Copper Creek, Washington, US

road's end to E. Fork Lewis

Final Five Gorge

Final Five Gorge
Photo of Eric Arlington and Will by Ryan Rodgers taken 10/21/07 @ Triple Delight from

River Description

At lower flows, the upper section will mostly keep your group busy by forcing you to keep watch for pins and look for the deepest routes through the bony boulder gardens. However, if you're excited about doing something new, the beautiful scenery and a couple of big drops should make it worth the effort.

The first significant drop on this section is Fishtail, and the biggest drop is The Slide, a slide of about 12 vertical feet. It has a little flake right of center that tends to launch boaters into the air. Scout this drop on the left.

As you continue downstream, the canyon narrows and a roar can be heard over an obvious horizon line. This is a class V+ rapid known as Certain Death. Scout and portage it on the right, where a trail parallels the river. Should you attempt to run it, take a note of the hole feeding into an undercut on the river right, just waiting to catch those who mess up the top of the drop. For those choosing to portage, you can seal launch off the side of the cliff into the green water just downstream of the drop.

The most scenic drop of the run is The Big Falls. This drop consists of three ledges of increasing size – two, eight and eighteen feet. The cleanest line involves boofing the first two ledges just left of the main chutes. The final 18 footer can be run far right or far left (photo). At higher flows, the middle slot should also become accessible. You can easily scout this drop on the left or right. Bring a camera.

The Final Five is the last series of drops on the river. It consists of a small slide (right to left ending in a boof off a flake), a 7 foot falls that should be left or right, followed by a fast winding 8 foot wide slide that spills out into the pool at the top of the 12 foot high double-pitch slide (photo). On this last slide, start far right and run right of center (where there's a big boulder half way down). You can scout the first two of these drops and see most of the third one from the right.

Shortly thereafter, the creek joins East Fork Lewis. From there, it's all class III or so until Horseshoe Falls. The takeout is not far downstream of this 22 footer.

with contributions from Boris Startsev