strong headwind had kicked up by this time and the last few miles were
a work out, but we made good time and eventually reached the
campground, tired, but with big smiles. Our day on the Cal Salmon had
been phenomenal and we couldn’t stop talking about how much better
of a run it was than we had imagined. There is lots of great whitewater
in this out of the way northern California drainage.
the road clinging to the gorge high above on river left.
After a while we came to another steep rapid that looked just like the
others from above. I entered on river right where many boulders looked
like they would make plenty of eddies for boat scouting. This ended up
to be a bit of a bad idea because I was unable to get back into the main
flow on the left and was forced to run through the jumbled right side,
which turned out to be a bit of a sieve, although I missed seeing the
worst part because I was upside down! I rolled up and finished up the
drop to see Nate upside down and finally rolling in the pool below the
drop. After coming through this drop like a bunch of clowns we eddied
on river right and recognized that we were at the top of Freight Train.
Freight Train was noticeably steeper than the rest of the drops we had
seen, so making the scout was a no brainer. This was a bit of a
challenge since the river bank here is made up of huge boulders and
piles of rubble. It was a good thing that we looked, since the rapid from
river level looks quite different from the view had on the shuttle route.
Running Freight Train blind could be very dangerous because the
rapid hides some dangerous looking sieves and shallow chunky lines.
Basically, a class III lead in continues up to the lip of the steepest main
drop at Freight Train. Much of the crashes down the center of the river
and crashes into and around a massive boulder. Most of the flow going
to the right of the rock fell into and around a rock pile that made a
nasty looking sieve. This probably fills in a bit at higher levels, but on
this day it was a real hazard. The best line would have been to move
left of the river center boulder to boof the main drop into a somewhat
sticky looking hole up against the left cliff wall. A few shallow rocks in
the runout made flipping undesirable. At the time none of us wanted to
deal with the hole so we portaged on the right. In retrospect, I really
wish I had run this great looking rapid.
Below Freight Train many more miles of quality river remained.
Numerous class III rapids with a few more fun class IV’s were
encountered. The largest and most picturesque was a drop known as
Gapping Maw. At high water I think this one would kick up a big hole
left of center, but at this level a large rock jutted out of the water and
forced a move to the right. Vertical canyon walls soared overhead and
we rolled through some more fun boulder gardens downstream.
Eventually the canyon opened up and we passed the confluence with
Wooly Creek and paddled under the high road bridge that serves as a
possible take out. Since we had left a car back at the campground we
would be paddling another few miles of quick water and class II. A
strong headwind had kicked up by this time and the last few miles were
a work out, but we made good time and eventually reached the
campground, tired, but with big smiles. Our day on the Cal Salmon had
been phenomenal and we couldn’t stop talking about how much better
of a run it was than we had imagined. There is lots of great whitewater
in this out of the way northern California drainage.
Steve scouting Cascade, one of the bigger rapids on the Cal Salmon's Heinzerling Run. The
best line on river left can not be seen in this picture.
best line on river left can not be seen in this picture.
Steve running the entrance to Cascade very well and lining up to punch the big hole halfway
down the drop.
down the drop.
Jeremiah digging in to punch through the big hole in Cascade. This was one of the best
rapids on the river at this level.
rapids on the river at this level.
Nate looks small dropping into the top of cascade before taking an
interesting line against the river left wall.
interesting line against the river left wall.
The bottom of Airplane Turn was a fast and deep runout with a couple of holes and some
interesting cross currents.
interesting cross currents.
Nate stands at the top of the boulder pile making up the entrance to Airplane Turn. The
runnable lines are well to his right.
runnable lines are well to his right.
Bob drops through the steep boulder garden at the top of Airplane Turn on what was the best
line through the rapid.
line through the rapid.
Steve ponders the nasty looking sieve in the middle of Freight Train. There were a few good
lines through here at this but we regrettably ended up portaging.
lines through here at this but we regrettably ended up portaging.
Almost all of Freight Train can be seen in this picture which does not
really do the rapid justice.
really do the rapid justice.
In addition to being one of the most photogenic rapids on the Cal Salmon, Gaping Maw was
straightforward and fun at this level.
straightforward and fun at this level.
The shuttle road along the Cal Salmon is really pretty amazing. Here is my truck parked
somewhere above Freight Train.
somewhere above Freight Train.
Middie cooling off in the river in the heat of the afternoon.
The crew makes its way down Gaping Maw with everyone running
different but clean lines.
different but clean lines.
Middie had not experienced thunder prior to this trip and the storms
resulted in her snuggling on my lap.
resulted in her snuggling on my lap.