Canyon Creek

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of catching a release on Canyon Creek below French Lake. This run features amazing high Sierras scenery, and the famous "Dreamflows slide," pictured on the front page of Dreamflows. Although the slide looks beautiful, I had heard a lot of differing opinions on the run, ranging from "the run is manky, sharp, and not quality" to "it was a lot of fun." I think both perspectives had merit: I had a blast, and I also put some pretty ridiculous gouges in my boat, including one that punched almost all the way through my side rail. The flow was 140 cfs, which I thought was a good flow, but the creek could definitely handle more. My group consisted of two kayaks, Ryan Harris and myself, and an R2 with Nate Hobbs and his friend Devin. As a side note, smoke from the King Fire was responsible for the soft light and orange cast in the photos. The smoke definitely affected the air quality, but it was tolerable.

The day started out with a long, bumpy shuttle, followed by a hike down to the lake along a road. I elected to put on the lake as soon as possible, which I think is an easier option than continuing to carry around the lake. As I paddled across the lake, smoke from the King fire began to blow in across the lake. It was pretty cool to see, but also a little bit foreboding.

I elected to walk the first drop, because it's undercut and has a backed up hole. Ryan ran it, and while he didn't have the cleanest line, he popped right through the holes.

Below the first rapid is an intimidating mini gorge. We portaged the big cascade that falls into the left wall, and then ran some delightful 3 foot boofs to exit the gorge. If memory serves, there was another rapid with a good boof, then a bushy channel, and then an easy slide to Weir lake. I didn't get any photos, but Weir lake is beautiful, surrounded by the classic Sierra granite. The rapid at the exit of the lake is a big, but not overly difficult slide. The little airplane move on the entrance is great!

Immediately below this rapid is a quick log portage. The next significant rapid is a beautiful 15-20 footer that unfortunately had a log in the left side. The log looked avoidable, but really nasty if you happened to venture over there. Ryan ran the main line without boofing, and made it through ok.

I elected to bounce down the right, which was a mistake. The rock was very sharp, and I think that at least one of the deep gouges is from that slide.

But, it's a really photogenic drop.

The following rapid, double drop, was a blast. I got a jarring boof off the second tier. Great times!

The next drop was probably the biggest of the run. It consisted of a left sloping slide to waterfall into a boily mess, with a wall on the right and a rock in the center. It then dropped immediately into a long busy slide with multiple pillows that looked shallow, especially at the top. The total vertical was 40-50ft. I liked the look of it, and decided to fire it up. I entered the drop on line, but didn't get a good boof off the ramp. I ended up subbing out slightly in the boil, and the current pushed me hard left. I caught my nose on the midstream rock, which spun me around. I found myself poised at the top of the slide, backwards.

I knew I didn't have time to turn around, so I thought, "well, I guess I've gotta go for it." I think I got one hard backstroke in, then I faced upstream, relaxed my hips, and braced my way through pillow after pillow. I distinctly remember feeling waves break over the back of my helmet, bracing right, then bracing left, and finally hitting the exit hole. As I shot into the eddy, I felt a mixture of relief, surprise, and well, "that was actually pretty fun." I don't recommend the switch line though.

There was one more large but straightforward slide, and then it was on to the drops that are easily accessible from Faucherie lake. These drops are really fun. The first one consists of a ten foot lead in drop to a fast ramp to a 20 foot waterfall. The waterfall has a shelf on the right, so you really want to be left. Here's a picture of the R2 on I believe a first raft descent of the waterfall.

Kudos to Hobb and Devin for sacking up and styling the line!

I managed to get far enough left, but got flipped over in the boil at the bottom. I ended up in the eddy on the right, all smiles.

To finish off, the Dreamflows slide. This slide has been on my mind from the time I started paddling 5 years ago. I remember looking at the photo of Chris Shackleton on the front page of Dreamflows as a beginner and thinking, "you would be crazy to run that." Then I started thinking, "I can see how, but I would never do it." Then it was "just maybe, someday," which evolved to "yeah possibly" to "when can I get on it?" It's such a picturesque drop.

It turns out that the slide is pretty straightforward. Punch through the top hole, and point it downhill. I didn't tuck, and I took a pretty hard hit when I hit the water at the bottom. I could feel a line across my face where my full face helmet had protected me from the sting. The second time, I was more prepared and I protected my head better. Pretty fun!

Unfortunately, we didn't catch the section down to Sawmill lake, it wasn't spilling on Sunday. Next time!