Bacon Creek,
|
|
Falls Creek to Skagit River confluence
| Usual Difficulty |
II+(IV) (may vary with level) |
| Length |
6 Miles |
| Avg. Gradient |
38 fpm |
Bacon Creek
Bacon CreekPhoto by Thomas O'Keefe В© taken 1189137600 @ 108 cfs
Gauge Information
River Description
Updated: 04/11/2004. Due to the flood this winter, the first rapids on this run are Class V to
unrunnable. There are logs, undercuts and boulders blocking exit routes. The portage was long over
a ton of logs, so we chose to abort the trip and run Granite/Ruby about 30 miles east of here. If
you do run this and make the portage, the run below looked cleaner, but you'd only have one Class
IV rapid followed by 5 miles of Class II with a bunch of log portages we saw from the road. I would
not recommend this run at this time.
Logistics: At Highway 20 mile 110.7 (less than 5 miles east of Marblemount) you will cross Bacon
Creek just before it joins the Skagit. This is the take-out. To reach the put-in go to Highway 20
mile 110.9 where FR 1060 heads upstream along river left. Follow the road 4.9 miles to the junction
with FR 1064 which heads 0.1 mile down to the river.
StreamTeam Status: Not Verified
Last Updated: 2004-04-13 15:25:20
Editors
User Comments
very steep class V drops leading into one another and end with the entire river dropping into a log
choaked class VI drop. Below that are several more class IV drops that peter out into a couple of
III drops. Just a warning for class II paddlers. This is not the run for you unless you want to
portage over huge boulders and make some harry ferries for the first mile or more. Even after you
get past the several class IV and V drops you still have several steep class III to III+ rapids,
which are fun but definitely not class II. It was a fun run and a beautiful gorge but if I was a
class II paddler, I would have been totally overwhelmed. Edit
Anyway, the rapid has cleaned out a bit (I was with Nick in 04 when he posted earlier to the run
description). There is still some wood in play and some very tight spots. The rapid is class 5, but
runnable. Just make sure to scout. There are some dead end routes you would NOT want to go into.
You could portage this first rapid too. The stuff downstream looked clean and fun.