| 2. Spur 10 Bridge to 428th St. Bridge (Ernies Canyon) |
Snoqualmie, N. Fork
Class V+
0Miles
Avg Gradient 107fpm fpm
Max Gradient 190 fpm
River Mapplet
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Gauge Information (AuburnKayaker updated levels from NF SNOQUALMIE RIVER NEAR SNOQ at 9/9/2010 6:14:36 AM)
| Gauge |
Forecast |
Height |
Current Flow |
Authority |
Physical Update |
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NF SNOQUALMIE RIVER NEAR SNOQ
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n/a |
3.83 |
639 cfs
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USGS - NWIS |
09/09/2010 05:15 PDT |
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Minimum Recomended Level: 250 cfs Maximum Recomended Level: 750 cfs
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AccessYou have to hike in using the Spur 10 gate road. At the first fork in the road go left, then at some point you come to a more overgrown fork in the road, take the right fork (you'll see a striped flag marking it)and soon you'll be hiking downhill until you find yourself along the river. climb down the steep forested bank and there you are. Best to go with someone who knows, though. There's enough roads in there to potentially get lost otherwise. |
Putin DetailsSee access details. |
Takeout Detailsread the bennet book or check AW. It's just outside of North Bend and relatively easy to find. Basicly the take out is at a park beside a bridge where 108th and Reinig Road meet. |
Other IssuesIssues? If you got issues you don't want to bring them into here! Uncle Ernie doesn't mess around. He's somewhat fair and even handed, but if you fail to tow the line, there can be deadly consequences.
Plan on scouting a lot just like all other reports will advise. A few scouts into the run and you'll see literally hundereds of good reasons to scout! |
Fun FactsIt is a beautiful and unique place, and reasonably boatable. It's also a very gloomy, spooky place to be having "fun". That said, qualified paddlers will have fun, even if it's mixed with seriousness and some nerves. |
Run Description [Season: spring through mid summer]There's probably no reason to rehash what's in the Bennet book, or other sources. Aw has some good beta, so be sure to check it out.Just like Bennet says, it's pointless to try to describe the run in detail. Suffice it to say you should get an early start to accommodate the hike in and plan on scouting a lot.
A word about scouting in there: Class V paddlers know the drill and understand the importance of maximizing each time spent out of the boat. Take a few extra seconds to quickly scamper over several large boulders to get the best bird's eye veiw over the crux in any given section as well as the furthest length downstream you can see, including horizon lines and blind corners. Light bouldering skills can help as in any class V environment. It would be easy to flounder in there and burn up a lot of precious time scouting inefficiently.That said, it's very scoutable.
It is no place to boat sloppy. The lines are doable, and at medium and medium low flows, it's possible to break the run up into two to three drop chunks that are fairly digestible between eddys and scouts. But the lines are so tight, right next to hazardous undercuts and sieves, that the margins for error are quite slim.
Many paddlers charge into difficult whitewater, take their lumps, and spit out at the bottom. Be advised that this is no run to use your balls as a crutch. A fair amount of precise boat handling is required to run Ernie's smoothly and without incident.
Once you get into the dark canyon, you'll encounter a few manageble drops. Then "Raft Catcher" shows up. It's a long complex rapid. The right and left sides both have routes, and most people opt for the "Elbow Banger" spout against the R. Right bank. The left side was quite runnable, but at it's crux flows straight into a very fatal looking sieve.Take time to properly set safety here. Below here the run keeps going seemingly forever, but at medium low flows you'll find plenty of eddies to get out and scout, or spot your next move. Many of the drops are in the 4-8' range. Lower waterlevels could increase pin hazards, and make the drops tricky. Higher flows will deprive you of much desired slack water in between drops, many of which have some short recovery pools or slower current to allow you to correct your angle between moves.
Be diligent about taking the time to set up safety properly, identifying specific hazards with a legitimate plan of action in the event of a mishap. Some of those sieves may be irretrievably unforgiving.
There's a point when you're most of the way through, and it seems like you left the canyon behind. Trees and telltale class II rock gardens temporarily appear. Be on guard for 20' sloping falls called Jacuzzi. As soon as the river picks up into bouldery class III, eddy out on the left to portage this monster. If you wait until the rapid steepens into a class IV flavor, it may be too late to get out (although there is a last chance eddy on R.Left- best not to fool with it).
Below here you'll soon come to "Crash Test Dummy", a tricky rapid with two main drops. Run the first on the left, and keep your sh*t in a pile for the second: it gets run regularly to the left or right of a vaguely pyramid shaped boulder in the center.
This description will likely get fleshed out a wee bit more, so stay tuned!
It would be particularly cool to get the names of the rapids and drops as they were originally named by the brave souls who unlocked the canyon with their first descents. Jim Good and Bob Duffner are two of the guys who ran it first.
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